As your vocabulary improves and expands, you’ll be able to speak with authority on many different topics. People will be impressed by your knowledge and insight, and will consider you to be quite perspicacious when you’re able to pick exactly the right words for every situation. Perspicacious means keen-witted and mentally sharp, able to see to the heart of a matter and discern the truth. The word comes from the Latin perspicax, meaning “able to see through,” which contains the Latin root specere, meaning “to look at.” Other words derived from this root word include specimen, introspection, and perspective – all words that have the connotation of “sight.” The noun perspicacity refers to perception or shrewdness. Some synonyms for perspicacious are discerning and insightful.

Example: The witness tried to hide the truth, but the attorney’s perspicacious questions forced him to admit to his role in the bank robbery.

A related but less common word, perspicuous, means “obvious or apparent.” While perspicacious has the meaning of “seeing what is hidden,” perspicuous has the meaning “not hidden at all.” Even though somewhat reversed, the underlying sense from the root specere of “sight” is still evident.

Learning root words is very useful, because it helps you quickly get a sense of the probable definition of a new word. You can look at the word root(s), as well as any prefix or suffix, and piece together a translation for the word as a whole. Now that you know that the Latin root word specere means “sight,” how would you define these words?

• circumspect
• speculation
• conspicuous

Circumspect has two Latin roots, circum- (“around”) and specere (“to look”). Someone who is circumspect acts carefully after looking at, or considering, the situation.

The original meaning of speculation is “to look at or consider,” with the sense that a person is thinking about a topic seriously. The word is also used now to mean less than serious consideration; the phrase “idle speculation” refers to more random thought, or even guessing, about something.

Something that is conspicuous is very visible; the Latin prefix con- (or com-) means “together with” and is used in this case to show intensity or emphasis. A modern translation might be “visible squared.”

As you can see, being familiar with root words helps you get right down to the fundamental blocks making up a vocabulary word to quickly get a clear idea of what that word actually means. You might even say that learning word roots will help you be more perspicacious.