Does "intrépido" have a root word?
What is the root word of intrépido ?
2 Answers
Weird question. The word "intrépido" (intrepid in English) comes from Latin "intrepidus", from "in-" (negative prefix) plus "trepidus" (trembling), from the Indo-European root "*trep-" (to tremble), related to words like "tremble".
Lazarus provided an excellent answer. I just wanted to add that asking if a word has a "root word" can sometimes confuse the issue. The word might have a root, but its root is often not a word in itself. Linguists call the root a "morpheme". In this case, Lazarus correctly identified the root as "trep" (tremble), but of course "trep" is not a word, it is just a root. Around this root you have affixes which modify the meaning and function of the root.
Now sometimes teachers will talk about root "words". They will take a word like intrépido, chop off the affixes and try to make a word out of the root. In this case, a Spanish teacher might take "trep" and say "trepe" is the root word, or "trepa" is the root word. In my opinion, this is not correct teaching. I have seen English teachers in elementary school do the same thing. The root is just a root, it does not have to be a "word". So, the term "root word" can cause confusion, and it is best to avoid it. Some roots are actually words, in themselves, but to expect all roots to be words is not correct thinking, and for teachers to prepare lessons about root words where all the words in the lesson conveniently have roots that are actually words, is doing a slight injustice to the students.
