MAND means "entrust" or "order." A command is an order; a commandment is also an order, but usually one that comes from God. And a commando unit carries out orders for special military actions.

UND means "wave" and "to rise in waves," "to surge or flood." Undulations are waves or wavelike things or motions, and to undulate is to rise and fall in a wavelike way.

SANCT meaning "holy." Thus, sanctity means "holiness." In ancient Greece, a spot could be sanctified, or "made holy," by a group of priests who carried out a solemn ritual; these might be spots where fumes arose from a crack in the earth or where a spring of clear water flowed out of the ground, and a temple might be built there for worship of a god.

LOQU means "to talk." An eloquent preacher speaks fluently, forcefully, and expressively. And a dummy's words come out of a ventriloquist's mouth--or perhaps out of his belly.

VIR means "man." A virtue is a good quality--originally, the kind of quality an ideal man possessed. And virtuous behavior is normally excellent. All in all, the Romans seem to have believed that being a man was a good thing.

VAL meaning "strength," and "to be worthy, healthy, or strong" and "to have power or influence." So evaluating a house involves determining how healthy it is. A valid license or credit card is one that's still in effect, and a valid proof is one that provides strong evidence.

CRE/CRET means "to come into being" and "to grow." So a crescendo in music occurs when the music is growing louder, and a decrescendo when it's growing softer.

FUS means "to pour out" or "to melt." A fuse depends on melting metal to break an overloaded circuit. Nuclear fusion involves the "melting" together of light nuclei to form heavier nuclei, and fusion cuisine brings together the cooking of two or more cultures.

Greek and Latin Borrowings