Wordorigins.org Creative Ways to Learn Vocabulary Words Creative Ways to Learn Vocabulary Words Robert Harris Version Date: February 5, 2014 Learning vocabulary words for a foreign language or for personal improvement in English can be a challenge simply because of the effort needed to convert short term memory into long term memory. Active Learning Simple rote memorization is pretty passive on the learning scale. Tom Swifties In their original form, Tom Swifties involve a statement by Tom followed by an adverb or a verb that puns on the statement: "The sign on the fence says, 'Beware of High Voltage,'" said Tom electrically. To use Tom Swifties for vocabulary development, simply include the word's definition in the statement and the word itself as the adverb. “Now that we’re here let’s look around,” Tom said circumspectly. Reverse Swifties A reverse Swifty puts the vocabulary word in the sentence and the definition in the attribution: "I will be happy to produce the evidence," Tom said, pulling it out. Dog Pile Root Canal Neologisms
Online Etymology Dictionary Etymological maps Brill Online Dictionaries Etymologically Speaking... From the old Arabic word "hashshshin," which meant, "someone who is addicted to hash," that is, marijuana. Originally refered to a group of warriors who would smoke up before battle. Aaron White adds: You may want to explore the fact that the hashshshins were somewhat of a voodoo-ized grand conspiracy scapegoat cult (the very fact of their existence is impossible to confirm). They supposedly were a secret society (a la the FreeMasons) which was influential in every middle eastern court from Persia to Bangladesh. They were supposedly a brotherhood of assasins, devoted to their caballa and its secrecy, protected by an unlimited number of fanatical followers and unlimited material wealth. Assassination was their favorite method of instituting their power (see the Zoroastrian lore of the eunich priest Arachmenes and his assistance to Darius and Xerxes in their rise to/fall from power). R.
European Maps Showing Origins Of Common Words U.S. playwright Rita Mae Brown said: "Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going." That quote comes to mind looking at these fascinating European etymology maps of various commons words posted by reddit user sp07, which provide a kind of cultural commentary on Europe. The word for "church" shows the influence of ancient Greece: imgur/u/Bezbojnicul "Bear" appears to be influenced by Russia, where largest brown bear population in Europe can be found. Another reddit user noted that "pi" is a prefix for "beer" in several European countries while the "pi" in the Mandarin Chinese word for beer, 啤酒 pi jiu, is a loan word from Europe. "Apple" has a lot of diversity: Notice how the word in Finland and Estonia may come from a Indo-Iranian origin. "Orange" is an interesting one. "Garoful," the ancient Greek word for "rose," only remains in northeastern Italy. imgur/u/Bezbojnicul
Getting English words, word lists, word knowledge, vocabulary words, and indexes of science and technology terms with vocabulary quizzes or word tests for learning English vocabulary Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins "A treasure (from the Greek ‘thesauros’, treasure, store or storehouse) trove (past participle of an Anglo-Norman verb meaning ‘to find’) of verbal wonders" – William Hartston, Daily Express Combining both accessibility and authority, The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins describes the origins and development of over 3,000 words and phrases in the English language. The book draws on Oxford's unrivalled dictionary research programme and language monitoring, and relates the fascinating stories behind many of our most curious terms and expressions in order to offer the reader a much more explicit account than can be found in a general English dictionary. Organized A-Z, the entries include first known use along with examples that illustrate the many faces of the particular word or phrase, from ‘handsome’ to ‘bachelor’ and ‘cute’ to ‘baby’, from ‘pagan’ to ‘palaver’ and ‘toff’ to ‘torpedo’. Bibliographic Information
The Tower of Babel << Home Page The Tower of Babel An International Etymological Database Project Participants (so far): The Russian State University of the Humanities (Center of Comparative Linguistics) The Moscow Jewish University The Russian Academy of Sciences (Dept. of History and Philology) The Santa Fe Institute (New Mexico, USA) The City University of Hong Kong The Leiden University The main goal of the project is to join efforts in the research of long range connections between established linguistic families of the world. Every person or organization interested in this noble task is invited to join.
An etymological dictionary of modern English : Weekley, Ernest, 1865-1954 Publisher: London J. Murray Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHTLanguage: EnglishCall number: AAN-1034Digitizing sponsor: MSNBook contributor: Robarts - University of TorontoCollection: robarts; toronto Scanfactors: 159 Full catalog record: MARCXML This book has an editable web page on Open Library. Selected metadata Root Words Teacher Tips I have always used root words as a quick class opener. I have even used them when my school sprang for the Sadlier-Oxford books as the two work well together. Forty years ago, way back at Millwood, my first school, the teachers developed a list of root words as part of a comprehensive 7-12 vocabulary program. We divided this extensive list of roots between grade levels and expected kids to be taught and to master about 50 at every grade level. Of course, that means each kid had at least 300 major roots in head by graduation. For my part, now that I am no longer part of a compre-hensive system, I went with a core 120 roots broken into 10-root sets in My Root Sets. I write two or three on the board every day and we brainstorm derivatives. I am very proud of the Root Word Tests since I use a big list of roots that I call My Root Dictionary. The students tell me that knowing roots consciously is very helpful on the ACT and SAT. Useful Websites Teacher Resources Check out Neo below:
Etymological Wordnet Maintainer: Gerard de Melo References For academic use, please cite the following publications: Gerard de Melo. Etymological Wordnet: Tracing the History of Words PDF BibTeX In: Proc. LREC 2014. Gerard de Melo and Gerhard Weikum. Contact Please get in touch with Gerard de Melo, if you would like to contribute to the Etymological WordNet, or if you have additional suggestions or research proposals. Other Resources The Etymological WordNet is just one of several linguistic and lexical-semantic resources that we provide. Return to main page Root Words, Roots and Affixes Many English words are formed by taking basic words and adding combinations of prefixes and suffixes to them. A basic word to which affixes (prefixes and suffixes) are added is called a root word because it forms the basis of a new word. The root word is also a word in its own right. For example, the word lovely consists of the word love and the suffix -ly. In contrast, a root is the basis of a new word, but it does not typically form a stand-alone word on its own. For example, the word reject is made up of the prefix re- and the Latin root ject, which is not a stand-alone word. Common Latin and Greek roots Download a copy of the Common Latin Roots chart below. Download a copy of the Common Greek Roots chart below. Affixes One method of understanding the meanings of new words is to analyze the different parts of the word and the meanings of those parts. Download a copy of the Common Prefixes chart below. Download a copy of the Common Suffixes chart below.