Three small Latin parts run through this topic. greg means flock or herd, the way sheep crowd together. plac means please or calm, and pac means peace (you know it from Pacific, the ocean early sailors found calm).
Key idea
greg = flock: gregarious people love the flock; crowds congregate (flock together); an aggregate adds everything to the flock; to segregate is to set apart from the flock; and an egregious mistake stands out from the flock. plac = please, calm, and pac = peace: placate, placid, implacable, complacent, pacify.
Watch the little prefix in front of each root: it tells you which way the flock moves, or whether the calm is there at all (im- in implacable means not).
The ten words
The roots at work
Common mistake
egregious once meant "standing out from the flock" in a good way; today it means shockingly bad. complacent (smug) is not complaisant (eager to please).
| word | prefix | literally |
|---|---|---|
| gregarious | (none) | of the flock |
| congregate | con- (together) | to flock together |
| aggregate | ag- (to) | added to the flock |
| segregate | se- (apart) | set apart from the flock |
| egregious | e- (out of) | standing out from the flock |
Two look-alikes to keep apart: complacent means smug and too comfortable, while complaisant means eager to please others. And placid describes something already calm, while to placate or pacify is to make someone calm.