Vocabulary For Dummies®

by Laurie E. Rozakis, PhD

Vocabulary For Dummies®

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ISBN: 978-0-7645-5393-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Dr. Laurie Rozakis earned her Ph.D. in English and American Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. An Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York College of Technology at Farmingdale, Dr. Rozakis has published more than one hundred books and scores of articles. In addition to Vocabulary For Dummies, her publications include trade books, young adult books, textbooks, biographies, reference books, and articles.

Dr. Rozakis frequently appears on television, including the CBS Morning Show; the Maury Povich Show; Fox Good Day, New York; Metro Relationships; and Fox Personal F/X. Her career and books have been profiled in The New York Times, the New York Daily News, Time magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. Dr. Rozakis does a monthly Internet show for yo.com.

Dedication

To Robert from Long Island, my staunchest supporter and best friend.

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Introduction

W hat’s in this book? Words, words, and more words. Word roots, word suffixes, and word prefixes. And you’re reading this book because you have an interest in words — how to use them, how to make the most of them, and how to figure out the meaning of new words.

Whether you’re facing standardized tests and want to get your vocabulary up to snuff, or you’re wanting to improve your language skills to feel more knowledgeable at work or comfortable in social situations, this is the book for you.

About This Book

In the following chapters, I introduce you to a variety of words. The words are organized in a format that helps you make sense of them. Unlike other books that aim to help you improve your vocabulary, this book isn’t filled with list after list of words. Oh, I certainly include lots of tables filled with words, but I organize them by common features — the language that they came from or the root that they share, for example — so that you can remember the terms more easily.

I packed the book so full of fun and fascinating words that I’m hoping you hang on every one of them. But in case you’re interested in just a few topics, I set up the book so that you can dip into the parts or the chapters that interest you and get all the information you need. And I make it easy for you to find what you want: You can check the table of contents or the index to zero in on the specific topic you want. So, whether you’re interested in tips on picking up the meaning of an unfamiliar word from the surrounding text or recent additions to the language, you can find the topic and go there.

Conventions Used in This Book

Because it doesn’t help if I introduce you to new words but don’t tell you how to say them or how to use them, I give you the pronunciation and the part of speech for the words I put in tables. The part of speech lets you know how to use the word in a sentence: You use a noun as the subject of a sentence; a verb relays what the subject does, or what it has done to it. Adjectives and adverbs — abbreviated as adj and adv, respectively — describe nouns and verbs, respectively. The words I list fall into one of these four categories. Chapter 7 has a sidebar that gives you the rundown on all eight parts of speech that English uses.

I don’t offer you pronunciation guidelines for every vocabulary word in this book. Sometimes it would be insulting your intelligence to tell you how to pronounce a word; other times the pronunciation is provided elsewhere. And, I omitted some pronunciations because I find looking up words fun and fascinating and I want you to experience the joy for yourself. (Check out Chapter 3 for advice on getting the most from dictionaries and other resources.)

Dictionaries use what can seem like a whole new language to tell you how to pronounce words — upside-down e’s (called schwas), wiggly lines above letters (called tildes), and two dots (called an umlaut) over other letters can make you feel lost before you get started. Rest assured that I don’t use anything except normal letters in the pronunciation guides, which are in parentheses after the word.

I want you to be able to see the pronunciation and say the word. I did my best to be consistent in representing certain sounds — my method is set out in the following tables — but above all, I tried to represent pronunciations as simply and intuitively as I could. Hyphens separate the different sounds of a word, and the sound you stress more than others is italicized.

The representations of short vowel sounds appear when the sound is at the end of a syllable; a, e, i, o, and u represent themselves in the middle of a syllable.

A few consonant sounds have their own representations, also. They’re in the next table.

Notice the slash between tion and sion. I use a forward slash to separate parts of speech, word elements, and alternative pronunciations; a semicolon separates distinct definitions.

It is a strange but true fact of English (one of many) that how you pronounce a word seems to have little to do with the word’s syllables. A syllable is simply a part of a word — and though you often pronounce a syllable as one continuous, uninterrupted sound, you don’t always do so in the pronunciation guidelines included in this book. This is the long way to say that the divisions in pronunciation guidelines do not indicate syllable divisions — you need to consult a dictionary or your spell-check program if you want to know where syllable breaks are.

Special Features

Because I want you to be able to incorporate new words into your existing vocabulary, I put in examples and samples that can help you remember and correctly use new words.

The Talkin’ the Talk sections are sample, imaginary conversations that usually incorporate words from the tables in the surrounding text, or expand on the new vocabulary by introducing and defining related terms.

The Before and After examples point out how you might use new, specific vocabulary in place of old, general terms.

Occasionally I give you pointers on how to use new words correctly by giving you examples of Correct and Incorrect usage.

You don’t have to make use of these features, but reading through them can help reinforce your newly acquired knowledge.

How This Book Is Organized

I organized 23 chapters into 5 parts. Each part has a theme, which I elaborate on in the following sections. From word basics to word trivia, I cover as much ground as I can, giving you what I believe is the most helpful and useful information.

Part I: Getting Your Bearings

The chapters in this section serve as a map for your voyage to a better vocabulary. I offer a variety of methods that you can adapt to your own preferences and use to increase and improve your vocabulary. I tell you how to discover meaning — at least of new words you encounter, if not the meaning of life — and I give you pointers on choosing words to suit your audience, situation, and style.

Part II: Mastering the Basics

If I tell you that the basic building blocks of words are roots, prefixes, and suffixes — the foundation, beginning, and ending of individual words — and that this part has three chapters, you can probably do the math.

Check out the chapters in this part for comprehensive coverage of essential tools that you can use to decipher unfamiliar words in this book and beyond.

Part III: Expanding Your Base

These chapters take you beyond the basics and give you words that look alike, sound alike, and mean the same thing — or nearly the same thing. Chapter 10 talks about words composed of two or more other words, and Chapters 11 and 12 fill you in on some of the words English adopted from other languages.

Part IV: Getting Savvy with Vocabulary

These chapters help you broaden your knowledge by focusing on specific topics. I give you information on vocabulary in standardized tests, words about money and law, medical terms, and phrases you can use while shopping till you drop. I clue you in on recent additions to the language and how words get added into English. And, if that isn’t enough, I also devote a chapter to words that come from the names of real and mythical people and places.

Part V: The Part of Tens

These short and sweet chapters warn you about phrases you shouldn’t use, help you distinguish tricky word pairs, and clarify some peculiar English-related problems that may be especially unclear to folks who didn’t grow up speaking this rich but often confusing language.

Icons Used in This Book

The little round things in the margins highlight information I think you may find useful or interesting (or both!) on your journey to a better vocabulary.

You may well know some or all of these nifty tidbits, but you can probably impress cocktail-party companions with the facts presented in paragraphs next to this curious fellow.

This icon sits next to text that relates the history of a word or words. The text is sometimes detailed enough to qualify as etymology — details of a word’s origin.

General concepts to keep in mind, either in your language life or in a particular chapter, are highlighted with this classic reminder symbol.

This little bull’s-eye zeroes in on especially practical bits of information that you can use to improve your vocabulary.

Advice on how to avoid linguistic pitfalls is marked with this alarming symbol.

This scholarly little owl points out definitions.

Where to Go from Here

You can jump into this book at any chapter because it’s composed of self-contained units, and I put in plenty of cross-references to other chapters and sections with related information. Having said that, I recommend Chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Part II, which examine the building blocks of words — roots, prefixes, and suffixes. You can’t go wrong if you start with the fundamentals.

Beyond Part II, check out Chapter 2 for methods that can help you remember and correctly use new words, and Chapter 3 for techniques you can adopt with any reading material to increase your understanding of what you read.

So, jump in where you like — the words are fine!

Part I

Getting Your Bearings

In this part . . .

N avigating through a sea of new and unfamiliar words can be intimidating. But not to fear, the chapters here set you on the right path.

This is the practical part, where you pick up the tools you need to get the job done. In these chapters, I give you information on words in general and words as they relate specifically to you. I tell you where to find new words, how to figure out what they mean, how to say them, how to use them, and how to remember them.

So, grab your tools and dig in!

Chapter 1

Figuring Out How Words Work

In This Chapter

Understanding what a good vocabulary is and how it benefits you

A quick look at the structure of English words

Ways to build your vocabulary painlessly

A h, vocabulary. The definitions. The functions. The alternative spellings. The memories of Friday afternoon vocabulary tests or of clandestinely looking up dirty words when you were supposed to be studying the list your teacher gave you. When you get right down to it, who isn’t completely fascinated by the meaning, history, and current and past usage of words?

In two words: probably you. But there are two secrets that few English teachers let you in on:

Having a good vocabulary doesn’t mean you have to have a stilted vocabulary. It simply means you can communicate well with the group you’re in.

Building a good vocabulary is actually fairly easy. Forget the lists of words you got in school and the mind-numbing task of copying definitions. To build your vocabulary, you simply have to broaden your horizons and apply a few tricks.

Honest. This chapter gives you the basics.

Getting an Idea of a Good Vocabulary

During any typical day, you may be with your neighbors talking about things being good, with your colleagues talking about things being exemplary, and with your buddies talking about things being cool. If you use these words in the right way and at the right time, you show that you have a good command of vocabulary — you speak confidently and competently to the people you’re with.

That’s all a good vocabulary is. It isn’t about using big words, foreign words, or obscure words. It’s about using words to convey your meaning in the way you want. The trick is knowing what words are appropriate in a situation. The following list provides the general levels of English vocabulary (head to Chapter 4 for more info) along with situations in which the levels may be used:

Formal vocabulary: Formal vocabulary (or formal diction) has a very serious tone and uses specialized or elevated terms. You hear this type of vocabulary in ceremonial addresses like speeches (especially in days of yore), eulogies, and so on. You see it in such things as legal documents. You probably rarely, if ever, need to use formal English.

Standard English: Standard English is the type of vocabulary used in most businesses and schools; it conforms to the English grammar and usage rules. You use this type of vocabulary when you’re interviewing for a job, speaking with co-workers or customers, giving a presentation, or meeting your future in-laws for the first time. This is also the vocabulary you use when you write a paper or a report.

Everyday English: You use this kind of English when you’re talking informally to co-workers or gabbing with friends. It’s conversational and often uses slang.

Talkin’ the Talk

Adam and Alex run into each other in the break room and chat about their work. When their boss comes in, Adam demonstrates his ability to tailor his vocabulary to his audience and to the situation.

Adam: | Hey, how’s it goin’?
Alex: | Fine. Pluggin’ along on my presen-
| tation. How ‘bout you?
Adam: | Rotten. I gotta 3 p.m. deadline,
| and the project’s blowing up in my
| face. Max isn’t pullin’ his weight,
| and Delores doesn’t know what
| the heck she’s doing.
Sarah (Adam and Alex’s boss): | Hi, Adam, Alex.
Adam and Alex: | Hello.
Sarah (to Adam): | I wanted to talk about your pro-
| ject update. Do you have a few
| minutes?
Alex (to Sarah): | I was just heading back to my
| desk. [to Adam] Later.
Sarah: | I get the impression that you’re
| having a few problems.
Adam: | This project has presented some
| challenges.
Sarah: | Such as?
Adam: | My biggest dilemma has been
| finding ways to motivate individual
| team members. As it is, the bulk of
| the work is falling predominantly
| on a few. Another concern I have
| is providing the direction the team
| needs to be successful.

Reaping Vocabulary’s Rewards

Believe it or not (and you must believe it, or you wouldn’t have bought this book), having a good vocabulary is truly a good thing. It can help you move ahead, stay abreast, and fit right in:

Education: The fact of the matter is that having a strong speaking and writing vocabulary can make it easier for you to do well in school. A broad vocabulary makes not only regular study easier, but it can also help you during the many standardized tests you’re likely to face. Even if you manage to avoid taking standardized tests in school, more and more businesses require personality tests, competency tests, and so on in the work force. (Chapter 13 clues you in about standardized tests and vocabulary.)

Communication: Having a good vocabulary strengthens your communication skills. Not only does a solid vocabulary increase the number of words you use and understand (always a plus), but it also makes you more adept at modifying your language to suit the situation.

Social situations: Ever notice how many fish-out-of-water movies Hollywood makes (you know the kind, where the guy/girl finds him/herself out of place)? Ever notice how the character reveals his or her lack of social graces in his or her dress and speech? Knowing what type of speech is appropriate in different social situations and having the vocabulary you need to speak confidently wherever you are can make you a more assured, comfortable speaker.

Trying to Make Sense of the English Language

For many reasons (most of them too ugly to go into here), English is a pretty tough language to learn. If you’re a native speaker of English, you’re probably familiar with the idiosyncrasies that make the language so downright mind-boggling. If you’re a nonnative speaker, you may lack the familiarity that native speakers have. Either way, the following sections offer a very basic explanation for why English words are the way they are. Understanding how English words are formed and where they come from can help when you come up against unfamiliar words.

Borrowing words from other countries

One of the things that makes the English language so rich (and sometimes so overwhelming) is that English words come from — or are influenced by — lots of different languages.

The English language is essentially a Germanic language. (Other Germanic languages are German, Dutch, Flemish, and the Scandinavian languages.) English has a lot of words that reach back to its German roots: ox, cow, meadow, grass, pig, king, knife, knight, and skirmish are just a few. But, being the accommodating language that it is, English absorbed and adopted words (and parts of words) from lots of other languages, too, like Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish.

Tree, for example, comes from Old German. In English, the word tree means, well, “tree.” We also use the word arbor, which is the Latin word for tree, to mean “tree.” Arbor Day is a day for planting trees. So, in English, if you know what tree means, and you know that arbor is another word for tree, you know that anytime you see arbor in a word, that word has something to do with trees. What it has to do with trees depends on what prefixes and suffixes the word uses (the topic of the next section).

English has adopted numerous words from other languages. (Garage, for example, is actually a French word; piano is an Italian word.) And if English didn’t adopt the whole word, as is the case with many Greek and Latin words, it probably took parts of it. Hexagon uses two Greek elements: hexa meaning “six,” and gon meaning “angles.” Triumvirate uses Latin elements: trium meaning “three,” vir meaning “man,” and -ate, a suffix meaning “acted upon in a specific way.” A hexagon is a six-sided object; a triumvirate is a group of three people who are in power in some context. Chapters 11 and 12 offer many more examples of foreign-born English words.

Breaking out word elements: Prefixes, roots, and suffixes

A strong understanding of common prefixes, roots, and suffixes can go a long way toward improving your vocabulary. The root is a word’s foundation. Prefixes and suffixes are elements that are attached to the root to shape the word’s meaning. For example, one of the most common prefixes is un-, which means “not or against.” Stick that prefix in front of almost any word, and you have that word’s opposite:

patriotic → unpatriotic (not patriotic)

predictable → unpredictable (not able to be predicted)

reliable → unreliable (not reliable)

Suffixes come at the end of the word and usually indicate what part of speech the word is. (Knowing the part of speech is important, not only for defining a word but also for using it correctly.) Using the earlier example of the Latin root arbor (meaning “tree”), you can assemble a lot of different words simply by attaching different suffixes:

Arboreous uses the suffix -ous, which means “full of.” So that word means — you guessed it — “full of trees.” The -ous suffix makes adjectives (adjectives modify people, places, or things):

Correct: The terrain was dark and arboreous.

Incorrect: If a tree falls in the arboreous and no one is around to hear, does it still make a noise?

Arboreal means “of or relating to trees.” The suffix -al means “of or relating to” and turns words into adjectives:

Correct: Arboreal animals live in trees.

Incorrect: The animal lives in an arboreal.

An arborist is one who works with and cares for trees. The suffix -ist means “one who does.” As such, -ist makes the word a noun.

Correct: We had to call in an arborist to help us transplant the trees in the back yard.

Incorrect: The arborist book shows all kinds of trees.

Both prefixes and suffixes modify the root. By knowing what each element means, you can get a general idea of the word’s definition, which is often all you need to make sense of what’s being said or read. The chapters in Part II are devoted to roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Assembling blended words

In addition to taking words wholesale from other languages and combining roots with prefixes and suffixes to make words, English also creates words by sticking two complete words together. By knowing what each word means by itself, you can get a general idea of what the combined (or compound) word means. Check out these examples:

backbone = spine

freshman = first-year student

eggshell = exterior of an egg

cost-effective = economical

bedspread = comforter

Sometimes, when the words come together, a few letters get squeezed out. These types of words are called portmanteau words:

agriculture + business = agribusiness (business related to farming)

basket + cart = bascart (shopping cart)

cafeteria + auditorium = cafetorium (area used as both a cafeteria and an auditorium)

tangerine + lemon = tangemon (hybrid fruit of a tangerine and a lemon)

You may not use any of these hybrid words every day, but seeing how they’re composed can help you decipher other portmanteau words you come across.

Figuring out English oddities, peculiarities, and quirks

Here’s the rub — and it’s a particularly abrasive one for people who are learning English as a second language: Sometimes, there’s no way, other than context, to tell what an English word means. Why? Because English is full of oddities.

The result of such a rich linguistic heritage — English words, German words, French words, Spanish words, Greek and Latin words, word parts from everywhere, combined words, blended words, and so on — is that the English language has few rules you can rely on all the time:

Many words spelled similarly don’t sound alike. Bomb, comb, and womb don’t rhyme with each other: You say “bom,” “kohm,” and “woom.” Sometimes, words spelled exactly the same are pronounced differently: tear (teer), “a teardrop,” and tear (tehr), “to rip,” for example.

Many words spelled differently do sound alike: Write, right, and rite are all pronounced the same but mean different things. These types of words are called homophones.

One word can have various meanings: Pool (the place to swim), pool (the billiards game), pool (to put together) — and that’s not even all of the definitions of pool. These types of words are called homonyms, and English is absolutely full of them.

These types of odd words plague all English speakers, native and otherwise. When you come up against them, the best you can do is use the context of what is being said or written, or, if you still aren’t sure, head to a dictionary. For more examples of homonyms and homophones and strategies for keeping them straight, head to Chapter 9.

Improving Your Vocabulary the Easy Way

One of the best — and most enjoyable — ways to improve your vocabulary is to read. Read as much as you can from as many different sources as you can find: books (popular, classic, fiction, nonfiction), cereal boxes, magazine articles, the conversation in an online chat room, newspaper stories — you choose.

Another fun way to increase your vocabulary is to simply try new things. Take an art class and learn words like the noun serendipity (ser-un-dip-uh-tee), which means “happy accident.” Go to an opera or an art film, or help out at your local theater. Join a cooking club or a book club. Take up bird watching, woodworking, or any other activity that sparks your interest. Broaden your horizons, and your vocabulary will grow as a consequence.

Of course, there are plenty of other tips and techniques that you can use to build your vocabulary (and none of them require reading a dictionary). You can keep a journal of the unfamiliar words that you hear or see; you can play all sorts of word games, like Scrabble and Boggle; you can work daily or Sunday crossword puzzles in your local newspaper; and more (Chapter 2 gives you the complete scoop).

The important thing to know is that building your vocabulary can be a lot easier and a lot more fun that you may have thought.

Chapter 2

Building Your Vocabulary

In This Chapter

Playing word games

Discovering word resources

Gearing your vocabulary for tests

Speaking well — pronunciation tips

D o you want to know the best way to increase your vocabulary? Read. Read anything and everything you can get your hands on. Read books and magazines. Read instruction manuals. Read the newspaper. Read billboards and cereal boxes (including the ingredients list). Read. Read. Read. Before you realize it, you’ll know a lot more words than you did before.

Don’t like to read? Then go out and do something you’ve never done. Travel to a place you’ve never been. Start a hobby. Take up music, or gourmet cooking, or art, or model aviation, or golf, or gardening, or whatever. Try things you’ve always wanted to experience, and expand your horizons. As your horizons expand, so will your vocabulary.

Don’t have time (or the inclination) to travel, start a hobby, or experience new things? All is not lost. In this chapter, I introduce some effective and fun ways to pump up your vocabulary in just a few minutes a day.

Playing to Improve Your Vocabulary

Believe it or not, building your vocabulary doesn’t have to be work (despite what many English teachers may think). It can actually be fun.

