Thursday, September 17, 2009

More on Greek and Latin Roots

Have you ever wondered how the English language was established? Who was the genius who put together this language and how? Some people may think some guy back in the day just made up sounds and put them together to mean something. That’s what I had in mind before I did this paper. Greek roots have a big part in the English language. The root can be in the beginning of the word, in the middle, or even at the end. The meaning of that Greek root has a very similar meaning to the actual English word that it is in. A word is made up of prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are placed at the beginning of a word to make up its meaning. A suffix is placed at the end of a word. I am going to give you an example of three.

The Greek root, -bene, means good. An English example of that is benevolence. This means an act of kindness which is a noun. An act of kindness means being good, so -bene has an affect on the word. If you want to use that word in a sentence, an example would be, “My best friend is filled with benevolence because she can cheer me up on those sad days.” Another word with -bene in it is beneficiary. That means a person receiving kindness. “After my grandma died from brain surgery, I was a beneficiary to her estate.” That is also a noun. There are some good examples of the Greek root –bene.

Next, we are going to look at the root –pan. That means all. Panorama means to view in all directions. Panacea is a cure for all life’s illnesses. As you can see, -pan is at the beginning of these English words. Pantheist means a person who believes in all gods. All of these words are nouns. Pandemic means a large spread illness. There is a pandemic in the US involving the swine flu. All of these words have a meaning that is “all.”

Finally, we have –loc/loq. This Greek root means talk. To talk plenty or loudly. You will notice that in these English words, the root is not at the beginning of all of them. Loquacious means excessive talk or to be wordy. This word is an adjective. My cousin is loquacious when the teacher is talking. Eloquent means to speak very well or with praise. This is also an adjective. My father at my church is eloquent with his sermons. That word has the root in the middle. Elocution also has the Greek root in the middle of it. This is a style of speaking which is a noun. There are way more Greek roots than I have given you. I hope this has taught you the meaning and the usage of some of them. I have learned that Greek roots are very important.

By Rina M.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Podcast #3: Vocab Corner Radio Show

Listen to a radio show about vocabulary including such interesting words as idiosyncrasy and some greek and latin roots.

by Myles K. and Jeffrey G.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Podcast #2:Slang words

Listen to Britney, Ashli, Mikael, and Caleb's podcast about slang.

Funny Words

Our American Dictionary is made up of many different funny words. Funny words can have all sorts of diverse sounds that make them abnormal to written or verbal language. There are certain words that roll off your tongue awkwardly and there are some words that simply get stuck to your tongue and you can never quite say them right. To little kids their funny words consist of “fart” or “cooties” but when you get more mature and intellectual funny words become terms like “balderdash” and “scallywag.” Some funny words may contain double o’s or possibly could have 20 letters. As a group we decided to investigate the world of silly, funny, and down right asinine words of the English language. For each word, we will give the definition, an incorrect sentence and a sentence that shows the proper use of the word.


The first word that we that we examined was the word: Supercool
verb
To cool (as in a liquid) below it freezing point without solidification

Incorrect Sentence:
Our friend Sally had on a supercool pair of socks on yesterday.

Correct Sentence:
We were supercooling the lemonade, but of course we stopped in time to make a lemonade slushie, rather than a lemonade popsicle.


Another word that we examined was the word:
Chomp
verb
To make vigorous biting or chewing motions with the jaw and teeth.

Incorrect Sentence:
The propeller started to chomp, so the ship started to sail.

Correct Sentence:
The mailman tried to run away from the chihuahua, but it got the opportunity to chomp on his leg, so it did.


Another word that we examined was the word:
Noodle
noun
A foolish or stupid person.

Incorrect Sentence:
I drove my noodle to school today but it wouldn’t fit in the parking spot.

Correct Sentence:
When Johnny called it “The Great Wall of Japan” we all just ignored the noodle and went on with our lesson.


Another word that we examined was the word:
Crankpin
noun
A short cylindrical pin at the outer end of a crank, held by and moving with a connecting rod or link
Incorrect Sentence:
I asked the teacher if I could borrow her crankpin at the beginning of class but she just told me to bring my own writing utensils.

Correct Sentence:
When the crankpin fell out of the crank we all had to search for it or the machine wouldn’t run.


Another word that we examined was the word: Myrtle
noun
A common evergreen, bushy shrub.
Incorrect Sentence:
The myrtle of the story was that you shouldn’t lie.

Correct Sentence:
My mother was outside clipping the myrtles as I did my homework.


