~a column by Colleen O’Brien
I just came across a word I’d never seen before. This is always a thrill – not because I know so much that I never have to look up a word but because people who write a lot tend to use the same words again and again. I’ve never known that I had occasion to use this word – mostly because how can one use a word she doesn’t know exists?
The word I had to look up – cisheteropatriarchy [sis-het-er-o-pay-tri-ar-key] – means: a system of male, straight, conforming-to-assigned-sex system of power.
Now that I think I know what it means, I get to use it: Once I was called a “flaming liberal feminist,” I now know, by a cisheteropatriarch.
As you may have encountered in your life, looking up words to see what they mean is not necessarily perfectly clarifying. And, as with this word, a mouthful, that’s for sure.
But what is most interesting to me is not so much the word but that it led to investigation of the cis part of it, which I had never seen before except in cistern. The cis in cistern is not a prefix, it’s just part of the word that is an artificial reservoir to store water; my grandparents happened to have one in their basement.
Anyway, I found cis in the following prefix table. . . .*
The prefix “a” is from Greek, meaning “not” as in asexual, aromantic, apolitical
- bi– from Latin, meaning “two” as in bipolar, bicycle
- *cis– from Latin, meaning “on this side of” as in cisgender, cis-molecule
- demi-from Latin, meaning “half” as in demitasse, demigod
- hetero- from Greek, meaning “another” as in heterosexual, heterogeneous
- homo– from Greek, meaning “same” as in homosexual, homogeneous
- inter– from Latin, meaning “between” as in internet, intercept
- mono– from Greek, meaning “one” or “only” as in mononucleosis, monorail
- non– from Latin, meaning “not” as in non-binary, nonprofit
- omni– from Latin, meaning “all” or “every” as in omnipresent, omniscient
- pan– from Greek, meaning “all” or “every” as in panacea, panorama
- poly- from Greek, meaning “many” or “several” as in polymer, polyglot
- trans- from Latin, meaning “across” as in transgender, transport
Although that long cis-word is not something I’ll use a lot, my mini research has led me to become attached to the prefix table above. I printed out a copy for myself. Some of these prefixes I learned in grade school. The ones I didn’t learn at that time are cis, homo, hetero.
That in itself is interesting but not applicable to this column.
I hope you’re happy to have a prefix table at hand. It might come in handy. [pun]