Carding yourself

Repetition is one of the most effective ways to make a word your own. Going over the word can help you master its meaning, as well as its pronunciation and usage. Try this idea:

1. Buy a stack of 3 x 5 index cards.

2. As you hear or see new words, write them on the front of an index card (one word per card).

3. Write the definition and pronunciation of the word on the back. Be sure to note the part (or parts) of speech so that you use the word correctly.

You may want to add a sample sentence or two to help you. Figure 2-1 shows the front and back of a sample card.

4. Study this card every chance you get.

Figure 2-1: A sample vocabulary flash card.

Use these tips to get the most out of your vocabulary flash cards:

Format the cards however is most helpful for you. If you find that having the pronunciation or the part of speech on the front of the card helps you remember words better, then by all means put that info on the front.

Take them with you on the bus, train, and plane; hide them in your lap and sneak a peek during dull dates, meetings, and meals.

Shuffle the cards so that you expose yourself to a variety of words.

Don’t take a card out of the stack as soon as you learn the word. Leave it in for a while to provide a little positive reinforcement.

Playing those mind games: Mnemonics

Mnemonics are memory tricks you can use to help recall things that you have a hard time remembering or are likely to forget. The mnemonic for the Great Lakes, for example, is HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior). Roy G. Biv is the mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet). A common mnemonic used to help folks spell ie and ei words is “i before e except after c, or when sounded like a, as in neighbor and weigh.”

You can use the same techniques to remember vocabulary words and to distinguish between confusing words. Consider the following examples:

To remember that stationary means “standing still,” stress the a, because both words (stationary and standing) contain an a. To remember that stationery refers to “writing materials,” think stationery is for letters, because both words contain er.

Desert and dessert become easier to define and use when you remember that dessert has a double s, like strawberry shortcake.

Create your own mnemonics to help you remember new words, as well as the easily confused words that you use every day.

Wrestling with word games

Another way to increase your vocabulary is to play word games. Although all word games expose you to words, some are better than others. Here are some of the ones that you may find most helpful in building your vocabulary:

Scrabble: Scrabble is a crossword game in which you build words on a game board using lettered tiles that you select blindly. For every word you create, you score a certain number of points. Points are based on the word’s length, placement, and letters. Because so few words use the letter X, for example, you get more points for using the X tile than for using the E tile.

Scrabble is a great way to both test and build your vocabulary, because if anyone challenges you over a word you’ve created, it helps if you can define it. The word also has to appear in the dictionary. (Xebec, by the way, is a real word. It’s a Mediterranean sailing ship — just in case you get stuck with a couple E’s and an X.)

Upwords: Similar to Scrabble, Upwords adds another dimension — the letter tiles stack on top of each other so that you can build up, as well as out.

Boggle: In Boggle, you form as many words as you can by linking adjacent letters. This game improves your vocabulary, because in order to make the most words, you need to think beyond the easy three- and four-letter words. The more you play, the more adept you become at creating words from nothing more than a jumble of seemingly unconnected letters.

Crossword puzzles: Crossword puzzles help build vocabulary by exposing you to new and unusual words. The hints serve as definitions; by simply playing the game, you can find out whether you selected the right word. If you do crosswords enough, you may discover, for example, that an epee is a “small sword used in fencing,” and a Sten is a sub-machine gun.

You can also find several vocabulary-building games and resources on the Internet. Just go to your favorite search engine and enter “Vocabulary.” Here are just a few of the sites I found that offer free word games:

Word Safari: http://home.earthlink.net/~ruthpett/safari/index.htm — Guess the meaning of a word. When you get it right, you get a list of links to various places on the Web that use the word.

The Word Games and Amusements page of this site (http://home.earthlink.net/~ruthpett/safari/megalist2.htm#Jump9) offers links to a plethora of free word games.

Merriam-Webster’s Word Game of the Day: www.m-w.com/mw/game/ — This site features a different word game every day. It also includes a two-month archive of past word games. The games are great vocabulary builders.

Crossword of the Day: www.quizland.com/cotd.htm — This site offers a different crossword puzzle each day.

Reading Up on Words

When asked why he robbed banks, the famous bank robber Willie Sutton replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” When people ask why you’re using a dictionary to improve your vocabulary, you can answer, “Because that’s where the words are.” You can say the same thing about thesauruses.

In fact, if you’re serious about improving your vocabulary, you should have a good dictionary and thesaurus handy.

Diving into dictionaries

A dictionary improves your vocabulary by providing definitions, word histories, and parts of speech. It’s the best source for learning new words. It’s also the most effective way to find out how to pronounce new words, which is an important part of improving your vocabulary. (Head to the section “Pronouncing Words Correctly” to find out why.)

The tricky part is finding a dictionary that’s right for you. Which dictionary should you purchase and use? Because more than 30,000 dictionaries are currently offered for sale online, you have some shopping to do. Here’s what you need:

All the words you’re likely to encounter in your personal and professional life.

Explanations phrased in terms that you can understand.

A size that fits your needs. You may want to buy a hard-bound dictionary for home and a smaller paperback dictionary for work.

An unabridged dictionary contains all the words in the English language. It comes in many volumes, like a set of encyclopedias, or in one really large, really weighty tome. An abridged dictionary contains only the most common words that people use every day.

Because all dictionaries are chock-full of words listed in alphabetical order, many people mistakenly think that they are all the same. They’re not. Different types of dictionaries fit different needs. Dictionaries have been created just for adults, college students, high school students, and elementary school students. The following list includes the best-selling general dictionaries and the Web addresses of the online versions, when available:

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Houghton Mifflin Co.) — www.bartleby.com/61/

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, Inc.) — www.m-w.com/dictionary.htm

Merriam-Webster’s Pocket Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, Inc.)

The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press, Inc.)

The Random House Webster’s College Dictionary (Random House, Inc.)

Webster’s 3rd New International Dictionary (Merriam-Webster, Inc.)

Webster’s New World College Dictionary (Hungry Minds, Inc.)

Speeding through Scrabble

“Speed Scrabble” is an alternative way to play Scrabble. You play without the board — all you need are the letter tiles and a playing surface and maybe a clock with a second hand for marking the final minute of the game.

This game can move pretty quickly because every player makes his or her own mini Scrabble grid of adjoining words at the same time. So, unlike traditional Scrabble, there’s no waiting for Uncle Doug to cogitate forever before putting his word in the only space you can use — Uncle Doug makes his own word grid, and you do the same. To play, follow these steps:

1. Turn all the letter tiles face down in the middle of the playing table.

2. Each player chooses seven tiles. When all players have their tiles, one player says “Go,” and everyone turns over their tiles.

3. Each player tries to assemble his or her tiles into connected words, as in a crossword puzzle. For example, the letters e, e, i, n, r, t, and x can form exert and tin, using the t in exert as the first letter in tin.

4. The first player to use all of her tiles to form connected words says “take two” (or “take three” if there are only two players), and every player must take two more tiles from the supply in the middle of the table, so that everyone is working with nine tiles.

5. The person who first makes a grid of connected words using her nine tiles says “take two,” and every player takes two more tiles. (The player who says “take two” may change with every round — any player can say “take two,” as long as all of her tiles are used in her grid.)

6. Play follows this pattern and continues until all the tiles are gone. (Because there are 100 Scrabble tiles, one tile is left over when there are three players.)

7. The first player to assemble a grid using all of her tiles says “One minute,” giving the other players 60 seconds to finish their own grids.

You can rearrange your grid at any time, making completely different words every time you take more letters. However, leftover letters — those not incorporated into your mini crossword puzzle at the end of the game — count against you. You must subtract the value of each leftover letter from your total score.

Scoring favors long words: You add up the letter values of their tiles — letters used in both across words and down words are counted twice. You then add 10 points for every tile in a word after the fourth tile. For example, the word long scores 5 points — 1 for the l, 1 for the o, 1 for the n, and 2 for the g. It’s only four letters long, so only the values on the tiles count. The score for the word longest is 5+33: the tile values add up to 8 — the values for l, o, n, and g, and one point each for e, s, t — plus 10 points each for the fifth, sixth, and seventh letters.

Count the tile values of across words and down words and jot that score down. Go back and count all the 10-point letters and then add their total to the score you just wrote down.

Knowing your prefixes and suffixes can help you build points: adding mis- to align gives you 30 more points in addition to the value of m, i, and s. Adding suffixes such as -ing or -tion can help you make longer words and build up points.

Using a print dictionary

A good dictionary entry includes spelling, pronunciation, part of speech, irregular forms of the word, the word’s meaning, and etymology (the history of the word and where it came from). An entry may also contain synonyms and antonyms; prefixes, suffixes, and other elements of word formation; and abbreviations. Figure 2-2 shows you a standard dictionary entry, which I tried to make as sweet as possible by using the word “candy.”

Figure 2-2: The Webster’s New World College Dictionary entry for candy.

The following explains the entry in more detail:

Immediately following the entry word is the pronunciation.

The n on the second line lets you know that the word is a noun. Later, the vt and vi indicate that the word can also be a transitive verb (a verb that needs to be followed by an object) and an intransitive verb (a verb that does not require an object to complete its meaning).

The pl. indicates how to make the word plural. In this case, you make candy plural by removing the -y and adding -ies (candies).

The information in brackets is the word’s etymology, or history.

According to this history, the modern English word candy came from the Middle English (ME) word (sugre) candi, which came from the Old French (OFr) word (sucre) candi, which came from the Old Italian (OIt) word (zucchero) candi, which itself is made up of the Italian word zucchero and the Arabic (Ar) word qandi and the Persian word qand, which in turn probably came from the Sanskrit (Sans) word khanda, which means piece of sugar. And you thought candy was just a sweet treat.

Following the etymology are the definitions. Candy has multiple definitions, grouped by the part of speech. The first group of definitions is for the noun (n) candy. The second and third groups of definitions are for the verbs — vt (verb transitive) and vi (verb intransitive) candy.

When you try to find a word in the dictionary, always begin by making an educated guess as to its spelling. The odds are in your favor. However, the more spelling patterns you know for a sound, the better your chances are for finding the word quickly. After you’ve narrowed down your search, use the guide words, located on the upper-corners of the pages, to guide your search as you flip through the pages. Then, follow strict alphabetical order.

That’s one big book

The most famous scholarly dictionary is The Oxford English Dictionary. An unabridged dictionary, the OED (as it’s abbreviated) contains more than 500,000 entries. Don’t rush right out to buy one to stash in your bookcase, however, because the OED now contains about 60 million words in 20 volumes. However, If shelf space is an issue, and you simply can’t live without an OED, online and CD-ROM versions are available. Go to www.oed.com to find out more. (Be prepared to fork over a bit of money, though. The subscription fee to access the online dictionary costs $550 a year, buying the CD-ROM version costs nearly $300, and the 20-volume print set costs about $600.)

Using an electronic dictionary

Nowadays, several print dictionaries come with CD-ROMs that contain the complete dictionary text. The benefit of a CD-ROM is that it makes searching for words much easier than flipping through pages. Simply type the word you want to find in the Search text box provided by the program and, without risking so much as a paper cut, you will be presented with the definition and all the other relevant information (see the preceding section).

Many dictionary CD-ROMs also enable you to perform complicated searches. If you don’t know the word you want, for example, you can enter words that are likely to be found in the definition. If you want to find several words that use the same root, you can enter the appropriate search criteria to find those entries, as well.

You can also use online dictionaries (that is, dictionaries that you access from the Internet). You can find several dictionaries in several languages at www.yourdictionary.com, for example. You can also access specific online dictionaries through their publishers or presses. Although these sites don’t generally give you free access to the complete dictionary, many do let you search for particular words. If you don’t have a dictionary handy while you’re online, these can be helpful.

An electronic dictionary can’t fulfill all your needs, unless you like to tote around your laptop computer and fire it up all the time. Always have a print dictionary to use — even if you already have an online version.

Thumbing through a thesaurus

A thesaurus is a reference book that contains synonyms and antonyms — words that mean the same thing and words that mean the opposite. (Chapter 8 is devoted to these “-nyms.”) The word thesaurus comes from a Greek word that means “collection” or “treasure.”

A thesaurus is especially helpful when you have a word but know that it isn’t quite right. You can look that word up and find the perfect word. A thesaurus is also a helpful reference when you’re trying to find a better word than the one you’re stuck on — or just a different one. A thesaurus helps you state exact shades of meaning rather than approximations. A thesaurus can help your vocabulary increase by leaps and bounds.

Using a print thesaurus

In a thesaurus, words with similar meanings are grouped together. If you have a really old print thesaurus, you may have to use the index at the back of the book to find specific words. But most newer editions, including online thesauruses, arrange words in alphabetical order like a dictionary.

Suppose you’re writing a letter to your Aunt Agnes, and you’ve used the word excitement several times. (It was a very good first date.) To make your writing more interesting, you may want to use a word whose meaning is similar to excitement. If you look up the word excitement in Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus (Hungry Minds, Inc.), you see the entry in Figure 2-3.

Figure 2-3: A thesaurus entry for “excitement.”

The parts of a thesaurus entry are similar to, and yet different from, a dictionary entry:

The n in brackets lets you know that the word is a noun.

The entry right after the part of speech brackets is the word (or words) closest in meaning to the listed word.

The asterisk (*) indicates that a word is colloquial or slang.

See also gives you another closely related word to try if you don’t find what you’re looking for in the current list.

Ant. stands for “antonym.” It is followed by a list of words that mean the opposite of the listed word.

The list of words in boldface type after See gives you other words and concepts to look up.

Some thesauruses have a concepts feature that points you to a broad list of words related to a specific concept.

Surfing electronic thesauruses

You can find all sorts of electronic versions of thesauruses. Like dictionaries, many print thesauruses come with CD-ROMs that contain the complete text and helpful search capabilities. In addition, many word processing programs have a thesaurus built right in. Finally, you can access thesauruses on the Internet. One such service is Thesaurus.com (www.thesaurus.com), which gives you free access to Roget’s online thesaurus.

In these electronic thesauruses, much of the information is the same, but it’s in a different format, which you can use to easily look up a related word. If you’re using a thesaurus linked with your word processor, you can replace a word with a click of the mouse or get additional help.

Some advantages and disadvantages of online thesauruses:

Although both a print thesaurus and an online thesaurus will help you beef up your vocabulary, in general, a print thesaurus gives you more options than an online thesaurus. That’s because the print versions have more words in them. Therefore, you’ll need a print thesaurus even if you already have an online version. Use a print thesaurus when you need a wider variety of choices.

Online thesauruses are especially useful for distinguishing among homon-yms (words that are spelled alike and sound alike but have different meanings). If you’re looking for a synonym for pool (as in body of water), for example, your online thesaurus will list pond (noun), billiards (noun), and combine (verb). This will help you keep your homonyms straight.

Online thesauruses can also help you with homophones (words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings). For example, if you intended to type “weather” but instead entered “whether,” the thesaurus will give you synonyms like atmospheric conditions, climate, meteorology, and the elements.

Synonyms and antonyms rarely mean exactly the same as the word you’re looking up, and thesauruses don’t define the words they offer. To avoid misusing a word, check your dictionary to look up any word you find in the thesaurus unless you’re sure of its meaning.

Sifting through word history: Etymology

It is easier to remember a word when you know its word history, or etymology. Many dictionaries include brief etymologies of words. Refer to the candy example (Figure 2-2) in the earlier section, “Using a print dictionary,” for an example of an etymology you’re likely to find in any dictionary.

There are also books dedicated solely to etymologies. The purpose of these books, which are organized like dictionaries, is to tell the history of words, including what language(s) they came from and the earliest date they appeared in writing (as best the editors can ascertain). Consider these examples:

The English word caramel, first recorded in 1725, is actually a French word that means “burnt sugar.” If you think about it, burnt sugar is a fitting description of caramel: golden brown, very sweet, and chewy.

The word disaster, which first appeared in 1591, comes from the Middle French word desastre, which comes from the Italian word disastro, which is made up of the prefix dis- (without; reverse) and the root astro (star). This history, along with the literal translation of the word (without star), makes sense if you consider that catastrophes were once thought to be the result of stars and planets being in unfavorable positions.

Exploring the history of words can help you understand and remember many useful everyday words. But, unless you’re a scholar whose life is words and word histories, you certainly don’t need to remember a word’s background to be able to define it. In some instances, however, knowing this background information can help you form an association around the word. Such an association might help you remember a definition that eludes you.

Boosting Your Vocabulary for Standardized Tests

During the years of your formal education, you face numerous standardized tests — at least in the U.S. school system. The suggestions I give you in this chapter, and in Chapter 3, can help you get your skills up to speed for the reading and language sections of these tests. I highlight a couple of variations and specialized tips in this section.

A recommendation you can use anytime, but especially when you’re preparing for a test, is to keep a journal of words you think you know and new words you encounter. Boost your vocabulary by looking up each word in the dictionary and then writing each definition in the journal. The simple act of writing down the words and definitions helps fix them in your mind. (You can also use word cards, as the “Carding yourself” section, earlier in this chapter, explains.)

Practice is the best way to boost your critical reading comprehension skills — so read every minute you can. Carry a magazine, paperback book, or electronic reading device with you and make good use of the time you spend waiting in line at the bus stop, sitting in the dentist’s office, or tapping your toes waiting for a late appointment. You can use all of these “lost minutes” to read. Fifteen minutes here, ten minutes there — by the end of the day, you may find that you have spent an hour sharpening your reading and vocabulary skills!

Arranging words in your mind

When you study words in this book, as well as in other sources, get in the habit of mentally arranging them into the following three categories:

Words you know: You use and can define these words.

Words you’re familiar with: You generally use these words correctly without knowing exactly what they mean.

Words you don’t know: You may have seen these words once or twice, or you may be encountering them for the first time.

Pay attention to the last two categories of words as you prepare for a test. When you come across a word you’re familiar with but not totally confident about or a word you haven’t seen before, look it up and add it to a word journal or make a word card for it. After you become more comfortable with the word, you can move it into the “known words” category.

To make the most of your dictionary time, look up words in a dictionary that includes etymology — a detailed word history. The etymology points to the word origin, root, and any prefixes, which is knowledge you can tuck away to use when you come across another unfamiliar word built on the same word element. Some dictionaries also provide synonyms, antonyms, or both. Be sure to check those out — you often need to know synonyms on a test.

Toadying up to toadeaters

In the 1600s, people believed that toads were poisonous, and that anyone who mistakenly ate a toad’s leg instead of a frog’s leg would die. Rather than swear off frog’s legs, people sought a cure for the “fatal” food poisoning.

Quack healers would take advantage of this search and hire an accomplice who would pretend to eat a toad. The pseudo-healer would then whip out an instant remedy and “save” his helper’s life. These assistants came to be called “toadeaters.” Because anyone who would consume anything as disgusting as a toad must be completely under his master’s thumb, “toadeater” or “toady” became the term for a bootlicking, fawning flatterer. And that’s how the term toady came to be.

Skimming your way to comprehension

Skimming is a method of reading that lets you glance at a passage to get its main idea or find a key point quickly. When you’re up against time limits (like you are during a test), getting information quickly is a definite advantage. Skimming boosts comprehension because it helps you focus on the important parts of the text. When you go back and read the text in detail, you can zero in on the parts you need. You won’t waste time on irrelevant information.

When you skim a reading passage, first look at the title, subheadings, and any graphic elements, such as charts or graphs. Run your eyes across the page, trying to read as fast as you can. Look for the facts you need, which are often in the first and last sentences of a paragraph. Read these facts slowly. Take a moment to restate the meaning in your own words — and in your own head.

Pronouncing Words Correctly

Knowing the meaning of a word is only half the battle; you also have to know how to pronounce it. It’s astonishing how many words are misunderstood and misused simply because they’re mispronounced.

If you’re like the average person, your “reading vocabulary” is much larger than your “spoken vocabulary.” You pick up words as you read, but you may not have heard the words spoken. And, if you don’t know how to say a word, you probably won’t use it in conversation.

