Benediction and malediction derive from dico, dictus, to say, tell, Dictate, dictator, dictation, dictatorial – words that signify telling others what to do (‘Do as I say!’) – are built on dico, as is predict, to tell beforehand, i.e., to say that something will occur before it actually does (pre-, before, as in prescient).
The brand name Dictaphone combines dico with phone, sound; contradict, to say against, or to make an opposite statement (‘Don’t contradict me!’; ‘That contradicts what I know’) combines dico with contra-, against, opposite; and addiction, etymologically ‘a saying to or towards’, or the compulsion to say ‘yes’ to a habit, combines dico with ad-, to, towards.
Facio, factus, to do or make (as in malefactor, benefactor), has, as noted, variant spellings in English words: fec-, fic-, or, as a verb ending, -fy.
Thus factory is a place where things are made (-ory, place where); a fact is something done (i.e., something that occurs, or exists, or is; therefore, true); fiction, something made up or invented; manufacture, to make by hand (manus, hand, as in manuscript, manual), a word coined before the invention of machinery; artificial, made by human art rather than occurring in nature, as artificial flowers, etc.; and clarify, simplify, liquefy (to make clear, simple, liquid), and magnify (magnus, large) among hundreds of other –fy verbs.
Volo, to wish, to will, to be willing (as in malevolent, benevolent), occurs in voluntary, involuntary, volunteer, words too familiar to need definition, and each quite obviously expressing wish or willingness. Less common, and from the same root, is volition, the act or power of willing or wishing, as in ‘of her own volition’, i.e., voluntarily, or ‘against her volition’.
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