What Is The Difference Between Mono And Uni? They Both Mean One ...

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Martin May, Eastcote, Middlesex

• Properly the first should be used with words of Greek origin, and the second with words of Latin origin. "Monorail" is detestable, as is "contra-flow" (should be "counter-flow", if anything).

  Paul Thompson, Perth Scotland

• In coining new vocabulary from about the seventeenth century onwards, writers and inventors in French and English drew on Latin, Greek or both. Hence telescope and television are the same thing when translated literally.

  Geoffrey Walker, Bordeaux, France

• Mostly it is a question of what sounds better, but other considerations are as follows: 1. "Mono" is from Greek and "uni" from Latin, and there is a mild preference to use the prefix derived from the same language as the main word. 2. "Mono" carries a stronger sense of the meaning "alone" than "uni".

  Pelham Barton, Birmingham, UK

• A monorail is a single series of rails, a unirail would be one single rail. I touch on this in my poem 'Brunel' for which I was commissioned during the 'Brunel200' anniversary celebrations. Brunel. Before Brunel built bridges Using iron from out the forges Trains just rolled along the rails And dropped straight into gorges Before he dug his tunnels Beneath the mountains, hills and falls Trains just rolled along the rails And ploughed straight into walls Chiselled, refined This man of his times Made decisions of precision From his nut and bolt mind Put his brain to the puzzle And his nose to the grind But, before his ships And broad guage rails The navy sailed on minky whales And, there was just one rail So the trains keeled over Extending the journey time From London to Dover An accident, a lion mauls Poor Isambard gets iron balls Still, he wasn’t stupid Far from dense And still holds Clifton In suspense [email protected]

  Chris The Poet Seiles aged 41, Stroud England