Spelling and pronunciation are easier in languages where each letter or combination of letters is always pronounced the same way. Unfortunately, English isn’t one of those languages. In English, each letter and combination can be pronounced several different ways. For example, a is pronounced one way in rat, another in rate, and still another in ahead. In an example that teachers love to use to stump their students, fish can be spelled phonetically as “ghoti” (“gh” as in enough, “o” as in women, and “ti” as in nation). It’s no wonder that people complain about the difficulty of learning the English language.

Check out the Introduction to this book for the pronunciation guidelines I use in this book.

Seeing and saying: Pronunciation rules

It’s hard to figure out how to say some words correctly, but incorrect pronunciations can make defining the word more difficult. The pronunciation problem is especially acute with words that function as more than one part of speech. The word ally is a case in point. As a noun, it’s pronounced “al-eye” (supporter in a cause). As a verb, it’s pronounced “ah-lye” (to unite in a cause).

Here are a few pronunciation rules that may help when you encounter new or unfamiliar words. Keep in mind, though, that English is rarely this simple. Every rule that follows has a number of exceptions.

If two vowels are together, the first vowel is sounded and the second is silent. Example: Beat is pronounced “beet.”

An e on the end of a one-syllable word makes the first vowel long, if there’s only one consonant after that vowel. Example: Mat is pronounced “mat;” mate is pronounced “mayt.”

Two identical consonants following a vowel make the vowel short: Hippy is pronounced “hip-ee;” batter is pronounced “bat-ur.”

Some consonants, when together, combine their sounds — in this aspect at least English is fairly consistent — and most combinations always sound the same way (gh is an exception to this rule):

• ch as in chart, cheek, chirp, chomp, and church

• fl as in flap, flee, flip, flop, and flue

• gr as in gravy, greed, grin, gross, and grueling

• sh as in shampoo, sheet, shirt, short, and shunt

• st as in stay, step, stigma, stop, and stun

• th as in than, then, thick, thong, and thug

When two c’s are together, the first c is hard (k), and the second c is soft (s). Some examples are accident (ak-si-dehnt) and accessory (ak-ses-er-ee). The word flaccid follows this rule, but also may be said with both c’s soft, as “flas-id.”

A diphthong is a complex vowel sound made by gliding continuously from the position for one vowel to that for another within the same syllable. A digraph is a combination of two letters functioning as a unit to represent one sound.

Careless pronunciation often results in careless spelling. If you can improve your pronunciation, chances are your spelling will improve, too. Another way to improve your spelling is to become familiar with the many ways sounds are made in English. For example, the F sound can be made with f, gh (laugh), and ph (phone).

In a couple of cases, proper pronunciation of a word depends on whether the first letter is capitalized:

Polish (poh-lish), when capitalized, refers to people and things from the country Poland; polish (pawl-ish) is the act of smoothing or brightening something, or the substance used to help you do so.

August, the month after July, is pronounced with the accent, or stress, on the first syllable — “aw-gust.” But when you say that something or someone is worthy of respect because of age, and use the word august to convey that, you stress the second syllable — “aw-gust.”

In at least one case, proper pronunciation depends on meaning. When you use the adjective content to mean happy and satisfied, you put the accent on the second syllable — kon-tent. You put the accent on the first syllable when you use content as a noun to mean “everything contained inside something” — kon-tent.

Handling the biggest mispronunciation problems

Words get mispronounced in many fascinating ways. This section explains the four most common ways that we twist words out of shape. Knowing how words get mispronounced can help you pronounce them correctly. As you read this section, see which word sins you have either committed or heard committed.

If you pay attention to pronunciation, you not only say new words correctly but can often spell them correctly, too.

Dropping letters

It’s astonishing how often speakers drop letters from words. For instance, the food poisoning known as salmonella is correctly pronounced “sal-muh-nel-uh.” Dropping the first l results in “sam-uh-nel-uh.” Sam ’n Ella may be revolting people, but they are not the same as food poisoning.

Unstressed vowels are often dropped, even in relatively common words. Interesting (in-ter-es-ting) becomes intresting (in-trehs-ting), miniature (min-ee-ah-chur) becomes minature (min-ah-chur), and veterinarian (vet-er-eh-nayr-ee-an) becomes veternarian (vet-er-nayr-ee-an).

Consonants also get lost in the shuffle. The first “r” in February is a case in point. How often have you heard February pronounced “feb-oo-ehr-ee,” or even “feb-ree,” instead of “feb-roo-ehr-ee?”

Table 2-1 lists words that are often misspelled because a letter is omitted in the pronunciation:

Adding letters or syllables

Sometimes the problem isn’t dropping letters (or sounds), but adding them. Speakers often insert an extra letter or two when they say a word. Unfortunately, this can make the word confusing or even unrecognizable. Consider the following examples:

Ambidextrous (able to use either hand) has four syllables and is correctly pronounced “am-bi-deks-trus.” But sometimes speakers add an extra syllable to get “am-bi-deks-tree-us” or “am-bi-deks-troo-us.”

Chimney has two syllables: “chim-nee.” However, people often add a syllable to pronounce the word incorrectly as “chim-ah-nee.”

Lightning, my personal favorite, is correctly pronounced as “lyt-ning,” but it often gets this added bonus: “ly-ten-ing.”

Wondrous, correctly pronounced “wun-drus,” becomes “wun-der-us.”

You say toh-may-toh, I say toh-mah-toh

Some words are hard to mispronounce, because any way you say them is okay. People whose religious beliefs compelled them to live the simple life long before it became a fad in the United States are called Amish. You can say “ah-mish” or “ay-mish” — either way is acceptable. Likewise, you can say Celtic, indicating Irish or Scottish traditions, with the first c hard, as in “kel-tik,” or soft, as in “sel-tik.” Following are a few other forgiving English words that you can gleefully wrap your tongue around.

Buoy: As a noun meaning “a floating hazard marker,” it’s pronounced “boo-ee.” As a verb meaning “to keep afloat” or “encourage,” it’s more often pronounced “boy.”

Febrile (feverish) can be pronounced either “fee-brul” or “feb-rul.”

Fracas (noisy fight; loud quarrel) can be pronounced “fray-kis” or “frah-kis.”

Hegemony (leadership; dominance, especially of one nation over others) can be pronounced “heh-jem-uh-nee” or “hehj-eh- moh-nee.”

Insouciant (untroubled; carefree) is pronounced “in-soo-see-ent” or “in-soo-shent.”

Macabre (gruesome) is pronounced “mah-kab-reh” or “mah-kahb.”

Niche (corner) is pronounced “neesh” or “nitch.”

Obdurate (hardhearted; unrepentant; stubborn) can be pronounced “ob-dur-it” or “ob-dyoor-it.”

Shallot (small onion; green onion) can be “shal-it” or “shuh-laht.”

Worsted (yarn) is “wus-tid” or “wur-stid.”

Many other words suffer from an added sound. Table 2-2 lists a few of them (the bolded element is the added syllable):

Switching letters

Occasionally people switch letters when pronouncing a word. You often hear this kind of mistake when small children try to say the word spaghetti. For some reason, it often comes out “pasghetti.” Another example, this time from the adult audience, is abhor (hate). This word becomes “uh-bor” rather than “ab-hor.” Cinnamon (the spice) is another example; it becomes “cimminon.” Switching “nuclear” to “nucular” is another classic.

These are understandable mistakes, as are many other mispronunciations that involve switched letters. Unfortunately, these mistakes get in the way of comprehension.

Spoonerisms

Switching the first letters of two or more words and so mispronouncing them is such a common problem that it has a name: a Spoonerism. The results are often humorous, as in “blushing crow” for “crushing blow” or “I have a half-warmed fish in my mind” for “I have a half-formed wish in my mind.” The term comes from W.A. Spooner (1844-1930), an Englishman noted for such slips of the tongue. He set out to be a bird watcher and ended up being a word botcher!

Garbling sounds

People also have a tendency to run sounds together, making the sounds disappear or become another sound entirely. This kind of mispronunciation is often a regional thing. Folks in different parts of the United States pronounce some words differently. In the North, for example, people say “you all” (yu all) — two words. In the South, it’s “y’all” (yahl) — one word.

Library is another example of garbling. Correctly pronounced it’s “ly-brer-ee.” I often hear the word pronounced “lie-berry.” Many people also pronounce sandwich (sand-wich) as “sam-wich.” Another example is the word have. Many native-English speakers tend to pronounce it “haf” when it comes in the middle of a sentence (as in “I haf to go to the store”), but pronounce it correctly when it ends the sentence (“Who’s seen the movie? I have.”).

Table 2-3 lists several words that are often garbled. As you read the chart, think about how many of these words you’ve seen in print but may have been afraid to use because you weren’t sure how to pronounce them.

Improving your pronunciation

Pronunciation is important to building your vocabulary (not to mention spelling correctly). Following are a few ways you can improve your pronunciation:

If you come across a word that you don’t know how to pronounce, look it up, and then practice saying it. Keep practicing the word until saying it seems natural. Table 2-4 lists some commonly mispronounced words.

As you expand your vocabulary, don’t gloss over the dictionary’s pronunciation guide. Pay attention and keep practicing.

If you’re just learning English, consider buying or borrowing a tape that focuses on English pronunciation. You can find such tapes in bookstores and on the Internet.

Read aloud. I’m not kidding. Just start reading out loud. You may be surprised how self-conscious you feel when you begin, but with practice you’ll get better and feel more at ease. Reading out loud almost always reveals words you may recognize in print but stumble over in speech.

Exercising Your New Vocabulary

An expanded vocabulary will do you no good if you don’t use it. Here are some ways that you can exercise the words you learn so that they become part of your everyday vocabulary:

Use the word as often as you can. Use it in conversation (when it fits, of course), and use it in writing.

Make a list of your favorite words. Some words may appeal to you because of the way they sound (I happen to like leviathan [leh-vy-eh-than]) or because of the way they feel rolling off your tongue: biscuit a la cuillere (bis-kwee ah la kwee ayre) — believe it or not, it’s pretty much a sponge cake. You may like other words because of their meaning — satisfaction or accomplishment, for instance.

Remember to use your new-found word power for good and not for evil. As you expand your vocabulary, you may use words your audience isn’t familiar with. Provide the context clues and other aids to determining meaning that I explain in Chapter 3.

Chapter 3

Picking Up Meaning

In This Chapter

Using context clues to figure out meaning

Understanding the different types of context clues

Deciphering words with multiple meanings

Walt Worker strolled into the men’s room at work and noticed a sign directly above the sink. It had a single word on it: “Think!”

The next day, when he went to the men’s room, he noticed a new sign immediately above the soap dispenser that read, “Thoap!”

T his joke depends entirely on the setting, or context. You understand “thoap” to be a joke on the word “soap” just as “think” is a joke on the word “sink.” Without this context, the joke falls flat.

You pick up clues to the meaning of unfamiliar words from the information surrounding the words: the context. Using context clues is one of the easiest ways to figure out unfamiliar words. Even if you don’t have a clue about what a particular word means, knowing the surrounding words can usually help you get the gist of it. In most cases, that’s all you need to understand the speaker or passage. It’s quick, easy, and efficient!

Reading Between the Lines

When you’re having a conversation, watching a movie, reading a book, or listening to a lecture, you may hear a word you don’t know. Sometimes you can look the word up in a dictionary, which is an excellent strategy. Unfortunately, you may not always have a dictionary with you — or be willing to whip one out in the middle of a date, business meeting, or movie. (It can be so hard to read a dictionary in the dark.) The good news is that you can often use the surrounding words to figure out what the unknown word means (and avoid using a dictionary).

When you use context clues, you interpret a word’s specific meaning by examining its relationship to the other words in the sentence. To improve your vocabulary, you must understand how a word interacts with other words. Although context can sometimes be as unreliable as your boss or the weather, it can also come through in impressive ways.

Look at the word epidemic in the next sentence: “Nearly 40 million Americans are overweight; obesity has become an epidemic.” An epidemic is a rapid, widespread occurrence or growth of a disease. Because the sentence describes the epidemic as affecting “40 million people,” odds are good that epidemic means “something that happens to a large group of people.” So, you may understand that an epidemic indicates a widespread phenomenon, but you may miss the subtle connection between epidemic and disease.

When you pick up only a general sense of meaning from context clues, you risk letting the complete definition slip by. Check a dictionary for an exact definition when you’re not sure that you’re getting the complete definition from the context.

Combine the information that you get from context clues with the information that you get from the clues offered by a word’s root (Chapter 5), prefix (Chapter 6), and suffix (Chapter 7). All of these resources will make your inferences more reliable.

Saying it another way: Restatement clues

Speakers and writers want their words to be understood so that their message will get through. As a result, they often define a difficult word right in the text. You heard me correctly — the definition may be as obvious as the nose on Pinocchio’s face.

The following paragraph gives you an example of a context clue where the writer defines the word levee right in the passage:

The Army Corps of Engineers distributed 26 million plastic bags throughout the region. Volunteers filled each bag with 35 pounds of sand and then stacked them to create levees, makeshift barriers against the floodwaters.

Right after the word levee, you get the definition: “makeshift barriers against the floodwaters.”

Each of the following sentences contains a restatement context clue. I put the unfamiliar word, its pronunciation, and its definition on a separate line. As you read, cover the answer and see if you can figure out what each unfamiliar word means.

Fatty deposits on artery walls combine with calcium compounds to cause arteriosclerosis, hardening of the arteries.

Arteriosclerosis means “hardening of the arteries.”

In many Native American cultures, a shaman, or medicine man, acts as a ceremonial priest.

Shaman means “priest or medicine man.”

I believe that life is short, so we should enjoy what we eat. As a result, I consume mass quantities of confectioneries — candies — and keep my dentist on retainer.

Confectioneries means “candies.”

She jumped into the fray and enjoyed every minute of the fight.

Fray means “fight.”

As with all electric currents or discharges, lightning follows the path of least resistance. This means that it travels the easiest route.

Current means “discharges.”

The path of least resistance means “the easiest route.”

Many settlers who lived on the vast American plains in the late 19th century used sod, or earth, as a building material for their houses.

Sod means “earth.”

To make a living, John Styth Pemberton created so-called patent medicines, homemade potions sold without a prescription.

Patent medicines means “homemade potions sold without a prescription.”

Talkin’ the Talk

Culture vultures Sydney and Stanley are boning up for their proposed trip to the South Seas. They not only want to sink their toes into the sugar-white sand and chug drinks decorated with little umbrellas, they also want to understand a bit of the local lore. They’re especially interested in the weather. Settle in for tonight’s speaker:

Dr. Mead: | During a tidal wave, a wall of water 25 feet high
| can rush to shore, pushed by 200-mile-per-hour
| winds. Called tsunamis, these fierce tidal waves
| strike the shore with tremendous force and cause
| considerable damage to life and property.
Stanley: | Huh?
Sydney: | Stan, we can figure this out. Think back: The defi-
| nition followed right after the word. The doctor
| gave us the definition.
Stanley: | You’re right. He said that tsunamis (soo-nah-
| mees) are fierce tidal waves.
Sydney: | Fierce tidal waves. . . . Maybe we should consider
| going to Paris instead?

Context clues after colons and dashes

In addition to restating the word’s meaning (see the preceding section), speakers and writers often provide context clues in the form of definitions after colons (:) or dashes (—). The following examples illustrate this type of context clue:

The scientists saw that the drop of water contained bacteria — one-celled organisms too small to be seen by the naked eye.

Right after the dash is the definition of bacteria. They are “one-celled organisms too small to be seen by the naked eye.”

Santa Ana brought with him several objects from home, including a large lump of chicle: a gumlike substance made from the sap of the sapodilla tree.

You can tell from the example after the colon that chicle is “a gumlike substance made from the sap of the sapodilla tree.”

Context clues after transitions

Writers and speakers can also use transitions (words or phrases that connect ideas) to signal that more information about an unfamiliar word is coming. The three most common transitions are for example, that is, and in other words. Consider the examples in the following list:

For example: Despite their various forms and subjects, epics such as Homer’s The Odyssey, Milton’s Paradise Lost, and Spenser’s The Faerie Queen adhere to the basic epic form; for example, they are all long narrative poems that are presented in an exalted style and focused on the exploits and adventures of great heroes.

The definition of epic — “long narrative poems that are presented in an exalted style and focused on the exploits and adventures of great heroes” — comes right after the phrase “for example.”

That is: Antonio López de Santa Ana, the brave Mexican leader of the attack on the Alamo, later was exiled; that is, he was banished from his country. He ended up on Staten Island, New York.

The definition of exile — “banishment” — comes right after the phrase “that is.”

In other words: Sharks are models of efficiency with their boneless skeletons, simple brains, generalized nervous systems, and simple internal structures. Their sleek shapes, razor-sharp replaceable teeth, powerful jaws, and greedy appetites make them excellent marauders; in other words, brutal raiders.

The definition of marauders (muh-rawd-erz) — “brutal raiders” — comes right after the phrase “in other words.”

Of course, speakers and writers use more than the preceding three transitions to connect one idea to another. Table 3-1 shows some additional transitions. Note that each transition creates a particular relationship between the linked ideas. By using the transition as a result, for example, the speaker is indicating that one thing caused the other: Simon didn’t get to the house until 8:30; as a result, we missed the first half of the concert.

As you read or listen, search for transitions — a definition often follows them.

Talkin’ the Talk

Prudence Patient, who just hasn’t felt like herself lately, has finally visited her doctor and had some tests run. When Dr. Overworked calls her to give her the results, this is their conversation:

Dr. Overworked: | Prudence, you just have a cold. Lethargy —
| that feeling of passivity and inactivity — is a
| common symptom.
Prudence Patient: | Huh?
Dr. Overworked: | Oops. Gotta go. Just got called to surgery.
Prudence Patient: | If I call Dr. Overworked back, I’ll get charged
| for another visit, so I’d better figure out what
| lethargy (leth-ar-gee) means on my own. The
| doctor said, ‘a feeling of passivity and inactiv-
| ity.’ Therefore, lethargy must mean ‘a feeling
| of passivity and inactivity.’ That means I’ll feel
| like I’m too pooped to function normally.
| Yep, that’s about right.

Inferential context clues

Sometimes an unfamiliar word is defined right in the text, so you don’t have to do any deciphering at all. (See the earlier sections for examples of these types of context clues). Other times, however, you have to infer the meaning from what you already know and from details that you have heard or read; in other words, you have to make an educated guess based on the evidence on hand. This takes a bit of detective work.

When you make an inference, you combine what you already know with spoken or textual clues to discover the unstated information. You may have heard this referred to as “reading between the lines” or “putting two and two together.”

As you read the following passage, use context clues to infer what “maritime” means:

Just before midnight on April 14, 1912, one of the most dramatic and famous of all maritime disasters occurred, the sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic was the most luxurious ship afloat at the time, with its beautifully decorated staterooms, glittering crystal chandeliers, and elaborate food service.

How can you figure out that maritime means “related to the sea; nautical”? As Figure 3-1 shows, you can add the context clue to what you already know.

Figure 3-1: Adding up an inference.

Each of the following sentences contains a difficult vocabulary word (italicized to stand out). I based all the sentences on the old joke, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” so you can have some fun while you digest some new vocabulary. As you read, cover the answers and see if you can infer the meaning of the unfamiliar word. (Note: These responses are totally fictitious. Karl Marx is dead, Fox Mulder isn’t a real person, and Bill Gates, although alive and a real person, doesn’t care about chickens crossing the road.)

Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft): I have just released e-chicken 02, which will not only cross roads but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook. The egg-laying program is an inextricable part of e-chicken, so they’re sold together.

Context clue: “so they’re sold together”

Definition: Inextricable means “cannot be disentangled.”

Karl Marx (19th century philosopher): This chicken, obviously a member of the proletariat, had to cross the road to get to the factory so that he could slave away his life and his energy to further enrich the greedy factory owner.

Context clue: “to get to the factory so that he could slave away”

Definition: Proletariat means “working class,” and as the context makes clear, the proletariat is exploited by the rich.

Fox Mulder (TV character): You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross before you give credence to jaywalking poultry and believe what you see?

Context clue: “and believe what you see”

Definition: Credence means “belief.”

