Teaching and Recording: Words built on DOC

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Root of the Week for 12/15/25

In Latin, the verb docere means “to teach.” From the root DOC, we get words like doctor, doctrine, docile and document.

MONDAY - Doctor (Noun, Verb), Doctorate (Noun)

While many of us today mostly use the word doctor to refer to a physician, the word was first used in English to refer to a person who had attained the highest degree available from a university, that is, a doctorate. A doctor was a learned scholar, often in theology. Of course, we still confer the honorific of doctor on those who hold a Ph. D.  Dr. Jill Biden, the first lady of the United States from 2020 to 2024, is not a medical practitioner but a doctor of education.

When doctor is used as a verb, it can have either neutral or sinister connotations. To doctor something is to fiddle with (or more formally put, to modify) it. A script doctor may revise a screenplay, cutting superfluous dialogue or tightening a loose plot. But if someone doctors your drink, watch out! 

TUESDAY - Doctrine (Noun), Doctrinal (Adjective), Indoctrinate (Verb)

Some early theologians of the Catholic Church are referred to as doctors, and their teachings became known as doctrine, or core components of the religion. Subsequently, the word doctrine came to be applied to any authoritative body of principles. The foreign policy views of Presidents are often referred to as doctrines. A historically important example is the Monroe Doctrine, named for James Monroe, U.S. President from 1817-1825, who opposed all European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere. More frivolously, we also have fashion doctrines (“Never wear white after Labor Day!”) and autocratic chefs have culinary doctrines (“Steak MUST be served RARE!”)

A view that is constitutive of or consistent with a doctrine is described as doctrinal. To instill such views in others is to indoctrinate them. In its purest etymological sense, indoctrinate simply means what DOC means—to teach, to instruct—to instill a teaching in someone.  But the word has a pejorative sense, at least in a culture that values independent thinking. When rigid ideas are aggressively forced upon others and dissent is not tolerated, there is no longer any real learning—those subjected to indoctrination can only acquiesce.

WEDNESDAY - Docent (Noun)

The root DOC means “to teach” and the word docent most literally means “one who teaches.” In some academic institutions, instructors who do not hold the rank of professor, are called docents. More commonly, docents are people who provide information and instruction to the

public in such settings as museums and zoos. Docents are often volunteers who have undergone extensive training to prepare them for offering guided tours and informational sessions to the public.

THURSDAY - Docile (Adjective), Docility (Noun)

Whether taught by a docent or a doctor, a docile student is one who is open to instruction and quick to learn, in other words, one who is easily taught. Such students are, by definition, amenable to the authority of the instructor, and over time, the word docile has come to mean something like easily handled, submissive. We tend to appreciate docility in our domestic

animals. Young puppies are generally not docile, but once they outgrow their rambunctious puppy energy, some are indeed quick to learn and become at least relatively docile dogs.

FRIDAY - Document (Noun, Verb), Documentation (Noun),  Documentary (Adjective, Noun)

When a doctrine, or teaching, is written down, the written text is a document. We use the word document to refer to something that has been written down or recorded in order to preserve ideas and information.  The American Declaration of Independence is one of the documents preserved in the United States Archives.  It recorded the consensus of the 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress in 1776 that America’s thirteen colonies were now to be recognized as a sovereign nation. We can say that the delegates documented their agreement when they created the written document. 

A court stenographer documents the proceedings of a trial by taking down all the testimony of witnesses so that later, when deliberating, a jury can go back and re-examine what was said. Such documentation is necessary because human memories are faulty. We use all kinds of documents to establish official information about ourselves: birth certificates, drivers’ licenses, and passports are all documents.

Anything that pertains to documentation is documentary.  When historians make claims about the causes or meanings of past events, they support their views with documentary evidence. This may take the form of personal letters, court registers, government proclamations, contracts, treaties—any kind of written evidence. When we refer to a documentary, though, we usually mean a particular genre of film, one that depicts actual events.

One eminent documentarian (maker of documentary films) is Frederick Wiseman (b. 1930). Wiseman’s first documentary was Titicut Follies, filmed inside a Massachusetts state hospital for the criminally insane. What Wiseman recorded was so disturbing that the state of Massachusetts initially tried to censor it. Wiseman has since recorded events inside high schools, restaurant kitchens, and ballet companies, letting the camera reveals truths without the mediation of a narrator’s voice.  Audiences see events unfolding over time (the films are long) and are left to draw their own conclusions.  What Wiseman has documented speaks for itself.