All posts tagged "etymology"
- Word Matrix: Thank
<thank> “thought, gratitude; think, feel,” from Old English þancian, þoncian, compare related Old English noun þanc, þonc Words Sums Thank + s -> thanks Thank...
InformationHeather JohnsonNovember 13, 2020 - Word Matrix: Sign
<sign> from Latin signum “identifying mark, token, indication, symbol; proof” Words Sums (248) Sign -> sign Sign + s -> signs...
InformationHeather JohnsonJuly 17, 2020 - Thieves, Knives, and Chiefs and English Plurals
English is rule-based. I repeat: Like all languages, English is rule-based. A tweet recently appeared in my Twitter feed in which...
InformationHeather JohnsonMay 3, 2020 - Zero Phones and Markers: Not All Letters Spell Sounds
Writing is not sounds written down. The primary function of English spelling is to represent meaning. Sounds do matter, but not...
InformationHeather JohnsonFebruary 29, 2020 - Why Are <talk>, <walk>, and <stalk> Spelled with <l>?
Yesterday I introduced my 5-year-old to the words <talk> and <walk>. He knows that graphemes can spell sounds, specifically that <l>...
InformationHeather JohnsonFebruary 3, 2020 - Why Is <broad> Spelled with the <oa> Digraph?
Yesterday I posted on my social media about the spelling of the word <broad>. I just introduced the <oa> grapheme to...
InformationHeather JohnsonJanuary 23, 2020 - Word Matrix: Leve
I always misspell the word <relevant> as <*relavant> based on a thinking that <relevant> is related to <relative>. I recently decided...
InformationHeather JohnsonJanuary 22, 2020 - <Urine> and My Phonics Phail
I grew up in the 1990s. I entered kindergarten in 1990 and began learning to read that year. Phonics and sight...
InformationHeather JohnsonJanuary 15, 2020 - From Felines to Street Drugs to Zero Phones: <cat>, <methcathinone>, and <ephedron>
You never know where a word study will take you. A while back, my oldest and I did a word study...
InformationHeather JohnsonDecember 20, 2019 - Word Matrix: Anxi
<Anxi> ”uneasy, troubled in mind” from Latin anxius Note: The base is <anxi>. The <i> is part of the base because...
InformationHeather JohnsonSeptember 28, 2019 - Word Matrix: Doodle
While reading some books about the history of words earlier this year, I came across the word <fopdoodle>, which means “a...
InformationHeather JohnsonSeptember 10, 2019 - Word Matrix: D (“set, put”)
Back at the end of July, I investigated the words <add> and <addition>. I undercovered the base <d>, but I misidentified...
InformationHeather JohnsonSeptember 3, 2019 - Word Matrix: Ply (“lay, fold, twist”)
I recently came across a tweet in a Twitter conversation that argued that studying morphemes is not always helpful. A morpheme...
InformationHeather JohnsonAugust 20, 2019 - Word Matrix: Stude
<stude> “learn, examine, show zeal for” from Old French estudiier, from Medieval Latin studiare, from Latin studium “study, application,” originally “eagerness,”...
InformationHeather JohnsonJuly 28, 2019 - Word Matrix: D (“give”)
After returning from a two-week family vacation last weekend, I found my sleep schedule completely messed up. Instead of tossing and...
InformationHeather JohnsonJuly 26, 2019