Another word that we examined was the word: Pince-nez
noun
Eye-glasses clipped to the nose by a spring that grips the bridge of your nose

Incorrect Sentence:
Our teacher’s pince-nez was holding his socks up quite nicely.

Correct Sentence:
The man was completely old fashion, complete with the sport coat and the pince-nez attached to his glasses.


Another word that we examined was the word: Peewee
-adjective
Short, miniature sized or little
Incorrect Sentence:
The girl was so peewee she was the tallest girl on the court.

Correct Sentence:
John had always gotten made fun of because of how short he was, people often called him “peewee” and “shrimp.”


Another word that we examined was the word: Desoxyribonucleic Acid
noun
DNA
Incorrect Sentence:
Jimmy sneezed without covering his mouth and the girls screamed and ran away worried that his Desoxyribonucleic Acid would get all over them.

Correct Sentence:
In science class the kids learned that they got most of their Desoxyribonucleic Acid from their parents.


Another word that we examined was the word: Futtock
noun
One of the curved timbers put together to form the lower part of the compound rib of a ship.
Incorrect Sentence:
The boy didn’t like to stand; he preferred to sit on his futtocks.

Correct Sentence:
The captain of the ship got worried if they got into shallow waters that his futtock could get split in two.


Another word that we examined was the word: Gemsbok
–noun
A male goat
Incorrect Sentence:
The girl put the shiny gemsbok she found on the ground into her pocket.

Correct Sentence:
The farm family had certain chores assigned and Craig always had to milk the gemsbok.


Another word that we examined was the word: Oodles
–noun
A great quantity
Incorrect Sentence:
Jonathon spilled his oodles all over the carpet.

Correct Sentence:
Cheryl had oodles and oodles of recipes up her sleeve when it came to Italian food.


Another word that we examined was the word:
Oomph
–noun
Personal charm or magnetism, vitality
Incorrect Sentence:
No one ate the oomph at dinner because the smell was revolting.

Correct Sentence:
The basketball team added extra oomph in order to beat the opposing team.


Another word that we examined was the word:
Poppycock
noun
Empty talk or writing, rubbish.
Incorrect Sentence:
Jennifer took her poppycock on a walk through the neighborhood.

Correct Sentence:
He filled her mind with complete poppycock about getting married and then just disappeared without a word.

As you can see, our world is filled with many different styles of words that can make you giggle. Now that you know these 13 unique words, you can impress your average noodles by limiting the poppycock in your vocabulary.

By: Marissa, Jesse, and Kelsey

Roots and prefixes--MAGN and HYPER

This week on our blog we will be talking about the Etymology of the prefixes magn-and hyper-. The prefix magn- comes from a Latin root, and has multiple examples. Here are a few words using the prefix magn- magnitude, magnify, and magnate. The prefix hyper- comes from a Greek root. Words like hyperextend, hyperdrive, and hypercritic all have hyper as its prefix, meaning exaggeration.

Magn is a prefix from the Latin roots that mean gigantic. An example that uses magn is magnitude, which means in great size or extent. “When I went to the carnival the magnitude of the rollercoaster frightened me.” This is a good example because magn means gigantic, and magnitude means great in size.
Another commonly used word is magnify and it means to make bigger. “During class our science teacher had to magnify the insect so we could see the details on its back more clearly.” This is a good example because it is referring to making something gigantic.
Magn used in magnate, a person with lots of power. “The military sergeant was a great magnate because he ruled the entire base.” The reason that this is such a good example is that having lots of power means you are gigantic.

Hyper is our final prefix. Hyper comes from a Greek root word meaning over and implies exaggeration. Hyper has also become a slang word that is used to describe someone who is very high strung or excitable. Many teens abuse this prefix and mistake it for its actual correct meaning. The prefix hyper in the word, hyper extended means, to extend a joint to where the angle is greater than normal. “The quarterback hyperextended his arm when he got tackled.” Hyperdrive is to be in a heightened state of extreme activity. “My brother is always in hyperdrive after drinking a Monster energy drink.” Being a hypercritic is a person who is excessively captiously critical. “When Obama won the presidency many talk show hosts were hypercritical because they were nervous about his inexperience.”

Magn and Hyper are two prefixes that are used commonly in our everyday language. There is a huge variety of words in the English language that use these prefixes, Magn and Hyper. It’s very helpful to be familiar with these prefixes because knowing these prefixes will give you a greater extent of understanding of words that use these prefixes. We hope that you have enjoyed our blog on Etymology! Please continue reading our blogs, there will be many more to come!

Written By: Dennise F, Michael Y, Jeffrey H & Cameron H.