Talkin’ the Talk

Nilla Wafer and Lance Lotsaluck are trying to find a restaurant for a cozy dinner. Lance is a smart fella who knows a lot . . . except when to shut up. You’re sitting in the next booth. We’re all shameless, so lean over the booth to listen in.

Lance: | Look at this menu. Not a bit of shark meat listed,
| and this is supposed to be an exotic restaurant.
| Did you know that shark meat is processed for
| human consumption all over the world? The
| British fish-and-chips industry depends on shark
| meat. The Italians annually consume about 10
| million pounds of smooth dogfish shark. The
| Chinese use shark fins for soup.
Nilla: | If all these people are eating shark meat, then
| ‘consumption’ must mean to eat. Are you saying
| that people eat shark?
Lance: | Certainly they do. So what will it be — crickets?
| Eel? Grasshoppers?
Nilla: | I’ll consume a salad — without critters.

Bonus words

Here’s an opportunity to expand your vocabulary even more. Following is a list of synonyms — that is, words that mean nearly the same thing — for the three words introduced in the “Why did the chicken cross the road” answers (see the section “Inferential context clues”).

As Nilla discovered, context clues can help you out in the most unexpected places.

Contrasting context clues

You can figure out an unknown word when an opposite or contrasting word or phrase is presented. When you do this, you’re making an inference based on what you know. Consider the following sentence:

Her dress was elegant, in contrast to the flashy styles and gaudy colors she usually wears.

Even if you don’t know what elegant means, you can infer from this sentence that elegant doesn’t mean “flashy” or “gaudy.” By the contrasting clue, you can probably figure out that it means “tasteful” and “dignified.”

The following words and phrases indicate contrast. Watch for them as you read, or listen for them during conversations:

For example, you can define daguerreotype by finding its contrast in the sentence:

Keep your hands off that! It’s a daguerreotype of my great-great-grandmother — not some modern point-and-shoot picture cranked out in a one-hour photo lab!

According to the context in this sentence, a daguerreotype (duh-ger-oh-type) isn’t a regular photograph. Because it’s contrasted to a modern photo, you can infer that it’s actually an old, and probably valuable, photograph. (A daguerreotype is actually an early photograph, produced on silver plate rather than film.)

Use contrast clues to infer the meaning of contentious in the following sentence:

I was afraid that my mother-in-law would be a contentious addition to our family, but she turned out to be a great peacemaker.

Contentious means “quarrelsome.” You can infer this from the contrast between “contentious” and “peacemaker.”

Being an Armchair Detective

Context is an important tool in helping you define unfamiliar words. In this section, I provide examples where you can apply all the context clues to work for you. See if you can come up with definitions for the italicized words. After each passage, I provide pronunciations and definitions so that you can confirm the meaning you pick up from the context clues.

1. Most natural hazards can be detected before their threat matures. But seisms (from the Greek seismos, meaning earthquake) have no known precursors, so they come without warning, like the vengeance of an ancient warrior. For this reason, they continue to kill, in some areas, at a level usually reserved for wars and epidemics — 11,000 people died in an earthquake in northeastern Iran on August 31, 1968, not in the ancient past. Nor is the horror of the lethal earthquake completed with the heavy death toll. The homeless are left to cope with fire, looting, pestilence, fear, and the burden of rebuilding what the planet so easily shrugs away.

2. After the success of The Jazz Singer in 1927, the film industry metamorphosed from silent films to “talkies.” Mickey Mouse was one of the few stars who made a smooth transition from silent films to talkies with his 1928 cartoon Steamboat Willie. Within a year, hundreds of Mickey Mouse clubs had sprung up all across the United States; by 1931, more than a million people belonged to a Mickey Mouse club. The phenomenon was not confined to America. In London, Madame Tussaud’s illustrious wax museum placed a wax figure of Mickey alongside its statues of other eminent film stars. In 1933, according to Disney Studios, Mickey received 800,000 fan letters — an average of more than 2,000 letters a day. To date, no “star” has ever received as much fan mail as Mickey Mouse.

3. A worldwide economic depression in the 1930s left many people unemployed. One such person was Charles Darrow of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who lost his job as a heating engineer. To try to make a living, Darrow invented a board game that he called “Monopoly.” Initially, Darrow tried to sell his idea to the leading game manufacturer in America, Parker Brothers. But the company turned the game down because it felt it was too elaborate. In desperation, Darrow used his own money to have 5,000 games made by a small company. He sold the games himself, and it wasn’t long before Monopoly was the latest craze. After seeing the success of Monopoly, Parker Brothers changed its mind and paid Darrow for the right to manufacture and distribute the game. In 1975, twice as much Monopoly money was printed in the United States as real money. All told, nearly 100 million Monopoly sets have been sold since 1935.

Picking up on context clues can really help you with the reading-passage and fill-in-the-blank questions on standardized tests.

Deciphering Words with Multiple Meanings

Context clues are especially crucial when you encounter words with more than one meaning. The word favor, for example, has many different meanings. As a noun, favor can mean “a kind act,” “friendly regard,” “approval,” or “a gift.” As a verb, to favor someone can mean that you “support” that person, or are “partial” to him or her; or it may mean that you “resemble” the person.

When you read, you may come across a word that you think you know but that doesn’t make sense in the sentence you’re reading. That’s your clue that the word has more than one meaning. In this case, you must choose the meaning that fits the context.

Follow these three simple steps:

1. Read the sentence and find the word with multiple meanings.

2. Look for context clues that tell you which meaning of the word fits.

3. Substitute synonyms for the word until you find the right meaning.

For example: Luis was resigned to working overtime on Friday night.

1. Resigned has multiple meanings. Resigned means “quit a job.” It also means “yielding and uncomplaining.”

2. Because Luis is working overtime, he is not quitting his job. Therefore, the second meaning of resigned should fit.

3. Replace resigned with agreeable, its synonym: Luis was agreeable to working overtime on Friday night. The sentence makes sense, so you have found the correct meaning for resigned.

Table 3-2 lists a few examples of multiple-meaning words.

There are a ton of English words with multiple meanings. They’re called homonyms. That means they are spelled the same and pronounced the same, but they have different meanings. (Chapter 9 deals with homonyms in detail. Head there for a longer list, as well as tips on how you can differentiate between identical words.) Following are a few more examples:

Snake means

A. A long, flexible, coiled-wire rod

B. A legless reptile

C. A sneaky, disloyal person

D. To twist

E. All of the above

Choosing “all of the above” is always the way to go — at least in my book. The word snake is a good way to show you how the context helps you determine the meaning of a word. Check out “snake” in each of the following sentences.

The plumber used a snake to clear the drain.

(long, bendable metal tool)

The rancher wore heavy leather boots for protection against snake attacks.

(legless reptile)

I thought he was my friend, but he turned out to be a snake.

(sneaky, disloyal person)

If we snake along the ground, the enemy will not see us.

(twist)

Spare means

A. Lean and slender

B. Extra, not in regular use

C. Treat with mercy

D. A small amount, not quite enough

E. All of the above

In the following four examples, the context determines the meaning of “spare.”

My uncle is a tall, spare man, as thin as a stick.

(lean and slender)

Bring a spare pair of socks in case someone forgets to bring any.

(extra, not in regular use)

Sometimes you have to tell a lie to spare someone’s feelings.

(treat with mercy)

After their spare meal, the prisoners were still very hungry.

(small in amount, not quite enough)

You use the same techniques that you use to figure out the meaning of any unfamiliar word. Combine what you already know with what the context reveals. Keep in mind, though, that context clues usually give you a general idea of what a word means. To get the precise definition, you’ll probably have to refer to a dictionary or other reference book. Head to Chapter 2 for more information on using dictionaries and reference books.

Chapter 4

Using the Right Word

In This Chapter

Exploring the changing nature of words

Mastering the different levels of diction

Solving the problems that idioms and acronyms can cause

Suiting your words to your audience and purpose

Y ou don’t use the exact same words every time you open your mouth or type a message, any more than you wear the same clothes every day for every activity. Successful people suit their language to their audiences and circumstances because they know which words are appropriate in each specific situation. Just as people with style know how to select an outfit that makes the right impression, successful people know how to select words to fit their needs.

On the one hand, words can be your best friend when they allow you to express your heart’s desire, especially in affairs of the heart. On the other hand, words can be your worst enemy when they stymie your efforts to say what you mean. To keep words on your side, you need to understand them thoroughly.

In this chapter, I give you the tips you need to match the word to the situation.

Choosing Your Words

So many words! So many choices! Which words should you choose to use?

Always choose words that suit your audience and purpose. Although word choice is ultimately a matter of taste and practice, I offer the following hints for making sure that your vocabulary communicates the meaning you intend.

Use words that are accurate, familiar, and suitable.

• Accurate words say what you mean.

• Familiar words are words that your audience understands.

• Suitable words convey your tone and fit with the other words you use.

Select the exact word you want. English is one of the richest languages in the world because it offers many different ways to say the same thing. Select your words carefully to convey the precise meaning that you want. For example, prosperous, flourishing, auspicious, thriving, triumphant, favorable, and exultant all mean successful, but each word has a different shade of meaning. Choose the word that best fits your audience and purpose.

Don’t strain. When you’re mastering new skills, it’s natural to try to share what you’ve discovered. This is admirable if you’ve just learned how to bake chocolate chip cookies (feel free to send me a box), but it is not as good when it comes to vocabulary. People who flaunt (show off) their new words come off as arrogant rather than sophisticated. Here is an example:

Show-offy: “Because of their eccentricities, the members of my family cannot fail to endear themselves to visitors.”

Better: “Visitors find my weird family likeable.”

Use specific words rather than general words. Specific words give your readers a more vivid mental picture than general words. Sometimes simple action verbs such as run and go will be appropriate to your subject and audience. However, you often need to use words that are more specific in order to make your meaning clear.

For example, did your co-worker toss the paper in your direction or hurl it? To toss something is casual; to hurl something is deliberate. Toss implies a friendly gesture; hurl, in contrast, implies a potentially hostile act.

Stay on top of current usage to make sure that you use words that fit your purpose and audience. Language changes with the times; words expand and adapt to suit different situations. Know what your words mean; otherwise, you risk being misunderstood — possibly even embarrassed. (See the sidebar “Mutated meanings” for some examples of word meanings that have changed over time.)

In general, don’t sweat your words. The more you master and practice using new words, the more naturally they’ll fit into your vocabulary. Sooner than you think, you’ll be using just the word to say just what you mean.

Mutated meanings

In 1740, Admiral Vernon of the British fleet decided to water down the navy’s rum. The sailors weren’t too pleased. They started calling Admiral Vernon “Old Grog” after the coats that he wore made of grogram — a stiff, wool fabric. The term grog soon began to mean the watered-down drink itself. When you were drunk on this grog, you were groggy, a word still in use today to describe being muddled, confused, or intoxicated.

Grog isn’t the only word that has a past. Many years ago (in the 1500s, to be exact), the word hussy, for example, simply meant “the female head of a household” — in other words, “a housewife.” Today, the word refers to a woman or girl who acts in a lewd or improper manner. Another example is the word silly, which oncemeant “happy.” Now, silly means “foolish.” And nice? Well, before 1300, nice meant “foolish” or “ignorant.” Around 1450, it came to mean “dainty” or “delicate.” In the 1500s, it meant “precise” or “careful.” By the mid 1700s, it meant “agreeable” or “delightful.” Nice came to its present day meaning, “kind” or “thoughtful,” in the early-to-mid 1800s. In other words, it took about 500 years to transform nice from an insult into a compliment.

As these examples illustrate, words are fluid, ever-changing symbols. They change to express the interests and ideas of different times, different cultures, and different situations. Like people, words grow old and decay; they shed old meanings just as we shed old identities and remake ourselves to fit new circumstances.

Digging into Diction

The words you use as you communicate, whether through speech or writing, make up your diction. Your diction affects the clarity and impact of your message. The words you want in a specific instance depend on context: your audience and purpose. Your audience is the people you’re addressing; your purpose is your reason for speaking or writing.

Diction can be formal or informal. Yet, just as there are varying degrees of dress, from highly formal (tuxedoes and evening gowns) to very casual (sweat suits and sneakers), there are varying degrees of formal and informal speech:

Highly or very formal: If you must make a presentation to your colleagues about your latest research, give the eulogy at your grandfather’s funeral, or say the toast at your best friend’s wedding, chances are that you’ll use highly formal diction. This type of diction is appropriate at serious or ceremonial events and is marked by words that create an elevated tone.

Formal (also referred to as standard English): Although meeting your future in-laws over dinner or speaking at your monthly book club meeting are not highly formal situations (usually), they do require a bit more formal language than you use when you’re chatting with your buddies over pizza. Formal diction is marked by words that create learned or scholarly, but not elevated, tone.

Informal (also called colloquial): This type of diction is appropriate if you’re getting together with friends to play cards or watch a movie. Informal diction is marked by words (including slang and vernacular) that create a casual tone.

The following sections explain the differences between very formal, formal, and informal diction and help you identify which type of diction to use in various situations.

Speaking and writing formally

Formal diction is the most elevated level of speech and writing. Formal diction has the following characteristics:

A serious tone

A substantial distance between the speaker (or writer) and audience

Few, if any, personal references

Specialized or elevated terms

No contractions

The purpose of formal diction is to convey a serious message in a serious way. Consider this example from the U.S. Declaration of Independence:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Table 4-1 shows you some of the characteristics of formal diction found in The Declaration of Independence.

Another good example of formal diction is Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (delivered in 1863), which served as both a eulogy of the soldiers who died on the Gettysburg battlefield during the U.S. Civil War and a declaration of the North’s commitment to preserve the Union.

Of course, not all formal diction has the same eloquence as that of the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address. A credit card agreement and a stock prospectus use formal language, but neither is likely to be preserved for hundreds of years because of the beauty of its language or the gravity of its content.

Using standard English

Most businesses and schools use standard written and spoken English. It’s the style of writing that you find in magazines such as The New Yorker, U.S. News & World Report, and The Atlantic Monthly. Standard written and spoken English conforms to the widely established rules of grammar and usage. (In written form, standard English follows established punctuation and spelling rules, as well.) Following are some other characteristics of standard English that differentiate it from formal English:

The sentence structure is usually simpler than that used in formal English.

It has a serious, but not elevated, tone.

It uses familiar, rather than specialized, terms.

If you were to rewrite the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence (see the preceding section) in standard English, you’d end up with something like the following:

We believe these things to be true: All people are created equal and have certain God-given rights. Among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights, people create governments, and these governments get their just powers from the consent of the governed. Any time the government threatens to destroy the lives, liberty, or happiness of its people, the people have the right to change or abolish the government and create a new government that will be most likely to secure their safety and happiness.

The rewritten paragraph contains the characteristics of standard English diction as shown in Table 4-2.

In most of your speech and writing, you want to use formal diction (or standard English).

Employing everyday English

Informal diction is the kind of diction you use every day, such as when you’re talking with co-workers or writing to a friend. Referred to as colloquial language, informal diction is straightforward and conversational and has the following characteristics:

It uses common terms, as well as slang.

It often uses sentence fragments (incomplete sentences) to convey complete meaning.

The tone is informal, despite the seriousness of the content.

It often uses contractions.

The Before and After examples show the difference between formal diction and colloquial language:

Before

I’m invigorated.
I’m exhausted.
I failed my driving test.

After

I’m full of energy.
I’m beat.
I flunked my driving test.

Two hallmarks of colloquial language are slang (coined words and phrases or new meanings for established terms) and vernacular (language peculiar to a region). The following sections explain these in more detail.

Gettin’ down with some slang

Slang is fun, informal, and personal — great for casual conversations with friends. It develops just as other levels of language develop. The methods of development include the following:

Words acquire new meanings. Cat becomes a synonym for a cool person.

Meanings become extended. Fink referred only to strikebreakers at first, but it now refers to any betrayer.

Words become abbreviated. Hamburger becomes burger; neighborhood becomes hood.

Words are created to fill a need. Tailgating describes driving too closely behind another vehicle; hip-hop refers to a style of dance and music.

Some fairly recent slang terms are bozo, meaning “clown,” dweeb and nerd, which both refer to a social misfit, and space cadet, which is a term for someone who doesn’t pay attention.

New slang expressions come from a wide range of sources, including teenagers, sports groups, politicians, criminals, and the armed services. Sometimes, with enough exposure, slang expressions will pass into general use. Still, keep the following in mind:

Slang doesn’t travel well around the country or between generations. As such, you run the very real risk of being misunderstood if you use it indiscriminately.

Never use slang in standard written and spoken English. Not only do you run the risk of being misunderstood, but it is also considered inappropriately casual. Therefore, don’t use slang in business meetings, job interviews, or formal speeches.

Talkin’ the Talk

Joe Cool is going for an interview at the famous Wall Street Stuffy Investment Corporation. Joe is young — only 22 — and smart. He ditched the Ricky Martin haircut, removed his tongue ring, and covered his tattoos with a navy-blue pinstripe suit. He walks the walk . . . but can he talk the talk? Lean a little closer to the door.

Interviewer: | So, why do you think you would be an asset to
| Stuffy Investment Corporation, Mr. Cool?
Joe Cool: | This is like a totally rad company. Man, it’s phat.
| Like rippin’. I can for sure supersize in a total ten
| place like this, sir.
Translation: | This is a great company. It’s impressive. Very
| impressive. I can really make a contribution to a
| great company like this one, sir.
Interviewer: | Well, Mr. Cool, thank you for your time. I shall
| waste no time reading your resume.
Joe Cool: | Slap me five.

Poor Joe. I bet the interviewer will “waste no time” at all reading Joe’s resume before putting it in the circular file — the garbage can. All things being equal, I assume that Joe’s rejection is based completely on his language.

Recognizing regional differences

Vernacular, also called “regionalism,” is the ordinary language of a particular region. Like colloquial language and slang, vernacular (also referred to as dialect) may not be understood by a wide audience. However, as TV and the Internet increase communication between regions, vernacular differences represent fewer and fewer problems and misunderstandings. Table 4-3 lists some common vernacular expressions.

Nonstandard usage is very casual speech where normal grammar rules are ignored or broken. Despite its inclusion in most dictionaries, the verb ain’t (meaning “am not; are not; have not”) is still nonstandard, and you should not use it and other expressions containing double negatives (as in “I don’t got no oranges”) or subject-verb disagreement (“we was at the movies”), except in the most casual situations when you’re absolutely sure that your audience will understand and appreciate your unconventional style.

Bringing Home the Bacon: Idioms

An idiom is an expression whose meaning differs from the literal, word-for-word translation. So, if you’re the person in your family who “brings home the bacon,” you’re the one who provides financial and material support for your household — which may or may not include bacon.

Getting your information “straight from the horse’s mouth” doesn’t mean that you can understand equine speech; it means that you received the news from a knowledgeable, reliable source. Most idioms are nonsense if you take them literally, as Little Willy demonstrates in the following Talkin’ the Talk section.

Idioms are easy to understand if you already know them, but very puzzling if you don’t. They pose great difficulty for people whose first language isn’t English. Table 4-4 lists a few common idioms.

I say turkey, you say turnip

All languages have idioms. For example, Americans say “holy cow;” the French say “holy blue” (sacre bleu). Americans call a bad movie a “turkey;” the French call it a “turnip” (un navel). Americans say, “that’s the last straw;” the French say, “that’s the last of the string beans.” Americans say, “mind your own business,” while the French say, “these are not your onions.” In French, a short man is “as tall as three apples,” but a very short man is “as tall as three sitting apples.” Clearly, one country’s idiom is not necessarily another’s “cup of tea,” as they say in England!

Talkin’ the Talk

Butch Babysitter is minding Little Willy. Butch, a gentle soul despite his macho name, is planning how they’ll spend the day.

