Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of vermo
Coloured illustration of vermo
#2381 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

worm

Word origin

From Latin vermis, a worm, which reached Esperanto through the Romance languages and German Wurm alike. English worm is the same ancient word arriving down the Germanic side of the family, so the two are cousins rather than a borrowing.

Origin
Latin
Root
vermis
English cognates
vermin, vermicelli, vermiform

Examples

.

The bird found a fat worm in the earth.

.

Worms live in the cold soil beneath us.

.

After the rain I saw a lot of worms on the road.

is the animal: an earthworm in the soil, a worm in an apple, the bookworm eating a page. There is no verb hiding in it and no second sense to learn.

It is here mainly because of what learners think they can see in it. By this point in the course the affix machinery is second nature, and the eye starts finding joins in words that have none. There is no suffix -erm- in Esperanto, so v- plus -erm- plus -o is not a reading of anything. is one root, -, with the ordinary noun ending on the end. The honest rule, the same one taught: a piece only counts as an affix when the part in front of it is a root you could also meet standing alone.

Two neighbours are worth keeping apart by ear, because Esperanto's vowels are short and clean and none of these three sounds alike once you slow down: a worm, vero the truth, and varma warm. A tervermo is specifically an earthworm, and vermoplena describes fruit you should not buy.

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Esperanto · Free printables

vermo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "vermo" (worm): 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 48.