183: demi semi hemi Jun 9, 2015

Word Facts has been around for exactly 6 months, today! To mark this half a year, Word Facts will cover 'hemi-' 'demi-' and 'semi-'. Both 'semi-' and 'demi-' are Latin, while 'hemi-' is Greek. 'Demi-' finds its derivation from the word 'dimidius' meaning half. 'Semi-' and 'hemi-' are both related; 'hemi-' is mostly used for words of Greek origin (like hemisphere), while 'semi-' is used for words that come out of Latin (such as semicircle), and is now used for many recently-created words.