Butch: | We can’t play outside, Little Willy, because it’s
| raining cats and dogs.
Little Willy: | Ugh! Are there squished cats and dogs all over
| the street? That’s sooo gross. Can I go look?
Butch: | No, Little Willy, ’raining cats and dogs’ is just an
| expression. It means it’s raining very hard.
Little Willy: | Darn.
Butch: | Maybe we’ll go to the movies. The new cartoon
| really caught my eye.
Little Willy: | Caught your eye? Does it hurt? (covering his
| eyes):
Butch: | Little Willy, ’caught my eye’ is another idiom. It
| means that something looked very interesting.
Little Willy: | Butch, you sure talk funny.

Minding your p’s and q’s while wetting your whistle

Some idioms have interesting histories. For instance, the idiom “mind your p’s and q’s” hails from English pubs long ago. Back then, ale was ordered by pints and quarts (as it still is in many places in Europe). When customers got unruly, the bartender would yell, “Mind your own pints and quarts and settle down!” Hence the idiom, “mind your p’s and q’s”.

The idiom “wet your whistle” also has a curious past. Many years ago in England, pub regulars had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic mugs; they would blow the whistle to get service. “Wet your whistle” was the idiom inspired by this practice.

You can find many more word histories in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 16th Edition, by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, Adrian Room, and Terry Pratchett (Harpercollins) and Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (Harpercollins).

When you use idioms, make sure that you get them right. One incorrect word can make the entire idiom sound weird. My sister was talking about trying to maintain her dignity and said, “You know . . . save nose.” No one was very dignified as we explained that she meant “save face.”

Abbreviating Acronyms

An acronym is a word made from the first letters of a series of words. There are no periods between the letters. Table 4-5 lists a handful of the most often used acronyms.

Don’t confuse acronyms with plain old abbreviations. Abbreviations are said as separate letters, as in MVP (most valuable player), SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), and NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) — you may say “en-double-ay-cee-pee”, but you’re still pronouncing the letters, not saying them as a word.

Never use an acronym if there is the slightest chance that your listener or reader won’t understand what you mean. If you introduce yourself to someone on a cruise ship by saying, “I’m from NASA,” your shipmate may think you’re from Nassau, the capital city in the Bahamas. Always say the full phrase if you have the slightest reason to think that your audience may not be familiar with a particular acronym.

Part II

Mastering the Basics

In this part . . .

To help your vocabulary flourish and grow, you have to nourish it and tend to the basics. The basics of words are roots, prefixes, and suffixes — the core, the element at the beginning, and the element at the end. In a word sandwich, the root is the meat, and the prefix and suffix are the slices of bread.

Of course, vocabulary has lots and lots of open-faced sandwiches — a variety of words with prefixes but not suffixes (and vice versa), plenty of words with just a root, and some with two roots. In these chapters, I assemble a smorgasbord of prefixes, roots, and suffixes, and show you how the same ingredients can create a variety of masterpieces.

Tie your napkin around your neck and get ready for a word feast!

Chapter 5

Getting to the Root of the Matter

In This Chapter

Realizing the importance of roots

Mastering Greek roots

Focusing on Latin roots

H ave you ever joined a conversation where people used words you didn’t know? It’s awful when you can’t follow, but who wants to be the one who asks, “What does that mean?” You’d just get looks, right? The more words you know, the better able you are to understand what others say and to express what you have to say.

But no one wants to spend hours memorizing lists of words — that’s about as appealing as watching paint dry. Instead, by mastering a handful (or two) of word roots, you build a bank of knowledge that you can draw on whenever you encounter a new word.

This chapter gives you fistfuls of the Greek and Latin roots that you may encounter frequently as you expand your vocabulary. When you combine these roots with various prefixes and suffixes (the topics of Chapters 6 and 7, respectively), you have an entire system for puzzling out the meanings of unfamiliar words. This capability is tremendously helpful if you’re trying to learn English, preparing for many of the standardized tests given in school, or simply wanting become a more proficient reader or speaker.

Tending to Word Roots

A root is the basic element of a word, and it is the foundation on which the meaning of a word is built. Many roots are real words in their own right: graph (a diagram) and term (a fixed time or date), for example. Although these roots can have other elements, they don’t need other elements to be complete. Most roots, however, do need other elements. For example, the roots archy (government) and dox (opinion or belief) need to be combined with other word elements, like prefixes, suffixes, or even other roots:

dyarchy: a government with two rulers, from the prefix dy- (meaning two) and the root archy (meaning government)

anarchist: one who rebels against governmental authority, from the prefix an- (meaning without or no), the root archy (meaning government), and the suffix -ist (meaning one who)

orthodox: conforming to established doctrines and practices, from the prefix ortho- (meaning right or true) and the root dox (meaning opinion or belief)

The following sections give you the lowdown on roots and how you can use them to uncover the meaning of words you don’t know — yet.

Exploring the basics of roots

In order to use roots to uncover a word’s meaning, you need to know a few things about how roots work. Here’s a quick rundown:

Some roots form whole words by themselves. For example: Arbor means “tree”; vent means “opening to allow air to enter”; and audio means “sound” or “hearing.”

Although these roots form words in and of themselves, you can also combine them with other word elements (like prefixes and suffixes) to make new words, as in the following:

Some roots must be combined with other word elements to form words. Consider the following examples:

Prefixes and suffixes alter or refine a word’s meaning. For example, the word audible means “able to be heard.” With the prefix in-, the word becomes inaudible, which means “unable to be heard.”

A word can contain more than one root. For example, matrilineal contains the roots matri (mother) and lineal (line). Matrilineal, therefore, means “determining descent through the female line.”

Whenever you come upon an unfamiliar word, first check to see if you recognize its root. Even if you can’t define a word exactly, recognizing the root gives you a general idea of the word’s meaning. For example, if you read the word geocentric, knowing that the root geo means “earth” helps you figure out that geocentric has to do with the center (“centric”) of the earth, or earth as the center.

Using roots to grow words

Knowing how words are created gives you the key to figuring out the meaning of new words. When you can put together the meaning of a root with the meaning of a prefix and/or a suffix, you can unlock the definitions of words in a snap.

Putting it together

In this sidebar, you can get a little practice at putting elements together to discover meaning. You may already know the definitions of some of the words that follow. Others may be new to you. Your task, if you choose to accept it, is to figure out what each of the following words means.

The Latin root cide means “kill” and “cut.” Knowing that, you can probably figure out that insecticide means “the killing of insects.” As you read the following chart, cover the last column and see how many words you can decode using what you know about the root and its meaning.

Adding prefixes and suffixes to roots

A prefix is a letter or group of letters attached to the beginning of a word that changes the word’s meaning. A suffix performs the same function at the end of a word. Chapter 6 is devoted to prefixes, and Chapter 7 covers suffixes. In this section, I give you the blueprints to decipher combinations of roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

Examples of adding a prefix to a root:

de + hydrate = dehydrate (to remove the water or moisture from)

anti + depressant = antidepressant (something that combats depression)

Examples of adding a suffix to a root:

zoo + ology = zoology (the study of animals)

bronch + itis = bronchitis (inflammation of the bronchial tubes)

You can figure out a word’s meaning simply by recognizing its root and prefix. Table 5-1 shows several examples of how the combination of prefixes, roots, and suffixes work together to form words.

Grafting roots to roots

You may wonder whether a word element is acting as a prefix or as a root when you encounter words formed by combining two roots. The truth is that, although some word elements are always prefixes and others always come at the end of a word, you can find roots in any position. And, to tell you the truth, it really doesn’t matter whether the root is at the beginning of a word, in the middle, or at the end, so long as you understand the word’s meaning. A few words with two roots are:

Cal (beauty) + graph (to write) forms calligraphy (kah-lig-rih-fee), which means “elegant penmanship.”

Carn (meat) + vor (to eat) forms carnivore (kar-nih-vor), which is someone who eats meat.

Chron (time) + meter (measure) forms chronometer (krah-nahm-ih-ter) — an instrument for measuring time.

Being well-versed in roots like the ones in the preceding list can help you immensely in the language portion of standardized tests.

Getting Scientific with Greek Roots

My husband can trace his roots to Greece (I think his family comes from Sparta), but if your ancestors didn’t hail from the Greek isles, you can still get in on the great Greek root bonanza. Many of the words we use every day come from Greek roots.

If you’re interested in science — whether you’re into science as a career, hobby, or consumer — you’ll find these Greek roots useful. Many scientific terms use Greek roots.

Measuring roots

Table 5-2 contains the most useful Greek roots for measurements. Notice that several roots mean the same thing. For example, macro and mega both mean “large.” Check out the examples in the table and read the following chart several times, and you can soon get accustomed to the slight variations in spelling.

Table 5-3 gives you some nice, solid roots — roots that give you words you can easily get a handle on.

Table 5-4 lists still more roots. This time, they’re a little harder to grab hold of because they deal mostly with concepts.

Describing nature

According to Greek mythology, the ancients were menaced by a hideous nine-headed serpent with breath so bad that it could knock your socks right off. At home in a watery marsh, the monster took its name, Hydra, from the Greek root hydor, meaning “water.” Killing this monster was no easy matter: When you sliced off one head, two grew in its place. Unfortunately for those being menaced, the central head was immortal. Since the ancient Greeks didn’t have Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, or Steven Seagal, they sent in Hercules to dispatch the many-headed menace. Hercules was triumphant when he burned off the eight peripheral heads and buried the ninth under a huge rock.

Many useful words are formed from the hydro/hydr root; Table 5-5 shows some important ones.

Table 5-6 features some Greek roots, and words formed from them, that describe the natural world. You may find these words useful in both your personal and professional conversation.

The Greek meaning of the pedo/pedi root is “child” — the word pediatrician, meaning “a doctor who treats children,” comes from this root. The same root in Latin, however, means “foot.” The words pedal and pedestrian come from the Latin root. This isn’t the only instance of a similar root having different meanings to the Greeks and Romans. The root homo is another example. The Greek root homo means “same.” Homonym (words that are spelled and pronounced the same but have different meaning) and homogenous (alike) use the Greek root. The Latin root homo/homi, however, means “man” (as in human). Combine that with the suffix meaning “kill” to get homicide (to kill a person).

Greek roots for beliefs and ideas

Several English words use Greek roots for beliefs and ideas. These roots come in handy in the most unexpected situations, like job-hunting. Table 5-7 gives you a few more Greek roots to chew on.

Talkin’ the Talk

Donna Dimbulb is reading the want ads, looking for a summer job. She’s with her best-friend-in-the-whole-wide-world, Candy Coed. Here’s what the girls say as their 5-inch-long nail extensions flick the newspaper:

Donna Dimbulb: | ’Wanted: music lover to work at the
| Philharmonic. Responsibilities include filing,
| answering the telephone, light typing. . . .’
| Philharmonic? I have to fill up harmonicas? I
| can’t play a harmonica. I can’t even play the
| radio.
Candy Coed: | Don-uh, I think the Philharmonic is a musical
| group. Phil means love, so the word must
| mean ’love of music,’ like philosophy means
| ’love of wisdom,’ and Philadelphia means
| ’city of brotherly love.’
Donna Dimbulb: | Can-deeeee, that’s a great idea. Let’s get
| some Philly cheese steaks for lunch. Like
| totally cool.

Cultivating Latin Roots

If you think the English language has borrowed a lot of roots from the Greeks, wait until you see what it has recycled from Latin. Linguists estimate that 90 percent of all English words can be traced back to classical Greek and Latin roots!

For example, the Latin root plac (from the Latin word placere) means “pleasure.” Words formed from this root include placid (smooth or tranquil), complacent (unperturbed by surrounding events), implacable (not easily soothed or satisfied), and placate (to calm someone by giving in). The Latin root nomin/nomen (name) has given English a great many words, including the ones in Table 5-8.

For a dead language, Latin is pretty lively, as attested to by all the English words that use Latin roots.

Making and moving roots

The Romans were the movers and shakers of the ancient Western world. Whereas the Greeks were known for being thinkers, the Romans were known for being people of action. The Roman Empire, during its peak, encompassed all of Eastern and Western Europe (including the British Isles) and extended into Northern Africa and the western parts of Asia. The Roman Empire was known for its strong, centralized government, the 400 years of peace it secured for all the Western world (Pax Romana), and its massive public works (such as the building of roads, irrigation systems, and canals). So it’s no wonder that many English words related to making and moving stuff use Latin roots.

For example, the Latin root dict, which means “to say,” gives the English language words like dictum (a formal statement or principle), dictate (to command), and dictator (one who rules by force; you do what he says). The root fact, which means “to make,” gives the English language words like factory (a place where goods are produced) and manufacture (to make for use). Table 5-9 lists other Latin roots that relate to doing something.

Sizing up other Latin roots

You can find several other Latin roots in English words. Consider the following examples:

Annual (yearly) uses the Latin root ann/enn, which means “year.” Anniversary (the yearly commemoration of a particular date) uses the same root, as does biennial (occurring every two years) and biannual (occurring twice in a single year).

The word annihilate (uh-ny-uh-layt) uses the Latin root nihil, which means “nothing.” To annihilate something is to do away with it entirely. The word nihilism (nee-uh-liz-uhm), a belief that life has no meaning or value, also comes from this root.

The word pendulous (pen-dyoo-luhs), which means “drooping,” uses the Latin root pend, which means “weigh.” The word pendulum (pen-dyoo-luhm; an object that swings back and forth freely from a fixed point) also uses this root.

Table 5-10 lists other Latin roots, including those that describe size, amount, and location. Study the roots, examples, and definitions. As you read, consider how you would you use some of these words in your daily life.

Associating with gods and goddesses

The word panacea comes from the Greek goddess of healing, Panacea. (A panacea is a remedy for all diseases, an answer to all problems and difficulties.) The Greek and Roman gods and goddesses had dominion over various realms, and over the years their names have become tied to their areas of influence. The following list gives you both the Greek and Roman names and their associations. You’re probably familiar with a few of them already.

Chapter 6

Starting Off with Prefixes

In This Chapter

Decoding unfamiliar words through prefixes

Getting familiar with a few Greek and Latin prefixes

Discovering the uses of Anglo-Saxon prefixes

Using words that function as prefixes

K nowing common prefixes is very useful because it enables you to figure out the meaning of many unfamiliar words. In addition, by discovering the building blocks of words, you can easily understand and master thousands of helpful English words. In this chapter, you discover how prefixes can help you improve your vocabulary — without breaking a sweat.

The ancient alchemists wanted to change lead into gold. They didn’t succeed, but you can by using prefixes to decode unfamiliar words. And that’s only the beginning. Knowing just a handful of prefixes can make it easy for you to figure out the definitions of many words — without ever having to use a dictionary.

Going to the Head of the Word

A prefix is a letter or a group of letters that appears at the beginning of a word and changes the meaning of the original word in such a way that you have a different word. For example, if the base word is make, “to create, or bring into being,” and you attach the prefix re-, “do again,” to it, you create a different word: remake, which means “to make again or anew” as a verb, or “something remade” as a noun. In this case, the prefix alters the word’s original meaning.

Sometimes the prefix actually creates a derivative word. You can’t remove the prefix, for example, and still have a word that means anything. Take, for example, the word pseudonym (soo-duh-nim). This English word is derived (or made up of) two Greek elements: the prefix pseudo- (false) and the root onyma (name). Knowing this, you can figure out that a pseudonym is a false name. Similarly, anonymous (uh-nahn-uh-mus) comes from the Greek prefix a- (without) and the root onyma (name). Literally, anonymous means “without a name.”

The beauty of prefixes — and the reason why knowing a few of the most common ones is important — is that they help you figure out the meaning of a word you may not have seen before. Being able to do that is immeasurably helpful if you’re just learning English, or if you find yourself staring down the word hypaethral on a college entrance exam.

Just in case you’re interested, hypaethral (hih-pee-thrul) means “open to the sky.” The word is made up of the Greek prefix hypo-, meaning “below,” and the Greek root aithros (heaven).

As you become familiar with prefixes, keep the following points in mind:

Several prefixes have more than one meaning. For example, the Latin prefix in- can mean in (as in inhabit), but it can also mean not (as in inflexible). As a result, always use context to help you decode a word. The way the word is used often tells you what it means.

It’s very common for prefixes to have slight variations in their spelling, such as syn-/sym- (together) or dis-/di-/dif- (apart). The prefix ad- (to or toward) has 11 variations: a-, ab-, ac-, af-, ag-, al-, an-, ap-, ar-, as-, and at-! Despite these slight variations, the prefix still means the same thing.

The form the prefix takes often depends on what letters follow it in the word. Using the prefix a- as an example, you use ac- if the letter immediately following it is a c, k, or q (acculturate, acknowledge, or acquire). You use af- if the next letter is an f (affirmative), ag- if the next letter is a g (aggrandize), and so on.

Sometimes you may not even recognize a prefix as a prefix. If that’s the case, don’t sweat it. You don’t have to know it’s a prefix. The point of this chapter isn’t to force you to remember that re- or pseudo- — or whatever — is a prefix. The point is to help you understand what these various groups of letters mean so that you can figure out the meaning of whatever word you’re stuck on.

Talkin’ the Talk

It’s Sunday afternoon. The big boys are watching baseball on Ralphie’s massive TV. It’s a happy time, until star player Shawn Steroid strikes out . . . or does he?

Announcer: | The matter will be adjudicated while we break
| for a commercial.
Ralphie: | Huh? What’s adjudicated mean?
Wally Word: | I read in Chapter 6 of Vocabulary For Dummies
| that the prefix ad- means ‘to,’ ‘at,’ or ‘upon.’
| I know that judicate has something to do with
| judging, therefore, adjudicate must mean some-
| thing like ’to make a judgment upon something.’
| The umpire will make a decision on the play.
Ralphie: | Gee, Wally, you’re one smart fella. So why do you
| keep hogging the Buffalo wings?

Seeing Prefixes Everywhere: De-, Re-, In-, Un-, and Pre-

There are some prefixes in English that are so frequently used that most dictionaries don’t even define all the words that are made with them. For example, look up un- and you get nearly two pages of nothing but lists of words, without definitions, using that prefix. This lack of definitions isn’t a problem, however, because un- almost always means “not.” Stick not in front of the base word, and you have your meaning. Unbiased means “not biased;” unschooled means “not schooled;” unsympathetic means “not sympathetic.” Here are some other very common prefixes:

De- means “down,” “remove,” or “from,” as in delight, which literally means “from light,” and demented, which translates to “removed from one’s (right) mind.”

Re- means “again” as in renew (make new again) or reconnect (to connect again). It can also mean “back,” as in recall (call back).

In- has several meanings and several forms, including in-, il-, im-, and ir-, which are Anglo-Saxon prefixes. (See the section “Adding In Anglo-Saxon Prefixes,” later in this chapter, for more information on these prefixes.) It is also close cousins with em- and en-. In all its forms, in- can mean “not” (illiterate, immodest) or some form of “in”: “within” (inhabit, inherit), “put into” (enthrone), “provide with” (empower), and “surround” (envelope).

Pre- means “before” or “prior to” (preteen: before 13 years old; prenatal: taking place prior to birth), or “in front of” (precede: go in front of).

Sometimes it’s hard to decide whether you should hyphenate these prefixes. Use a hyphen in the following situations:

When not hyphenating may cause confusion about the word’s meaning: re-creation (a second creation) versus recreation (having fun), or re-form (to form again) versus reform (to change from bad to good)

When the word following the prefix repeats the letters in the prefix (re-recover, for example)

When the second element is a proper noun or starts with a capital letter (such as un-American and re-Christianize)

The following sections offer a number of examples of words that use these prefixes.

Retooling words

You can do everything from reducing your stress to revitalizing your career by using the two little letters that mean “again” — re-. Re- can also mean “back.” Table 6-1 lists some verbs that start with re-.

Deconstructing de-

Like many prefixes, de- has several meanings: “reduce,” “remove,” and “to get off of.” Table 6-2 gives you examples of de- words. (All the words in the table are verbs.)

Notice the hyphen between the two e’s in de-emphasize. Although personal preference usually dictates whether you include a hyphen after a prefix that ends with the same vowel as the root word starts with, that little hyphen can make things a lot clearer for your readers.

Including in- (and em- and en- and . . .)

The prefix in- has a lot of meanings and several variations: in-, il-, im-, ir-, em-, and en-.

