Dictionary adjective *spere- sprechen ansprechen ansprechbar

Meanings

1.
being approachable
(In a medical context it is used to express that someone is awake and responds to being addressed. At work, people use it in contexts where someone can or should not be disturbed because they're super focused. )
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German Prefix Verbs Explained - "ansprechen"

A fun look at the meaning of the prefix verb "ansprechen" and its various related words that range from being picky to eye candy.

Vocab:

ansprechen, die Ansprache, ansprechend, ansprechbar, sich angesprochen fühlen, anspruchsvoll


Word Family

Root: *spere-

The core idea of the root (according to English sources) was:

ankle

German sources have the meaning for focused on motion and describe it as

twitching with the foot, unrest

In German, it shifted toward a sense of tracking (by foot) and then kept going toward the sense of perceiving.

English doesn’t have many relatives – spur, spoor, spurn.
They haven’t shifted their meaning as much, so they’re still somewhat close to ankle or to a broad sense of twitching.

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