STUDY OF WORD ORIGIN ETYMOLOGY Words Created From Nothing Examples of words that have just appeared in the

language out of nothing are byte, dog (replacing the earlier h nd), don!ey, "am, !i#!, $og, googo$, % asar and y &&ie. The latter two are acronyms (words made from initials). Shakespeare coined over !"" words including #o nt$ess, #riti#a$, e'#e$$ent, $one$y, ma"esti#, obs#ene. #rom $en %ohnson we got dam&, from &saac 'ewton #entri( ga$ and from Thomas (ore) e'&$ain and e'a#t. Words Created In Error The vegeta*le )ease was thought to *e a plural so that the individual item in the pod was given the name &ea. The ver* $a*e was erroneously created from the adjective $a*y. The word b ttonho$e was a mis+hearing of b tton+ho$d. ,orro-ed and .do&ted Words English has *orrowed words from a variety of sources and other languages. Three examples show this. ,range) The name of the fruit was N.R.N/ in Sanskrit. This language was spoken in ancient &ndia. &ndians traded with -ra*s, so the word passed into -ra*ic as N.R.N/.0 . The Spaniards were ruled *y north -frican -ra*s who passed the fruit and word into Spanish as N.R.N/. (pronounced as '-.-'/-). This came into English where the fruit was a N.R.N/ . 0ords ending in / are not common in English so the spelling 1uickly changed to a N.R.NGE . The initial N moved to the a *ecause of mis+hearing to give an .R.NGE (this is called metanalysis). ,ver time, the initial . *ecame an O to give an OR.NGE.

2hocolate 0hen the Spanish arrived in (exico they came across the -3tecs. The -3tec language is called 'ahuatl. The -3tecs had a drink which they made from a *ean they called C0OCO (*itter). They would put this *ean into water ( .TL ) to produce C0OCO+.TL (*itter water). The TL sound is common in the -3tec language *ut not in Spanish. The Spaniards mispronounced the drink C0OCOL.TO . This drink was *rought to Europe (with sugar added) where the pronunciation and spelling in English *ecame C0OCOL.TE . -lge*ra This is a mathematical term. &t comes from -ra*ic. (ohammad al+4hwari3mi was a mathematician who flourished in $aghdad around the year 5"". /e wrote a *ook a*out the solving of e1uations. &t was called i$m a$+"abr -a1$ m %aba$ah (the science of transposition and cancellation). The term a$+"abr from this title gave the English word, .LGE,R.. 2heckmate This is a term in chess. &t is from the #arsi language spoken in &ran and -fghanistan. The original phrase is S0.0+2+M.TE (every sylla*le pronounced) which means 6The 4ing is 7ead6. The word S0.0 means a 6king6 as in the last monarch (or S/-/) of &ran. M.TE has the same root as the English 6murder6 and the Spanish 6matador6 (killer). The word came via #rench (where the S0 *ecame a C0) and into English where the M.+TE (two sylla*les) *ecame M.TE (one sylla*le) to give C0EC2M.TE . Changes In Words (any words used in modern English have changed their meaning over the years. This is shown in the ta*le *elow.

Word a-( $ bra3e #o nter(eit # te gir$ g ess !night $ ' ry ne#! notorio s n isan#e % i#! so&histi#ated te$$ tr ant

Origina$ Meaning deserving of awe cowardice (as in bra3ado) legitimate copy *ow+legged young person of either sex take aim *oy sinful self indulgence parcel of land (as in ne#! o( the -oods) famous injury, harm alive (as in % i#!si$3er) corrupted to count (as in ban! te$$er) *eggar th century going through &io s,

The word si$$y meant b$essed or ha&&y in the (oo$ish or st &id.

inno#ent, harm$ess, &itiab$e, (eeb$e, (eeb$e minded *efore finally ending up as )retty *egan as #ra(ty then changed via #$e3er, s!i$( $$y made, (ine to bea ti( $. The word ni#e meant st &id and (oo$ish in the late 8th 2entury. &t went through a num*er of changes including -anton, e'tra3agant, e$egant, strange, modest, thin, and shy. $y the middle of the &$easant and agreeab$e. 0ords are changing meaning now) consider how the words bad and gay have changed in recent years. Words Created ,y S btra#tion Or .ddition 0ords can *e created *y adding suffixes) +ab$e, +ness, +ment. They can also *e created *y adding prefixes) dis+, anti+. Examples include) se$$ab$e, brightness, &a3ement, disestab$ish, antimatter. 0ords can *e com*ined to form new words ( air and &ort gave air&ort9 $and and mar! to give $andmar!). Sometimes the com*ination can go in more than one way (ho seboat, boatho se9 boo!#ase, #aseboo!). 5th 2entury it had gained its current meaning of

