Building a Name

I saw an advertisement in the Halifax Chronicle Herald this morning for a company called Cresco. Can you guess the nature of the business? The Latin verb crēscō, crēscere, crēvī, crētum means “I arise, increase, grow,” and Cresco is a company that builds houses, increases neighborhoods. From crēscō come English words increase and decrease as well as crescent (increasing), concrete (grown together), concretion (a growing together), and accretion (a growing to/toward). Another company name that comes from a first person singular Latin verb is Volvo; the Latin verb volvō, volvere, volvī, volūtum means “I roll,” and in addition to being the name of a Swedish car company gives us many English verbs ending in –volve [devolve (roll down), evolve (roll out), involve (roll in/into), revolve (roll back/again)] and also the English noun volume, as in a book. Volume is an excellent reminder that “books” for ancient Romans needed to be rolled, because they were scrolls.