Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of surda
Coloured illustration of surda
#1715 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

deaf

Word origin

From Latin surdus, deaf and also muffled or indistinct. The Latin word did double duty, and the second sense is why English absurd means out of tune with sense, and why an unresolvable root in mathematics is still called a surd.

Origin
Latin
Root
surdus
English cognates
absurd, surd

Examples

.

My grandfather is deaf in one ear.

.

The deaf boy read my lips.

.

He remained deaf to all my questions.

is the neutral, everyday adjective, and o with the -- suffix is a deaf person, formed exactly as o is. The community's own language in Esperanto is signolingvo, sign language, and the deaf world has a long Esperanto history of its own. The figurative sense works as it does in English: is deaf to a plea or an argument. For deafening, a does the job.

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Esperanto · Free printables

surda: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "surda" (deaf): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 35.