(any common words have *een shortened from the original term as in the ta*le *elow. Modern Word Origina$ Form bra *rassi:re b s omni*us (;atin) (or e3eryone) e'am examination gym gymnasium !ni#!ers knicker*ockers $ab la*oratory mob mo*ile vulgus (;atin) (i#!$e #ro-d) &etro$ petroleum (<reek) ro#! oi$) &ram param*ulator (etanalysis is the process where a letter is added or su*tracted *ecause of a near*y word. Examples *elow. Modern Word a ni#!name a ne-t an adder an a&ron an orange an m&ire Origina$ Form an ekename an ewt a nadder a napron a narange a nonper

PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES 4nowing the <reek and ;atin roots of several prefixes and suffixes (*eginning and endings attached to words) can also help us determine the meaning of words. Ante, for instance, means before, and if we connect bellum with belligerant to figure out the connection with war, we=ll know that antebellum refers to the period *efore war. (&n the >nited States, the ante*ellum period is our history *efore the 2ivil 0ar.) )re(i'es sho-ing % antity Meaning half one two hundred thousand without, no, not )re(i'es in Eng$ish Words semiannual, hemisphere unicycle, monarchy, monorail *inary, *imonthly, dilemma, dichotomy century, centimeter, hectoliter millimeter, kilometer asexual, anonymous, illegal, invalid, irreverent, unskilled immoral,

)re(i'es sho-ing negation

not, a*sence of, non*reaka*le, antacid, antipathy, contradict opposing, against opposite complement to to, counterclockwise, counterweight

do the opposite of, dehorn, devitali3e, devalue remove, reduce do the opposite of, disesta*lish, disarm deprive of wrongly, *ad )re(i'es sho-ing time *efore after again a*ove, over across, over *elow, under in front of *ehind out of into around antecedent, forecast, precede, prologue postwar rewrite, redundant supervise, supererogatory transport, translate infrasonic, infrastructure, hypodermic proceed, prefix recede erupt, explicit, ecstasy injection, immerse, encourage, empower circumnavigate, perimeter su*terranean, misjudge, misdeed

)re(i'es sho-ing dire#tion or &osition

.N.LOGY
-nalogies are a staple of standardi3ed tests. The ?S-T, -2T, <.E, T,E#; exam, SS-T, and #2-T, to name a few, contain significant analogy sections on the tests. The analogy 1uestions measure reasoning a*ility, voca*ulary skills, and familiarity with the analogy format. 4eep reading to *etter understand the *asics of how analogy 1uestions are structured. -nalogy 1uestion asks students to select the answer that *est mirrors the relationship *etween the two words in the 1uestion. -s a simple example, the 1uestion might start with) 6/ot is to cold.6 The reader should note that hot is the exact opposite of

cold and look for a pair of words in the answer choices where the words are also opposites. /ere is a complete analogy example 1uestion) 0ot is to #o$d as)
a. #at is to o*ese + c. ?arent is to mother *. &nside is to outside

d. Tepid is to warming

The reader should see that inside is to outside is the only pair of opposites and select it as the correct response. -nalogies are revealing test 1uestions causing the reader to hypothesi3e the relationship *etween the example words and then finding the *est match for that analogy. 2ommon types of analogies used on standardi3ed tests with examples)

,pposites or antonyms Synonyms or words with identical or similar meetings 'ear synonyms with variations *y degree) ice cu*e is to ice*erg as rain is to downpour -ction is to result) punch is to cry as tickle is to laugh ?art to whole) nose is to face as nail is finger >ses) fork is to eat as telephone is to talk ?laces) earth is to solar system as 2alifornia is to the >S>sers) resident is to apartment as a golfer is to clu*s (easurement) ruler is to distance as *arometer is to pressure ?roduct to ?roducer) milk is to cow as wool is to sheep 7egree of intensity) dri33le is to deluge as sniffles is to pneumonia -nalogy 1uestions are not riddles or pu33les in the sense that the 6field of play6 is

the meaning of words. Some students think to look outside the meaning of words. -s far as & know, none of the standardi3ed tests will *ase analogies on alliteration. Des! is to door as a. wall is to wind *. window is to chair

c. *ook is to read

d. dwarf is to decade.

- student, unfamiliar with these types of 1uestions, might reason like this) 67esk and door *oth start with the letter 7 and have four letters. So, wind and wall are four lettered words that start with the same letter. &=ll pick it.6 7irections, on the test, should state) 6#ind the answer choice that *est matches relationship *etween the meanings of the two primary words.6 The key to students successfully completing an analogy is for them to first reali3e they need to link their familiar experiences with these new ideas that are presented to them. ,nce they have used the already learned concept, they can apply this same concept to the other word pairs. This helps them develop higher level thinking processes. 0hen students understand that analogies are all *ased upon relationships, they can work on overcoming analogy apprehension and even develop their own analogies.