These variations can mean “not,” “with,” “put into,” “provide with,” and “surround.” To determine the appropriate meaning, look at the context. Table 6-3 lists words using the prefix in- (or one of its other forms).

Doing and undoing with un-

The prefix un- means “not” or “the opposite of.” Uncharitable means “the opposite of charitable;” unhappy means “the opposite of happy,” uninterested means “the opposite of interested.” The easiest way to deal with un- is to simply replace it with not when you’re figuring out a word’s meaning. Table 6-4 lists various un- words. Frankly, it’s only the tip of the iceberg. (All the words in the table are adjectives.)

Previewing pre-

Pre- means “before” or “in front of.” Examples of words with the pre- prefix include preview (view before) and preamble (introductory statement to a speech). Table 6-5 lists some more words that use the prefix pre-.

The word prefix is made up of the Latin prefix prae, which means “before,” and the root word fix, which means “firmly placed.” It takes a prefix to describe prefix!

Another prefix that means “before” is ante-. Antebellum, for example, means “before the war” (ante- = before and bellum = war). In American history, antebellum refers specifically to the time before the Civil War. To study the antebellum South would be to study the South as it was prior the war between the States. An antebellum mansion is a plantation.

Eyeing Other Common Prefixes

In addition to the most commonly used prefixes (see the preceding section), English words use many other prefixes, also. Examples of these include anti- (against) and con- (with). Additional prefixes are so basic to English that I include them here, as well. These are the prefixes used to indicate degree, number, and location.

Prefixes meaning “not” and “against”: A-, anti-, dis-, and more

Several prefixes mean “not” or “against:” a-, anti-, dis-, and in- and its variations (see the earlier section “Including in- (and em- and en-)” for details). Table 6-6 lists some examples of these prefixes.

Getting it together: Co-, con-, and sym-/syn-

Several prefixes mean “with” or “together.” If you express contempt for a co-worker and then communicate your regret by inviting your colleague to accompany you to consume some consommé, you’re using many of these prefixes.

In the preceding paragraph, notice the variations of co-, including col-, com-, and con-. They all mean “with.” Sym- (and its variation syn-) also means “with” or “together.” Table 6-7 lists more examples of words that use these prefixes.

Homing in on location prefixes

Just as some prefixes show number or degree (as explained in the following two sections), other prefixes — such as circum- — indicate location or direction. If you know that circum- means “around,” then you can figure out that the phrase circumnavigate the globe means “to go around the world.” Peek at Table 6-8 to see more examples of this and other location/direction prefixes.

Words that use location or direction prefixes don’t necessarily have to refer to location or direction, although many of them do. Sub-, for example, means “under,” but subhuman doesn’t mean “under human.” Instead, it means “less than human.”

Encompassing prefixes that indicate degree

Certain prefixes indicate the amount of something. Do you love someone a lot or a little? Do you speak many languages or only a few? Are you looking at all of something or only part of it? Table 6-9 lists prefixes that represent indefinite amounts (that is, amounts such as few or many). To find out which prefixes to use to indicate particular numbers, hop to the next section, “Counting on prefixes that show number.”

Counting on prefixes that show number

The symbols used to represent numbers — 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on — come from the Arabians, the first great mathematicians. The words used to speak or write these symbols — one, two, three, four, and so on — come from the Anglo-Saxons. The prefixes that indicate number come from Greek and Latin. Meet the 10 Greek and Latin prefixes that represent the numbers 1 through 10 (see Table 6-10).

By knowing these prefixes, you can easily figure out how many things are being referred to: How many sides does the Pentagon have? Five (penta-). How many tentacles does an octopus have? Eight (oct-). How many strings does a heptachord have? Seven (hepta-). Easy enough.

Sailing through Greek Prefixes

Many of the most common prefixes in English come from the Greek language. These time-honored prefixes open up a whole new world of words that you may find yourself using a great deal in your daily and professional life.

If you know the meanings of roots and prefixes, you can figure out some commonly used words. Consider these examples:

Astronaut literally means “star sailor.” It uses the Greek prefix astro, which means “star” and the Greek root nautes, which means “sailor.” Its English definition is “space traveler.”

Autonomy literally means “self-rule.” It contains the Greek prefix auto, which means “self,” and the Greek root nomos, which means “law.” Its English definition is “self government” or “independence.”

Synchronize literally means “timed together.” It uses the prefix syn- (together) and the root chronos (time). If you synchronize watches, you make them agree in time.

Table 6-11 lists some especially useful prefixes that have entered English from Greek. (Note: Some of these prefixes can also function as roots, depending on their placement in the word. For more on roots, turn to Chapter 5.)

The adjective cosmopolitan (kahz-muh-pahl-uh-tun) gets its meaning from cosmo, which means “world,” and polit, which means “state or region.” Thus, it means “common to all or many parts of the world” or “not local or national.”

Opening the floodgates with cata-

From the Greek language comes the word katarasso, meaning “down rushing,” as in rain or a river. This word is made up of the Greek prefix kata- (or cata- in its English derivation), which means “down,” and the root arassein, which means “to strike or smash.”

The earliest evidence of this prefix in English can be found in the Bible, where cataracts are the floodgates of heaven to keep back the rain. Today, we use the word cataract to mean “a waterfall” or “a deluge.” As a medical term, a cataract is an opacity that blocks light from entering the lens of the eye. So the word retains its sense of being a floodgate, as well as a flood.

Talkin’ the Talk

April Knights is on her first date with Howard Hercules. It’s a cheap date: They’re parked in an isolated cul-de-sac, admiring the stars from the back seat of Howard’s rusty jalopy.

Howard: | Look at that starlike body!
April: | Mine?
Howard: | Uh, no, I was referring to the asteroid, April.
April: | One more try, Howie.
Howard: | You are my antidote, my arthropod, my
| automaton.
April: | I’m your remedy against poison, your seg-
| mented invertebrate, such as a lobster, and
| your robot?
Howard (weakly): | You are my anemia?
April: | No, I’m not your blood deficiency. I sure hope
| you kiss better than you speak.

Pursuing Prefixes from Latin

Latin — not to be outdone by the Greek language — has also given us some extremely useful prefixes. Several have been mentioned earlier in this chapter: many of the number prefixes (see the section “Counting on prefixes that show number”), and a- (to or toward), for example. There are a whole bunch of others; Table 6-12 lists a few of these gems.

It’s more accurate to say that these prefixes are derived from Latin words. Whether any particular cluster of letters is a prefix or not depends on whether that cluster appears at the beginning of the word. Some of these prefixes can also be used as roots. See Chapter 5 for more on the root words.

Adding In Anglo-Saxon Prefixes

The 100 most often used words in the English language all come from the Anglo-Saxons — as do 83 of the next 100 words in this book. And, of course, the Anglo-Saxons got many of their words from the Romans; so where these prefixes originated is hard to determine. But because they’re so often used and share meanings, I grouped the main Anglo-Saxon prefixes in this section.

The most common Anglo-Saxon prefixes — il-, im-, and ir- — all have the same two meanings. Il-, im-, and ir- can mean either “in,” “into,” or “not.” The following list gives you examples of each meaning with each prefix. For more on these prefixes, refer to the earlier section “Seeing Prefixes Everywhere: De-, Re-, In-, Un-, and Pre-.”

In or into:

• illuminate (bring in light)

• import (bring in from abroad)

• irradiate (let x-rays into)

Not:

• illiterate (not able to read)

• immodest (not modest)

• irregular (not regular)

You generally won’t have a problem figuring out which meaning these prefixes draw on for any particular word, unless you confuse the adjectives irrefutable, which means “cannot be disproved,” and irresolute, which means “indecisive.”

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that because everybody uses it, it must be right. This example shows how wrong “everybody” can be:

Correct: Regardless of the thunderstorm, I’m going swimming.

Incorrect: Irregardless of the thunderstorm, I’m going swimming.

Irregardless isn’t a real word — attaching the ir- prefix doesn’t change that. Regardless means “without regard; unmindful,” which is what folks who use irregardless want to say.

The Anglo-Saxons were Low German folks who settled in England around the fifth century. Robin Hood, as tradition goes, was an Anglo-Saxon, as was the legendary King Arthur. The Anglo-Saxon reign ended with the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066. Anglo-Saxon English is Old English (think Beowulf, the epic Old English poem probably written down in the eighth century — 700–800 A.D.).

Acting Like a Prefix: Words that Do Double Duty

Some words, in their own right, function as prefixes, modifying or altering a given word. Consider the following examples:

Counter means “opposed or contrary.” When used as a prefix, it retains this meaning and, as a result, essentially negates the meaning of the word it’s attached to. Examples of counter used as a prefix include counterintuitive (not intuitive) and counterproductive (not productive).

Under means “beneath or below.” Examples of under used as a prefix include underage (not old enough), underscore (emphasize, literally by drawing a line under), and underhanded (sneaky).

Over means “higher than, superior, or excessive.” Examples of over used as a prefix include overarching (dominant), overreaching (reaching above or beyond), and overdrawn (over your bank balance).

You shouldn’t have too much trouble understanding what these dual-purpose words/prefixes mean.

Chapter 7

Ending Well: Suffixes

In This Chapter

Using suffixes to figure out unfamiliar words

Determining a word’s part of speech

Enriching your speech and writing by identifying suffixes

P refixes and suffixes are called affixes — they’re affixed (attached) to a root to produce a new word. Knowing common suffixes is a powerful skill because it enables you to figure out the meaning of many unfamiliar words. In addition, by focusing on the caboose of each unfamiliar word, you can easily master thousands of helpful English words.

In the same way that adding a prefix to the front of a word changes a word’s meaning, adding a suffix to the end of a word changes a word’s meaning, as well. However, suffixes go one step further than prefixes — a suffix can affect how a word functions in a sentence by determining the word’s part of speech. By adding a suffix, you can create a verb from a noun, or an adjective or an adverb from a verb, for example. And suffixes can also show amount or quantity. As this chapter shows, these tiny affixes are mighty mites indeed!

Suffixes are often written with a hyphen, like this: -ment, -ness, -tion. I’m doing the same thing in this book. Don’t be fooled by the hyphen: You drop it when you add a suffix to a word.

Meeting the Most Often Used Suffixes

Some suffixes are used so frequently that you may not even think of them — much less recognize them — as suffixes. These include -d/-ed, which are used to indicate tense on a verb, and -s/-es, which are used to indicate number. Other suffixes are easy to identify, but you see them so often that they merit mention right up front.

Go to the section “Adding amounts: -s, -es, and others” for more on suffixes used to indicate number, and the section “Changing tense: -d/-ed and -ing” for more on suffixes used to indicate tense.

Admitting my favorites: -ment, -ence/-ance, -able/-ible, and -ion

Who’s to say which suffixes are most important? I’m sure some folks support -ness, -ity, and -ful, and certainly -ate, -less, and -ly have their fans. Nonetheless, someone has to draw a line in the sand, and I’m not afraid to be the one. Therefore, I declare that I am especially fond of the suffixes -ment, -ence/-ance, -able/-ible, and -ion. I find these suffixes exceedingly useful for deciphering unfamiliar words. Table 7-1 shows what these suffixes mean and gives examples of their use.

The difference between the suffix -able/-ible and the other suffixes in the table is that -able/-ible creates adjectives. The other suffixes create nouns. Another suffix that creates nouns is -age, which means “place of” (orphanage, a place of orphans), “an act of” (breakage, the act of breaking), and “charge for” (postage, charge for post). For more information on suffixes and the parts of speech, head to the section “Figuring out a word’s function.”

Showing action: -ate, -en, -ite, and -ize

The suffixes -ate, -en, -ite, and -ize all mean “to make or do.” Examples of words using these suffixes include alienate, liberate, weaken, moisten, unite, ignite, visualize, and sanitize.

As you may have noticed, each of these words is a verb (a word that conveys action). For more information about using suffixes to identify parts of speech, head to the section “Figuring out a word’s function,” later in this chapter.

Like just about every other word element in English, suffixes have multiple meanings and can change the definition of a word. For example, the suffix -ite, when it means “to make” or “do,” creates verbs. However, -ite can also mean “one who.” In this case, the suffix creates a noun (socialite, for example). Always examine the word in context, and if you’re not sure, consult a dictionary.

Changing tense: -d/-ed and -ing

Suffixes can change a word’s tense (or time). For example, adding the suffix -d or -ed to the end of a verb changes it from present tense to past tense. Adding the suffix -ing changes a present-tense verb into a present participle, or gerund. Table 7-2 shows the past tense, present participle, and gerund forms of several verbs.

Notice that the past tense of “run” is not formed with -d or -ed. Many verbs, such as am/was, buy/bought, and sell/sold, form irregular past tenses. The suffix -ing, however, works for all verbs.

Tense is a form of a verb that shows time, action, or state of being. Verbs are the only words in English that can show tense. English verbs have six tenses: present (walk), past (walked), future (will walk), present perfect (have walked), past perfect (had walked), future perfect (will have walked). Adding a suffix to a word to change its tense is called conjugating the verb. For four of the six tenses you also add a “helping verb” such as have or will.

Adding amounts: -s, -es, and others

How many of a certain thing do you have? One? More than one? To indicate number, you use suffixes. In particular, you use the following suffixes: -s and -es. By attaching these suffixes to a singular noun (house, tree, boat, and box, for example), you make the noun plural (houses, trees, boats, and boxes).

Of course, not all English plurals are made by adding a simple -s or -es. Sometimes the ending of the word is changed in other ways. Child, for example, becomes children. Ox becomes oxen. And then you have the ever-popular Latin words that retain their Latin plurals: Radius becomes radii (ray-dee-eye), and alumna (uh-lum-nuh) becomes alumnae (uh-lum-nee).

Suffixes can show amount or number — something that can come in handy in your daily conversation and writing when you want to explain how many or how much.

Don’t forget the suffixes that produce adjectives that show amount in a more subtle fashion: -ful, -ose/-ous, and -y all mean “full of.”

-y produces risky (full of danger) and wily (full of sly tricks).

-ful gives you healthful (full of physical well-being) and cheerful (full of gladness).

-ose/-ous leads to morose (full of sadness) and perilous (full of danger).

Expanding Your Suffix Collection

The English language has a slew of suffixes. In fact, almost every English word can accept at least one (and usually several) suffix. English has descriptive suffixes — those that show states of being — suffixes for comparison, and suffixes that indicate people and what they do.

Showing a state of being: -cy, -dom, -ant, -ness, and more

Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. If that is the case, English speakers must be a pretty thoughtful bunch. What stage of life are we in? What’s our lot in life? Are we satisfied with this lot? How do we describe what we see, feel, taste, or encounter? Our awareness of ourselves and our environment is our state of being.

Not only do we think about these things, but we also feel the need to describe them to others. How can you tell? Because we have a ton of suffixes that indicate or describe a state of being. These suffixes include -ant/-ent, -cy, -dom, -hood, -mony, -ness, -sis, -tic, -ship, and -ty (see Table 7-3).

Relating to or showing likeness: -ac, -al, -esque, -ish, and others

One of the things that makes the English language so rich (and confusing for nonnative speakers) is that many things are described through a comparison to something else. A tree, for example, can be majestic. Majestic relates directly to majesty, which means “kingly greatness.” So how is a tree like a king? It isn’t. But the word majesty, in relation to a king, means “imposing and impressive.” A tree that is majestic, therefore, has those same qualities, even though it is an entirely different thing.

Many common suffixes indicate similarities: -esque, -ish, -oid, and -wise, for example. Other common suffixes, like -ac, -al, and -ile, mean “relating to.” All in all, these suffixes enable you to describe your thoughts and feelings, and the things you see and experience. Table 7-4 lists and defines these suffixes (as well as provides examples).

You can’t overestimate the power of the suffixes that mean “resembling, like, or of.” English has 12 of these handy little guys: -ac, -al, -an, -esque, -ile, -ine, -ish, -ly, -ory, -oid, -some, and -wise.

Talkin’ the Talk

Tonya Tomato and Stu Strawberry get along fine — in fact, it’s a match made in heaven. They’re enjoying a little face time in the gym as they work on their washboard abs. Pretend you’re on the treadmill and lean just a little closer.

Tonya Tomato: | Ah, Stu, your nose is so Romanesque.
Stu Strawberry: | I have a roaming nose? On the contrary, babe,
| my nose always stays in the same place, right
| in the center of my face.
Tonya Tomato: | Stu, a Romanesque nose is a classic nose, like
| the famous noses of the ancient Romans.
Stu Strawberry: | So you like my schnoz, eh?
| Dollarwise, you can’t beat this gym. Know
| that, babe?
Tonya Tomato: | You mean they have smart dollars in this gym?
| I just thought they had a lot of dumbbells.
Stu Strawberry: | Babe, dollarwise means ‘pertaining to money.’
| The suffix wise means ‘resembling, like, or of.’
| I meant that this gym is a great value for the
| money.
Tonya Tomato: | Gee, Stu, we’re right on the money.

Focusing on folks

A whole bunch of suffixes relate to people: who they are, what they do, where they live, and what they’re like. For example, the suffix -er is exceptionally useful because it means “one who does or deals with.” This suffix, when added to many nouns, can show occupation. A worker is someone who works; a teacher is someone who teaches. A baker is someone who makes my favorite cookies; a buyer is someone who buys items. The suffixes -or, -ar, -ary, -ian, -ier, and -ist (see Table 7-6) also provide the same function as -er.

Table 7-5 lists the suffixes that indicate a person who is something, does something, or deals with something. Because they all refer people, all the words in the table are nouns.

The suffix -ar is primarily used in words that end in le. To use this suffix, you usually change the le to ul and then add the -ar. Consider the following examples:

angle → angular

circle → circular

muscle → muscular

Often, words that end with -ist describe people engaged in particular hobbies or careers. The -ite suffix generally indicates something geographical about a person: A Muscovite, for example, is a person who lives in Moscow. Table 7-6 lists a few examples of nouns that use these suffixes.

Designating place or condition

The suffixes in Table 7-7 crop up in many of the words and expressions you use every day. As a result, these suffixes are handy to know.

Putting Suffixes to Work

Knowing suffixes lets you do more than puzzle out the meaning of unfamiliar words. With an understanding of suffixes — what they mean and how they affect the root word — you can figure out the following:

A word’s part of speech: Although not an earth-shattering revelation, knowing the part of speech you’re dealing with helps you figure out how to use the word in a sentence.

The number: Some suffixes indicate number or degree — how many or how much. More than one? More or less? Suffixes can tell you the answer to these questions.

Figuring out a word’s function

To figure out how to use a new word, you need to know how a word should function in a sentence. And to know that, you need to figure out the word’s part of speech. Is it a noun or verb? Or is it an adjective or adverb? (All in all, English has eight parts of speech. See the sidebar “Parsing the parts of speech,” later in this chapter, to find out what they are.)

Mudluscious jabberwocky, anyone?

Lewis Carroll and e e cummings weren’t the only ones who liked nonsense words. On some standardized tests, the test creators test how well you understand and can manipulate the English language by using made-up words — that is, words that don’t exist and don’t mean anything. If you know suffixes and the basic structure of English sentences, however, you can decipher these sentences that use made-up words. Consider the following example:

“The woberistic ternonite clored into the vesterminal procrustitude.”

The adjective woberistic (note the suffix -ic) describes the noun ternonite (which uses the suffix -ite). You know that the ternonite clored (a past tense nonsense verb) into something. That something is a procrustitude. You know that procrustitude is a noun for the following reasons:

Its placement in the sentence.

Its use of the suffix -tude.

The presence of the the (nouns always follow articles, which is what the is).

An adjective (vesterminal) modifies it. You know that vesterminal is an adjective because of its placement and because it uses the suffix -al, which means “relating to” and creates adjectives.

So how do you know what part of speech a word is? Well, you can look up the word in a dictionary to find the part of speech, but that’s a lot of trouble. Fortunately, specific suffixes almost always make the new word the same part of speech: Adding a -y, for example, makes just about any word an adjective.

The following sections list most of the more common suffixes according to what part of speech they make a word when added to it. If you can remember these basic suffixes and speech parts, you should have little trouble figuring out how to use words formed with these suffixes.

