Cognates
If one word is a cognate of another, that is to say that they are formed from the same ROOT.
Another way to remember what cognates are is to think of them as COUSIN WORDS, very similar but easily distinguishable from one another. Often we when we are acquainted with cousins before knowing they are related, we are surprised to find out their mothers or fathers are sisters or brothers.
Examples of this are words formed from the Latin verb "mittere" which means "to send."
The verb changes form IN LATIN, changing the 'tt' to 'ss' in certain grammatical formations. When borrowing from Latin, our English speaking predicessors borrowed BOTH forms, so we have dozens of cognates built on each form:
Omit - omission - ommissive - omissible
Commit - commission (both noun and verb)- committee - commitment - commisary
- commisar - noncommital
Intermittent - intermission
Mission - missionary - missle - missive
Permit (noun and verb) - permission - permissible - permissive
Remit - remission
Transmit -transmitter - transmission - transmittal - transmisable
ALL FROM ONE ROOT!
Important note: Word such as TRANSmute are NOT related to TRANSmit. They simply use the same PREFIX not the same ROOT. Using the cousin analogy, these people are not cousins, the are simply wearing the same shirt!
