Latin Root PORT: To Carry

Use the Latin root port (carry) to unlock a family of related words.

The Latin root 'port' comes from 'portare', meaning to carry. Once you know it, a whole family of words opens up. Something portable can be carried. To import is to carry goods in to a country; to export is to carry them out. A porter carries luggage. Transport means to carry across from one place to another, since trans- means across. Even 'support' fits: to hold up or carry the weight of something. Here is how the root helps in reading. Suppose a science article says, 'Roots transport water to the leaves.

' Even if 'transport' felt fuzzy, port tells you something is being carried, and the sentence tells you what and where. Be careful, though: 'port' as in a harbor comes from a related Latin word for a gateway, so check the context. In most longer words, port signals carrying.

• 1PORT means to carry.
• 2Import, export, transport, portable, porter, and support share it.
• 3Combine the root's meaning with the prefix and the sentence.