Not every word that ends with a particular suffix is the same part of speech. The suffix -ly, for example, is often used to make adverbs (dutifully, happily, normally, and so on), but you can find -ly at the end of other words that aren’t adverbs, such as rely (verb), firefly (noun), and ghastly (adjective).

Suffixes and nouns

Nouns are persons (Joe, mom, the girl), places (Toledo, the house, the garden), things (car, tree, pencil), and concepts or ideas (beauty, honesty, truth). The suffixes that turn words into nouns include the following:

-ance, -ful, -ity, -ment, -ness, -sion/-tion, -age

Whenever you see these suffixes at the end of a word, chances are you’re looking at a noun. Here are some example sentences that use nouns created by suffixes:

The lack of any other options made her acceptance (agreement or approval) of the original plan inevitable.

When she told her date that the evening was only slightly more interesting than he was, she said a mouthful (comment rich in meaning).

The unity (state of acting or being as one) of the participants was never in doubt, even though each represented a different region.

The administration’s policy of containment (the act of holding something in check) came too late to stop the spread of the disease.

Happiness (joy or well-being) means never having to say you’re sorry — unless you’re caught red-handed.

Despite his best efforts, he was unable to hide his confusion when asked why he kept his car keys in the mayonnaise jar.

The Canterbury Tales takes place during a pilgrimage (journey to a holy place) to the cathedral in Canterbury.

Suffixes and verbs

A verb is a word that shows action (run, walk, fly, build, has) or that shows a state of being (seem, is, become). By adding the suffixes -ate, -en, -ite, and -ize to certain root words, you create verbs. Following are a few examples:

activate (to make active)

mutate (to change)

lighten (to make lighter)

fatten (to make fatter)

unite (to bring together)

demonize (to make into a demon)

ritualize (to make a ritual of)

How do you spell that?

Unfortunately, adding a suffix to a word isn’t always as simple as sticking the suffix on at the end of the word. If you did that, you’d end up with quite a few spelling mistakes. To help you avoid these mistakes, I’ve added a couple of spelling tips on adding suffixes: Keep in mind, though, that we’re talking about the English language here. There are always exceptions. If you’re unsure how to spell a word, crack open a dictionary.

If the word ends in -y, change the y to an i and add the suffix — if it gives you two i’s in a row, then leave the y.

fancy → fanciful, fancied, fancying

happy → happily, happiness

supply → supplying

whimsy → whimsical

Whether you add -d or -ed to a word depends on the end of the word. If the word ends with an e, you generally just add the d. If it ends with another vowel, you add ed (if the word ends in y, remember to change the y to an i).

candy → candied

charge → charged

halo → haloed

hate → hated

tomato → tomatoed

tree → treed (to force up a tree)

If the word has one syllable and ends in a consonant, you generally repeat the consonant and add the suffix, as in:

bat → batted

if → iffy (uncertain)

wed → wedding

All bets are off for most English words, though. Should you use -ible or -able? Do you add an e or remove an e before you attach certain suffixes, like -ment, -ence, and -ity? When do you use -tion, and when should it be -sion? When you’re stumped — or want to be sure you spelled the word right — head to a dictionary.

Being able to figure out whether a word is a noun, adjective, or verb is a useful skill when you’re taking language tests.

Suffixes and adjectives

An adjective is any descriptive word that modifies a noun or a pronoun. (Pronouns are words, like he, she, they, I, and them, that take the place of nouns.) Adjectives can come before the words they modify (the tall house), or they can follow the word they modify (the house is tall). Certain suffixes, like the following, create adjectives when attached to root words:

-ful: thoughtful (contemplative), wasteful (using more than necessary), purposeful (aimed at a specific goal), meaningful (having significance or purpose), bountiful (plentiful)

As the suffix itself implies, its meaning is essentially “full of.” So the words literally mean “full of thought,” “full of waste,” “full of purpose,” “full of meaning,” and “full of bounty.”

-less: armless (without arms), bloomless (without blooms), boundless (without end), loveless (without love), meatless (without meat)

Basically, the prefix -less means “without” or “lacking.”

-able/-ible: acceptable (satisfactory or adequate), negotiable (open to discussion), horrible (terrible or frightful), convertible (able to be changed from one form to another), invincible (unbeatable), infallible (incapable of error), unalterable (permanent)

The suffix -able/-ible means “capable of,” “able to be,” or “causing.” Therefore, the literal definitions for the preceding words would be “able to be accepted,” “able to be negotiated,” “causing horror,” “able to be converted,” and so on.

-y: tricky (deceitful), risky (hazardous), windy (characterized or accompanied by wind)

The suffix -y means “having the characteristics of [the noun that precedes it].”

Suffixes and adverbs

Adverbs are words that modify or describe verbs (ran quickly), adjectives (very warm), or other adverbs (too quickly). Adverbs also indicate when an action occurred or will occur (Tomorrow, we go to school). Adverbs basically answer the following questions: How? How much? When? The suffix that almost always creates an adverb is -ly: Smartly, happily, warmly, and totally are all examples of adverbs that use -ly.

Suffixes can determine a word’s part of speech. For example, adding the suffix -y to a verb such as risk gives you an adjective, which then needs to modify a noun, as in “risky business.”

Parsing the parts of speech

English has eight parts of speech. They are — drum roll please — the following:

Nouns: Words that name a person, place, thing, or idea (sofa, democracy)

Nouns like Bob and Indianapolis — proper names of people and places — are capitalized and called proper nouns.

Pronouns: Words that take the place of a noun or another pronoun (I, me, you, she, who, they)

Possessive pronouns, like my, mine, its and yours, theirs, and ours show ownership.

Verbs: Words that name an action or describe a state of being (run, seem)

Adverbs: Words that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (yesterday, below, happily, partly)

Adjectives: Words that describe nouns and pronouns (red, more, second, several)

Conjunctions: Words that connect words or groups of words and show how they are related (and, or, for, but, after, although, because)

Prepositions: Words that link a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence (by, about, behind, above, across, at)

Interjections: Words that show strong emotion (Oh! Wow!)

To get more hair-raising details about the parts of speech and how they fit into the wacky world of English grammar, you need an English teacher (they live for this stuff). If you can’t find an English teacher, check out English Grammar For Dummies by Geraldine Woods (Hungry Minds, Inc.).

Comparing with suffixes

If you have things that you want to rank, you need to be able to show degree. Of these things, which is small, which is smaller, and which is smallest? Or, which is large, which is larger, and which is largest? Although you can use the words more and most to show degree, doing so often sounds awkward (more large or most large) or just plain wrong (more good and most good, for example). Hence, the comparative suffixes can be helpful:

-er: You use -er when you’re comparing two things. Of your two children, which is the younger and which is the older? Of your two pictures, which is the nicer or which is the prettier?

-est: You use -est when you’re comparing more than two things.

Not all English words lend themselves to these suffixes. Long words, for instance, don’t use them (use more beautiful instead of beautifuler). Some words, like good and bad, don’t follow the pattern either. The degrees for bad are worse and worst; the degrees of good are better and best. For more tips on using these suffixes, head to Chapter 23.

Part III

Expanding Your Base

In this part . . .

Words that mean the same thing, words that mean the opposite, words that sound alike, words that are spelled alike, words made from other words, and words that come from other languages — these chapters have them all.

Branching out from the basics of word elements, in these chapters I clue you in to the delightful differences and stunning similarities in the wonderful world of words.

Chapter 8

Shading Meaning: Synonyms, Antonyms, Connotations, Denotations

In This Chapter

Meaning the same

Meaning the opposite

Understanding connotation and denotation

P eople who speak and write well have the keys to the kingdom. Speaking and writing well helps you get a good job and move up the ladder of success. When you communicate your feelings, ideas, hopes, and fears with confidence, people think you’re hot stuff. And you are!

One relatively easy way to expand your vocabulary and your word power is to know piles of synonyms and antonyms. Armed with more words, you can express yourself more confidently and become a more interesting speaker and writer.

This chapter gives you the lowdown on synonyms and antonyms, explains how having a command of them benefits you, and offers lots of examples to give you an idea of how many new words you can encounter and incorporate into your everyday language. Of course, not being one to lead you to a buffet without helping you select the delicacies you crave, I also offer plenty of tips on how you can be sure to pick the word that conveys just the meaning you want.

Distilling Synonym Essentials

Synonyms are words that have the same meaning or nearly the same meaning. Synonyms are useful for the following reasons:

You can express your precise meaning. Mark Twain is credited with saying that using the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. Synonyms help you choose just the right word. Because synonyms never share the exact meaning, you can give your message just the shade of meaning that you want.

For example, meager and inadequate are synonyms. However, if your money is meager, you can just stretch it to pay the bills. If your money is inadequate, you can’t ante up what you need.

You can add variety to your speaking and writing. By using synonyms, you can avoid repeating the same word over and over — something listeners and readers find very distracting. English teachers and editors hate it, too. They call it redundancy.

You can substitute words that you do know how to pronounce or spell for words that you don’t. Suppose you’re speaking about a film you recently saw. You want to use the word macabre (muh-kahb-ruh or muh-kah-bur), but you’re unsure how to pronounce it. You can use gruesome or eerie instead. This ability to switch words also comes in handy when you’re taking tests, writing papers, or preparing a report for the boss. Don’t know how to spell a word? Use a synonym.

So how do you find the synonyms you need? You can use a print dictionary or thesaurus (or their online versions). High-quality dictionaries explain the differences among synonyms and shed light on the different shades of meaning of each word. And, of course, the reason thesauruses exist is to provide synonyms. Turn to Chapter 2 for full coverage of dictionaries and thesauruses.

Before

This matter is important because it can affect important decisions you’ll be making about important situations.

After

This matter is important because it can affect momentous decisions you’ll be making about critical situations.

Sidling up to synonyms

Sidling means “approaching from the side,” which is what synonyms do in a way. A synonym never means exactly the same thing as the word it replaces. No word is ever an exact synonym for another word because there is always a slightly different meaning between them. Consider some synonyms for those famous opposites, love and hate:

Love: adore, cherish, treasure, adulate, worship, revere, esteem

Cherish and treasure imply that the love object has been raised on a pedestal; revere and worship show that the person is venerated as a god or goddess. (Note to fans: Feel free to revere and worship me. You can venerate me, too.)

Hate: abhor, scorn, dislike, shun, abominate, despise, detest

Even though all these words are synonyms, their meanings are quite different in some cases. For example, scorn implies not only hatred but also mockery and even avoidance. When you scorn someone, you ridicule them and try to shun their company. Then we have the matter of degree. The words detest and abominate suggest that the hatred is so strong that the speaker can’t even bear to be in the person’s presence.

Checking my dictionary, I find that main, chief, primary, and principal are listed as synonyms, and they’re all adjectives. Because they’re all adjectives, and they all mean pretty much the same thing, they should be interchangeable, don’t you think? And so it appears:

The main reason for Laurie’s migraine was overwork.

The chief reason for Laurie’s migraine was overwork.

The primary reason for Laurie’s migraine was overwork.

The principal reason for Laurie’s migraine was overwork.

You can substitute synonyms for each other, but the following example shows that what you end up with may not be what you want: Roscoe attends primary school. If you replace primary with a synonym here, you end up with a sentence that doesn’t make sense. Roscoe can’t attend main, chief, or principal school — there is no such thing.

As this example shows, words listed as synonyms in a dictionary (or in Vocabulary For Dummies!) can’t always stand in for each other. Pay attention to the criteria listed in the following sections when you want to substitute a word.

Context and purpose

Some words are formal; some are colloquial. Some are more scholarly; some are more casual. Make sure that the word you choose matches your message and medium: For example, when was the last time you saw black hair referred to as raven tresses — outside of a romance novel, that is?

If you’re trashing your boss around the water cooler, you may describe the odious toad as despicable, detestable, loathsome, sickening, nauseating, repulsive, obnoxious, execrable, hateful, offensive, and nefarious. But if you’re smart and realize that some words are inappropriate in certain contexts, you’re more likely to refer to your boss as formidable, rigorous, and challenging. Context can have a big impact on the words you choose.

Your reason for wanting a synonym

If you’re hunting down synonyms to find the right word, great. If you need a synonym to avoid repetition, fine. But if you’re loading your speech or prose with synonyms merely to impress folks with the number of words you know, stop. Halt. Cease. Discontinue, end, or terminate the practice. Check and arrest your impulses. Why? Because it’s obvious and annoying.

Talkin’ the Talk

Herminone is trying to buy a new carpet. She knows that she wants something to jazz up a small room, perhaps a nice bright red. She’s trying to explain this to the carpet salesperson, a very knowledgeable man who has just done a complete inventory of all of his carpets.

Herminone | I’d like that carpet, please.
(pointing to |
a lovely plush |
carpet): |
Salesman: | What color, ma’am?
Herminone: | Uh, red.
Salesman | Ma’am, that carpet comes in crimson, cherry,
(with a sniff): | scarlet, carmine, cerise, ruby, cranberry, maroon,
| and vermilion. Which red would you like?
Herminone: | Maybe blue?
Salesman: | We have it in azure, cerulean, sapphire, blue-
| berry, navy, sea blue, turquoise, teal, cobalt,
| Prussian, and sky blue. Which blue will it be?
Herminone: | Can we start with an aspirin?

This interchange between Herminone and the salesman illustrates one of the joys of English. Because English includes many synonyms — words that have the same or nearly the same meaning as another word — it has the ability to distinguish fine shades of meaning.

Substituting synonyms

When you decide that you do need another word, navigating your way through a list of synonyms is only part of the battle. You also have to make sure that you pick an appropriate synonym and use it correctly.

Using the right word

Using the wrong synonym can cause errors and mistakes. People tend to confuse the words libel and slander because they both mean “to damage a person’s reputation.” However, there is an important distinction between the two words: libel is written defamation, and slander is oral vilification. Because synonyms have subtle shades of meaning, you want to use the exact word to suit your audience and intent. Here’s a famous example: Sweat, perspire, and glow are synonyms. However, in polite company, horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow.

Using the word right

You have to pay attention to the mechanics of using one word in place of another:

Part of speech: If the word you want to replace is a noun, for example, make sure that the synonym is a noun too. If the word is an adjective, make sure that your synonym is an adjective.

Number and tense: Make sure that the synonym is the same in tense (if it’s a verb) or number (if it’s a noun). For example, if you’re replacing a verb in past tense, make sure that the synonym is also a verb in past tense. If the noun is plural, make sure that the synonym is plural. (This tip is especially helpful if you’re using the thesaurus program in your word processor.)

Original: We were walking through the door just as the sky diver landed.

Incorrect tense: We were go through the door just as the sky diver landed.

Correct: We were going through the door just as the sky diver landed.

Original: The boat sailed through the rough waves (noun) toward the shore.

Incorrect part of speech: The boat sailed through the rough break (verb) toward the shore.

Correct: The boat sailed through the rough breakers (noun) toward the shore.

Standard usage rules: In any language, you use certain words in certain ways. The trick with using synonyms in English is to make sure that you use the word correctly. Here’s an example:

Correct: Many have died trying to scale that peak.

Incorrect: Many have died trying to mount that peak.

Mountain peaks are scaled. They’re not mounted, even though the words are synonyms.

Analyzing Antonyms

An antonym is a word that means the opposite, or nearly the opposite, of another word. Antonyms are just as useful as synonyms. Knowing a wide range of antonyms not only helps you express yourself clearly but helps you remember words and understand their various shades of meaning. Using the same love/hate association I used in the previous section, I offer you these antonyms for the verb forms of these words:

Hate: adore, adulate, appreciate, cherish, covet, crave, desire, esteem, honor, love, lust after, long for, prize, relish, revere, treasure, worship

Love: abhor, abominate, condemn, curse, despise, detest, dislike, disparage, execrate, flay, loathe, reject, resent, scorn, shun

Notice anything interesting about the words in the examples? The antonyms (or opposites) for hate are the synonyms (or like words) for love, just as the antonyms for love are the synonyms for hate. This is more than just a neat little trick. Antonyms of words with opposite meanings are usually synonyms for each other. Because of this, knowing antonyms helps you remember synonyms, too. Think of it as a twofer offer, and check out Table 8-1.

Understanding Subtext: Connotation and Denotation

Connotation is a word’s understood meaning — its emotional tone or subtext. Denotation is a word’s dictionary meaning. Every word has a denotation, but only some words have connotations.

Two words may have similar denotations but very different connotations. Consider the denotation and connotation of the words tumor and mass. Imagine how you would react to your doctor telling you that you have a tumor and may need surgery versus her telling you that you have a mass and could require a procedure. Tumor and mass mean the same thing, but tumor is a scary word; mass is less so. Surgery and a procedure mean the same thing, but surgery is a scary word, and procedure isn’t. Tumor and mass have the same denotation, “a lump.” But tumor has a terrifying connotation; mass sounds much less frightening.

Here’s another example: Sobbing and blubbering have the same denotation, “crying.” However, sobbing suggests pitiful crying, while blubbering suggests foolish, overwrought crying.

Keeping up with current connotations

A word’s denotation can change over time as the word is used in different ways. For example, before computers burst onto the scene, the denotation of the word mouse was a small furry rodent — cute in cartoons but not in your kitchen. With the advent of the computer age, however, a mouse also came to be known as a palm-sized device used to move the cursor on a computer screen. (Mouse can also be used as a verb, meaning “to sneak around.”)

Fortunately, you can easily find out whether a word’s denotation has changed: Just consult an up-to-date dictionary. A word’s connotation, however, can be much more difficult to discern. It depends on the following factors:

Time: In the 1930s, cat assumed the connotation of “a person in the know.” (The word cat was short for “hepcat” — slang for a jazz enthusiast.) Today, that connotation is still used, but it’s not as common.

Place: In the same way, place also affects a word’s connotation. If you use the word cool when you speak to a refrigerator repairman, he may assume that you’re discussing a problem that has to do with your frozen peas melting because your fridge is broken. But if you use the word cool when you’re gyrating in a nightclub admiring someone else’s moves, the word’s connotation is “sharp” or “attractive” (what people in the 1960s and 1970s called “groovy”).

Tone: The speaker’s tone also affects a word’s connotation. If someone says great in an admiring tone, you know that he or she is saying something is “excellent.” For instance, if you make your sweetie a favorite food, he or she might say, “Liver and onions? Great!” But if great is uttered with a mocking tone, it comes to mean the exact opposite, as in “Liver and onions? Great, I just can’t wait.”

The connotation of a word sometimes bears no relation to its denotation. A decade ago, gnarly took on the connotation “hip or cool.” The actual definition is “twisted or contorted.”

Deciding between positive and negative connotations

English gives you the power to distinguish fine shades of meaning. But with this great power comes great responsibility: You have to choose words with the exact connotation you need. The word you choose depends on what you mean to say and who you’re talking to. Table 8-2 lists examples of positive and negative connotations.

Connoting colors culturally

Words aren’t the only things that have connotations as well as denotations: Colors do, as well. The connotation of a color is very much influenced by cultural context. For example, in Western culture, white is the color of purity; in Asian cultures, it’s the color of death. In America, it used to be taboo to wear black to a wedding because it symbolizes death; now, wedding guests at formal affairs are asked (sometimes required) to don black. In China, however, black is still out for weddings. Red is the color of celebration in Chinese culture; in the United States, red often has a morally suspect connotation.

Chapter 9

Hear Your Homonyms and Homophones Here

In This Chapter

Understanding the difference between homonyms and homophones

Distinguishing between words with multiple meanings

Creating puns with homonyms and homophones

W hether you’re a native or nonnative speaker of English, you may have encountered (or may soon encounter) words that sound alike but mean different things. These words, officially referred to as homonyms and homophones, are just another bane to folks trying to learn or improve their use of the English language.

Teachers who try to get their students enthusiastic about these seemingly inexplicable variations may do their best to convince you that these words are wonderful examples of the beauty, richness, and varied past of the English language. But don’t let them fool you. Many teachers still have to rifle through a dictionary to remind themselves of the difference between a homonym and a homophone. Fortunately, you don’t have to remember the difference. All you have to know is that English has a lot of words that sound alike (and are sometimes spelled alike) but mean different things. This chapter covers the homo-nyms and homophones you may come up against most frequently or that may give you the most trouble.

