mov

The family's most revealing metaphor. e- (ex-, 'out') + mot (moved) = literally 'a moving-out.' An emotion is a feeling that has been stirred up and moved out from inside you into the open. The Latin emovēre first meant 'to move out, dislodge'; English narrowed it to inner feelings that get 'moved out.' This is why we still say a story moves us — it physically nudges the same root.

pro- ('forward') + mot (move) = 'move forward.' From this one image come two everyday senses that look unrelated: move a person forward in rank (get promoted at work) and move a product forward into people's attention (promote a film, sales promotion). Both are literally pushing something ahead — one a career, one a thing you want noticed.

re- ('back, away') + mot (moved) = 'moved far back / away.' Originally about physical distance (a remote village). The distance metaphor then spread everywhere: a remote possibility (far-off in likelihood), a remote control (operating from a distance), working remotely. Same root as 'remove' — both are about something pushed away — but remove acts on the thing, remote describes the resulting far-ness.

The surprise member. mob is a clipping of Latin mobile vulgus, 'the movable / fickle crowd' — the common people who could be stirred and swayed this way and that. English shortened the phrase to mob, keeping exactly that idea: a crowd that is unstable and easily moved to anger. So mob is the mob- (movable) form hiding in plain sight inside a one-syllable word.

auto- ('self') + mobile ('movable') = 'a self-moving thing.' Coined when cars first appeared to capture what was astonishing about them: unlike a carriage, no horse pulled it — it moved itself. The same mobile that gives mobile phone and mobility sits at its core; auto- just adds 'on its own.'