Emeritus

How to spell emeritus

8 letters · 4 syllables

84 of the 209 people asked to spell emeritus in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is ameritus. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

ameritus emeritus

What people typed instead

• ameritus11 people
• ameritous3 people
• emeritas3 people
• emeritis3 people
• emeritous3 people
• emiritus3 people

How to pronounce emeritus

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does emeritus mean?

1. adjectiveRetired from a position but allowed to keep the title as an honour, typically used after the title.

Emeritus in a sentence

• After forty years of teaching she was named professor emeritus.

• The university invited its emeritus faculty back for the centenary dinner.

Where does emeritus come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from Latin emeritus, the past participle of emereri, which meant 'to serve out one's term' or 'to earn fully'. It was built from the prefix e- (a form of ex-, meaning 'out' or 'completely') and the verb merere, 'to earn or deserve', the same root that gives us 'merit' and 'meritorious'. In ancient Rome an emeritus was literally a soldier who had completed his full service and so had earned an honourable discharge, often with a grant of land. English adopted the term in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to describe professors and clergy who had retired from active duty but kept their title as a mark of earned distinction. The connection to 'merit' is a useful memory aid: there is a single m in the middle, and the ending is -itus, not the more familiar -atus seen in words like 'apparatus'.

How the word is built

• e- (from ex-: out, fully)
• merit (from merere: to earn, deserve)
• -us (Latin masculine ending)

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