Latin or Greek origins

According to Mr. Murphy's letter of Dec. 12, this newspaper regularly publishes certain news items "incorrectly". According to me, Mr. Murphy belongs to the boring category of people suffering from the obsession of the "correct" use of English.

At the dawning of the English language, the Anglo-Saxon languages had been obliged to pilfer, here and there, many words and verbs from the languages of countries existing in the earlier age. The Greek and the Latin languages have been victims of this literary pillaging.

In order to prove that the etymology of many English words/verbs are of Latin or Greek origin, it's enough to take as a sample some of the words and verbs used by Mr. Murphy himself for criticizing the "incorrect" use of English published by the Post. For the sake of brevity, I'll mark the Latin with "L" and the Greek with "Gr".

Printed (from the L verb premere); regularly (L-regula-ae); appear (L-appaarere); article (L-articulus); certain (L- certation/certus/certare); attention (L-attention/attendere); page (L-pagina); mention (L-mens=mind + tion); copy (L-copia); emphatic (L-emphatikos); sub-heading (prefix sub is Latin); covers (L-cooperire); second (L-secundus); result (L-resultare); photography (Gr-phot-photo+graphein); executing (L-executere); concerned (L-concernere); authority ( L-auctoritas); future (L- futurus).

Even the words "correct" and "corrective" used by Mr. Murphy for criticizing the Post, are of Latin origin from the word corrigere.

Does Mr. Murphy believe that in this muddle of "Englishized/Anglisized" words it's really important to write "tricolore" or "tricolor" (L-tri+color)?

For Mr. Murphy's information, the word "tricolore" is either a French or an Italian word which could have been intentionally used by the article's author.

PIERO RONCI

Jakarta