Language Arts Lesson 1
Word Analysis, Fluency and Vocabulary Development

Instruction 1-1

Word Origins | Context Clues | Multiple Meanings of Words | Figurative and Metaphorical Use of Words | Summary

Pre-Test
Q&A	Phonics in Context: Odds and Ends

The study of words is called etymology. No, not entomology -- that's the study of bugs. Nobody knows for sure when human beings first started using words. But some etymologists (the scientists who study words) think we began to speak by imitating the sounds of animals. And some of our words do sound like the sounds they describe -- meow for example. Or zip, crackle and pop. Or buzz (getting back to bugs!).

Many of our words come from foreign languages --- chow from Chinese, for example (it means "food"). Or robot from Czech (it means "tireless worker" -- which robots certainly are). Or denim from French, which means fabric di (of) Nimes -- the city where it was invented.

Some words come to us through extended meanings. What that means is that a word starts out to mean one thing and eventually "extends" to mean other things, too. The word fly is a good example. It originally meant "to soar through the air," but it has been "extended" to mean both an insect and a baseball hit up in the air. Today it also means stylish and cool when used to describe someone who's a real hottie, like "a fly girl."

It's pretty obvious where some words come from -- like backpack. Backpack is what's called a compound word. That means it's one word made up from two other words. Bedroom and dishpan are other examples of compound words. Another way we get new words is when their pronunciation changes -- like when a lot of French words came into the language after the Norman Conquest. Or when their spelling changes. The word alone used to be spelled "all alone." And the word good-bye used to be the religious benediction "God be with you."

Some words are simply abbreviations (the shortening of words). The New York Knicks used to be called The New York. "Knickerbocher" was a nickname for the descendants of the early Dutch settlers of New York. It came from the kinds of pants they wore, which led to another abbreviation -- knickers (which today means underpants). Have you ever heard the expression "don't get your knickers in a twist?" It means "don't get excited." Another abbreviation is phone, which is short for "telephone."

A lot of our words are made out of Greek and Latin word roots and affixes. (There are two kinds of affixes -- prefixes, which come at the beginning of words, and suffixes, which come at the end of them.) Latin was the language they spoke in ancient Rome, and Greek was spoken in -- you guessed it -- ancient Greece. Here are a few words with Greek and Latin roots or affixes: 

Learning about words can be fascinating. For instance, the word addict comes from Latin. In Rome, slaves were given to soldiers as a reward for outstanding performance in battle. Eventually the word came to mean anyone who is a slave to something. And there are over 600 different kinds of phobias -- although pantophobia in the list above pretty much covers everything.

There are some wonderful sources for finding out about words. You can even look up your own name at: http://www.behindthename.com/ 

Here are some very helpful and interesting Student, Parent and Teacher links:

for Students, Parents and Teachers

Now let's do Practice Exercise 1-1 (top).

Next Page: Context Clues (top)