Acrophobia, acropolis, acronym and acrobat...

Acrophobia (N): an abnormal fear of high places.
This word comes form the Latin root “akron” which literally means “extreme”, but the root also has the following meanings “top, summit, tip, beginning”. In this word the root is used to signify a phobia of high places. The root “phobia” (as in claustrophobia, hydrophobia) means “fear”.

Acropolis (N): the citadel of an ancient Greek city, which is built on high ground.
This word can be split up as “acro” + “polis”, which means “city” (as in megalopolis), thus a city on high ground can be called as an acropolis.
I will discuss the words related to the root “megalo” in my next article.

Contextual example:
In this acropolis we at least have a chance to defend ourselves against the invading hordes of Genghis khan.

Acronym (N): a word formed from the first letters of other words.
Here the root “acro” means “tip” and “onoma” (as in eponym, allonym, synonym, antonym etc) means “name”, the tip of each word from which the acronym is derived is considered to be its first letter and thus an acronym is formed from word tips i.e. first letter of each words.
Example: SONAR, LASER etc.

Acrobat (N): an entertainer who performs spectacular gymnastic feats.
This word can be split up as “akros” which means “high” + “bainein” which means, “to walk”, thus a person who walks and performs acts at some height away from ground is an acrobat.

Contextual example:
Even though he had acrophobia, he aspired to be an acrobat. (Now that’s what I call a paradox)

Some more words related to the root “acro”:
Acrylic
Acromegaly

Regards,
V