Differentiating Homonyms and Homophones (In Case You’re Curious)

The official distinction between homonyms and homophones is described as follows: Homophones are simply words that sound alike, regardless of their spelling and meaning. Examples of homophones include:

awl and all

piece and peace

to, two, and too

pie and pi

Homonyms are words that are spelled alike and sound alike but have different meanings. Some examples of homonyms are:

ball (the toy) and ball (the dance)

fine (as in “Denzel is one fine-looking man”) and fine (the money you pay when you get a parking ticket)

pool (the game), pool (the swimming hole), and pool (the verb meaning to gather together)

saw (past tense of see) and saw (a blade for cutting)

As you make your way through this chapter, ponder the following nuggets of information about homophones and homonyms. You may find the information to be interesting in a perplexing way:

All homonyms are also homophones because they sound alike (and that’s what makes a homophone a homophone). But not all homophones are homonyms. To be a homonym, the words have to be spelled alike.

Some words fall into both categories: Course and coarse, for example, are homophones of each other (they sound alike but are spelled differently). Course and coarse are also homonyms because each spelling has various meanings.

• coarse (rough) and coarse (vulgar; crude)

This fabric is so coarse (rough) that it scratches my skin.

What a coarse (obscene) film! We’re not showing that at the family reunion!

• course (direction), course (series/trend), and course (track)

Which course (direction) shall we take?

The course (series) of lectures looks interesting.

The golf course (track) is so crowded we’ll never get on the green.

(Course also has some less-often used meanings. You can find them in a dictionary.)

Talkin’ the Talk

Pat and Pat are instant messaging each other. Let’s drop in on their cyberconversation:

|  | Pat E.: | Hey, what ya doin’?
|  | Pat I.: | Hay back. Just trying to figure out my math lessen
|  |  | for tomorrow.
|  | Pat E.: | Do you mean your lesson?
|  | Pat I.: | Yeah. Whatever. I don’t understand how this
|  |  | plain thing works.
|  | Pat E.: | Pat, we’re studying geometric planes, not plains.
|  |  | That’s geography class.
|  | Pat I.: | LOL. You know what I mean. I just don’t get it.
|  | Pat E.: | What don’t you get?
|  | Pat I.: | How we’re supposed to know what principals to
|  |  | use.
|  | Pat E.: | It’s principles, Pat. Geometric principles. Look, I
|  |  | have a suggestion.
|  | Pat I.: | What?
|  | Pat E.: | Why don’t you study English instead?
|  | Pat I.: | I sea ware your going with this. . . .
|  | Pat E.: | Bye, Pat.
|  | Pat I.: | Buy, Pat.

Dealing with Homonyms and Homophones

Homonyms and homophones are like hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural calamities. You may get plenty of warning, but you really can’t escape them. So how do you deal with homonyms? There are no rules to govern the use of homonyms; there are only a few memory tricks to help you distinguish between them. The few memory tricks that I share here are really only helpful if you’re writing and need to know which spelling is correct. For example:

Stationary has an a as in stay and means “staying in place;” stationery has an e as in letter and means “letter-writing paper.”

Principal is a person and ends in pal; principle is a rule and ends in le.

Although this information is helpful as you write (when you need to know how to spell a word), it doesn’t help you when you’re listening. You need to use context to determine what the person you’re listening to is talking about — that’s pretty much the strategy you have to use with all homonyms.

So my advice to you is to simply memorize the meanings and spellings of the words. That way, you can instantly recognize the words that are important for helping you say what you mean. If you’re unsure about a word’s meaning or use, check a dictionary to make sure that you pick the word you want and not its evil twin.

Before

Due ewe no wear eye mite find a sail on stationary sense eye have sew many thank ewe cards too right and male?

After

Do you know where I might find a sale on stationery since I have so many thank you cards to write and mail?

Making a Lo-o-o-ng List

Table 9-1 gives you a long list of the homonyms and homophones that you may come up against often or that are especially troublesome for speakers of English. The table also includes a few helpful tips and examples for words that are especially hard to use or spell. As you use this list, keep a couple of things in mind:

The list is incomplete. I’d need another hundred pages or so to include all the homonyms and homophones in the English language. Only the ones I think are the most common or the most problematic are listed in this table.

If you still have trouble keeping some of these words straight, you’re in good company. No doubt there is a linguist (or two) somewhere who knows all the spellings, meanings, iterations, and derivatives of these words and who never makes a mistake. Everyone else has to look these words up occasionally.

Some words you may never get. A lot of people — despite years of trying — still have a hard time with complimentary/complementary and lie/lay, for example. If you have a word that just doesn’t stick, don’t sweat it. If you don’t have access to a dictionary, use another word instead. English, fortunately, is full of synonyms (head to Chapter 8 for a list of those).

Note that in the table, n stands for “noun,” and v stands for “verb.” I use the whole word in the rest of the book, but this table is already long enough.

Having Fun with Homonyms

Homonyms are words that have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings. For example, hearing refers both to the ability to use your ears and to an airing of issues in a legal setting. For a more complete explanation of what homonyms are, refer to the “Differentiating Homonyms and Homophones (In Case You’re Curious)” section earlier in this chapter.

Believe it or not, you can have a lot of fun with homonyms. Because of the way homonyms work, it’s easy to create puns with them. A pun is a play on words created with a homonym. The joke originates from the word’s multiple meanings. Here’s an example of the homonym caliber used in context:

In the late 1800s, the man who was shot of out the cannon daily at the Barnum and Bailey Circus decided to quit. Circus owner P.T. Barnum hated to lose a good man, so he sent him a message, “I beg you to reconsider — men of your caliber are hard to find.”

Caliber has two meanings: “diameter” and “character or abilities.” Using context, we can deduce that caliber is used in this joke to mean “character or abilities.” The humor arises from our understanding of the other meaning.

Another example:

A panda walks into a restaurant and orders a sandwich and a drink. When he is finished eating, he pulls out a pistol and shoots up the place, scaring customers and breaking dishes, glasses, and liquor bottles before turning to leave.

Shocked, the manager says, “Hey, where are you going?”

The panda glances back over his shoulder and says, “I’m a panda — look it up,” before disappearing out the door.

The bartender pulls out a dictionary and thumbs through it until he finds an entry for panda. The definition reads, “A tree-dwelling animal of Asian origin characterized by distinct black-and-white markings. Eats shoots and leaves.”

The homonyms in this joke are shoots, which means “fires or blasts,” as well as “buds or sprouts,” and leaves, which means both “departs” and “foliage.”

How about a few more favorites:

How did the piano get out of jail? With its keys!

How can you tell when a toy is nervous? It’s all wound up.

What is the tallest building in your city? The library — it has the most stories.

Where is King Solomon’s temple? On the side of his head.

You can also use homophones to create puns. The key to creating puns is as follows: If you’re writing a pun, you want the words to be spelled alike; if you’re saying a pun, you want the words to sound alike. Otherwise, it appears that you made a mistake, and then the joke’s on you.

Chapter 10

Compounding Words

In This Chapter

Finding out how to define compound words

Discovering closed compounds, hyphenated compounds, and open compounds

Using the parts of compound words to master new words

O ne way to describe something new is to combine two words to form a new word. The combination gives the new word a special meaning that is different from the original meaning of the separate words. For example, you combine “head” and “line” to get “headline.” A headline is the title of an article, not a line on your head.

However, you can figure out the meaning of “headline” by looking at the word a little more closely. “Head” is the top of your body. A “headline” is the top of an article. In most cases, we notice a person’s head first; in the same way, we notice the headline of an article first. Even though the parts of “headline” didn’t seem to add up at first glance, they sure do when you look at them again.

Knowing about compound words can help you quickly and easily decode many unfamiliar words.

Presenting Compound Basics

Compound words are comprised of two or more words written as one word (hothouse, for example), a hyphenated word (comrade-in-arms), or two or more words that together represent a unique item or idea (such as commander in chief or school bus).

Because compound words appear in various forms, how can you tell whether a word is truly a compound word or just a compound wannabe? The following list presents two simple guidelines to help you figure out if a word is a true compound:

Each element must be a complete word. Pre-law is not a compound word because “pre” is not a complete word (even though law is). Goldfish, however, is a compound word, because “gold” and “fish” are separate words.

No letters are dropped or added when the compound word is formed. When a prefix or suffix is added to a word, letters are often dropped or added. Similarly, when two distinct words come together, letters are often dropped or changed in order to join the words. A compound word, however, is formed by just sticking the two words together, without adding or removing any letters to do so:

Compound word: day + light = daylight

Not a compound word: holy + day = holiday

Compound word: like + able = likeable

Not a compound word: justify + able = justifiable

Language is fluid and ever-changing. As language evolves, hyphenated or separate word compounds may become closed compounds. When you are in doubt about the spelling of a compound word, check an up-to-date dictionary.

Gathering up closed compounds

Closed compounds appear as one word with no break between the words used to create it. In addition, no letters are added or removed in order to make the compound; the two words are just put together. As in any compound word, you can use the meanings of the individual words to puzzle out the definition of the compound. As you read the examples in Table 10-1, cover the last column on the right. Knowing each part of the compound word can help you define the new word it forms.

You can form a slew of compound words with the word “super.” Most of these words use “super” as a prefix, as in superabundant (exceedingly abundant), superhuman (more than human), and supercharge (charge with an excessive amount). However, a handful of compound words use “super” as a word rather than a prefix. For example, we have superannuate (soo-pur-an-yoo-ate), which means “to allow to retire on a pension because of age or sickness.”

Separating hyphenated compounds

Hyphenated compounds are written as one word — two words joined by a hyphen. As you check out the examples in Table 10-2, try reading only the first two columns, and then see if you can guess the meaning of the compound word.

Although many hyphenated compounds are built from two words, as Table 10-2 shows, you can also find a quite a few common three-word compounds: sister-in-law (and the other in-law words), five-year-old, and show-and-tell, for example.

It is often hard to determine whether a word is hyphenated. Sometimes the hyphen depends on what part of speech the word is. For example, show-off is hyphenated as a noun but not as a verb (show off). To add to the confusion, you can’t always rely on similar words being treated the same way. For example, you hyphenate brother-in-law, mother-in-law, and the other in-law words, but you don’t hyphenate commander in chief. The following guidelines usually work:

Use a hyphen in compound words beginning with self: self-satisfied, self-examine, and so on.

Use a hyphen in compound words that end with elect: president-elect, for example.

When you apply the preceding rules, be sure that you’re combining two complete words — not a root and a suffix or prefix that aren’t words themselves. For example, self-examine, self-elect, and self-respect are hyphenated compounds. Selfishness and reelect aren’t compound words and therefore don’t use hyphens. (Although, you may choose to hyphenate reelect just to distinguish the double e.)

You usually hyphenate compound words that begin with all (all-around and all-American). Keep in mind, though, that this isn’t always the case (all in one).

Use an up-to-date dictionary. If you’re not sure whether a word should be hyphenated, look it up.

Fluttering butterflies

The compound word butterfly comes from the Old English words butere (butter) and fleoge (fly). Although the origin of the word is obscure, it may hark back to the belief that butterflies (or witches in the guise of butterflies) stole butter and milk. As many song writers, poets, and others have noted, switching the initial consonant sounds of the individual words (butter and fly) gives you flutter by — words that describe what butterflies do.

Making multiword compounds

English contains some compound words that are written as two (or more) separate words. This type of compound word is relatively rare, likely because the two words that make up the compound word get combined into one word for ease of spelling. These two-word compounds are almost always nouns. Table 10-3 lists a few of them.

Dash it all! I want a hyphen!

A hyphen is created by one click of the keyboard. A hyphen looks like this: -. A dash is made with two clicks of the key and looks like this: —. (This two-dash hyphen is called an em dash because it is as wide as a capital letter M.) A hyphen and a dash are not the same mark of punctuation. A hyphen is used to join parts of words, while a dash is used to join parts of sentences.

Using Compounds to Build Your Vocabulary

No matter how a compound is written, you can still use the individual words to get an idea of the compound word’s definition. Often, the definition of the compound is a sort of combination of the definitions of its individual words. For example, shuffleboard (the game in which you use long cues to shove disks along a smooth surface) is made up of the word shuffle (a dragging, sliding movement) and the word board (a flat surface, usually of wood).

You can sometimes figure out the definition of a compound word by knowing its history. For example, the compound word bootlegger was originally used to describe a person who smuggled outlawed liquor in the tops of his tall boots. From that, the term came to mean anyone who makes, sells, or transports alcoholic beverages illegally. The language also gained the adjective bootleg, which describes music and videos copied illegally.

The following suggestions can help you make compound words part of your daily written and spoken vocabulary:

1. Jot down unfamiliar compound words that you hear or read.

2. Look the word up in the dictionary to find out whether it’s a closed compound, hyphenated compound, or open compound.

3. Group related words.

For example, put all the words about the sun together. Doing this makes it easier for you to see how the words are similar.

Because it’s easier to remember new words when you group them by theme, I arrange some compound words by related topic in the following sections.

Halving your options with “half”

Of all the words used to build compounds, “half” is probably one of the most common. Many of the compound words formed with half are hyphenated. Remembering this quirk makes these compounds easier to use and spell correctly. Table 10-4 lists some compounds made with half.

Eating well: Compound words about food

You may get hungry when you read the list of compound words, in Table 10-5, about food! See how many of these compound words you can define from their parts. All of the food-related compound words in the table are nouns.

Here’s an interesting compound word about food — wormwood. No, it’s not wormy wood, even though it sounds that way. Rather, wormwood is the active narcotic ingredient of absinthe, a bitter green liqueur now banned in most Western countries. Originally, the herb was used as a folk remedy for worms in the body — hence the “worm” in its name. Because of the herb’s bitter qualities, wormwood’s figurative meaning is “something bitter, grievous, or extremely unpleasant.”

Getting comfortable with homey compound words

Table 10-6 lists some compound words formed around the word “home.” Nearly all are closed compounds. Again, as you look at this list, try to use the two smaller words to define the newly formed compound word.

Few people felt as strongly linked to their area of the country as the Northerners and the Southerners during the Civil War. This is reflected in the language of the period. For example, the compound word copperhead was coined by the New York Tribune in the early days of the Civil War to refer to a Northerner who sympathized with the South. The term came from the sneaky and poisonous copperhead snake, which strikes without warning.

Sunning yourself: Compound words with “sun”

The hot, bright star that lies at the center of our solar system has sparked many myths, legends, and stories through the ages. According to ancient Egyptian legends, for example, the earth arose as a hill from the featureless ocean Nun. Darkness was dispersed by the sun god Ra, who alit as a phoenix (fee-nix) on the hill. His offspring were Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of water. Each day, Nut (depicted as a cow) would give birth to the sun anew. Each dawn, the sun rose as Khepri, a giant scarab beetle, and crossed the sky as Ra in a ship crewed by other gods. Each night the sun sank below the horizon as an old man, then crossed the underworld to begin the cycle again.

In addition to sparking fascinating myths and legends, the word sun has been combined with many other words to form important compound words. Try adding the words in Table 10-7 to your vocabulary.

Eyeing compound words with “eye”

Human eyes are amazingly powerful. Astronauts that have orbited the earth have reported spotting the wakes of oceangoing ships. Many people consider vision to be the team captain of the five senses. Because people get most of their information about a word from their eyes, it’s no wonder that English has so many compound words that contain the word “eye.” Sometimes these words are used as nouns, but they can also function as verbs (to eyeball something, for example).

The compound words in Table 10-8 are all formed with the word eye. (All the words in the table are nouns.) I bet you can find some old favorites, as well as some newcomers, among these words. As you go over the list, try to use each word in a sentence in order to help you fix the words in your “mind’s eye.”

Idioms are phrases and expressions that cannot be taken literally, or word for word. Instead, they are understood in a figurative sense. English has several common idioms that involve the word eye: to have an eye for (to appreciate); to keep an eye on (to watch); to see eye to eye with (to agree with).

Adding up the days

English and related Germanic languages (such as German, Dutch, Danish, and Swedish) derive most of their names for the days of the week from Germanic and Norse mythology. French and other Romance languages, such as Italian and Spanish, derive their names for the days of the week from Latin and classical mythology. Here are the origins of the English names for the days of the week:

Sunday: sun day (from Old English sunnandaeg, literally “day of the sun”)

Monday: moon day (from Old English mondaeg, literally “day of the moon”)

Tuesday: Tiw’s day (from Old English Tiwesdaeg, literally “day of Tiu” — the Germanic god identified with Mars)

Wednesday: Woden’s day (from Old English Wodnesdaeg, literally “day of Woden” — also known as Odin, the chief Norse god)

Thursday: Thor’s day (from Old English Thurresdaeg, literally “day of Thor” — Norse god of thunder and war)

Friday: Frigg’s or Freya’s day (from Old English Frigedaeg, literally “day of Frigga” — Germanic goddess of heaven and love)

Saturday: Saturn’s day (from Old English Saeternesdaeg, literally “day of the planet Saturn”)

Combing through some “hairy” compound words

Hair was a hit musical. Hair is also the silky, curly, or rough stuff that covers your head (and most of the rest of your body). And hair is the basis of many important compound words. Table 10-9 holds some “hairy” compound words that you may find beneficial in conversation and writing. (All the words listed are nouns.)

Chilling compound words with “snow”

Ever hear the saying, “Everybody talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it”? Well, we talk about the weather all the time because it is a powerful force of nature that affects everything we do. As sophisticated as the modern world is, we’re still pretty much at the mercy of the weather. We hide in the cellar when a tornado strikes and cancel school when it snows. Speaking of snow, Table 10-10 lists compound words that contain the word “snow.” Use the words to describe some of the interesting weather in your neck of the woods!

While we’re on the topic of weather, the coldest place on earth is Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska, which recorded a temperature of –80 degrees Fahrenheit. The hottest place on earth is Death Valley, California, which recorded a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit. The snowiest month occurred in Tamarack, California, when the city received 390 inches of the cold white stuff.

Fooling around with “play” compound words

You work so hard, why not take a break and play a little? No, it’s not time for baseball, football, or even a hacky sack. Rather, it’s time for some compound words that all contain the word play. Table 10-11 lists a few “play” words that describe different kinds of playing. Use the nouns listed in the table the next time you take a break!

Compounding a Few, Final Words

Airport, bathtub, birthday, boardwalk, corncob, doorway, flowerpot, lemonade, mountaintop, paintbrush, playground, pocketbook, railroad, rainbow, rosebud, seashell, seahorse, seesaw, sliding-glass, spell-binder, teardrop, toothache, treehouse, and wishbone — these are a few of my favorite compound words. The list is completely arbitrary, so feel free to add your own contributions!

Chapter 11

Romancing English: Words from French, Spanish, and Italian

In This Chapter

Using French-born words with panache

Speaking Spanish the English way

Eyeing Italian–American words

F rance has one television for every two people in its population, 63 airports, and a ton of perfume. Spain? Over 895,000 metric tons of fish were caught there in 1996. Italy has lip-smacking spaghetti and ice cream so sinfully delicious (and fattening) that it should be illegal. So what do all of these countries have in common? In addition to people, perfume, and pike, they have all given English a huge amount of handy words. They also derived their languages from Latin way back when, and along with Portuguese, Romanian, and a few other Indo-European languages, are called the Romance languages.

English has embraced words from a heap of other languages and dialects, near and far, ancient and modern. In fact, three-quarters of all English words are foreign born. English has begged, borrowed, and swiped some of its most useful social words from countries both near and far. These borrowed words pertain to art, architecture, geography, hobbies, music, dance, food, and entertainment.

This chapter covers words that entered English from French, Spanish, and Italian. For words from other countries or regions, head to Chapter 12.

One of the most effective ways to stretch your vocabulary is by exploring a word’s origins, or etymology. Doing so helps you link related words so that you can figure out the meaning and usage of many commonplace words that have entered English from other languages.

Ooo La La! English Words from French

From the French, the United States has imported some great perfumes, pâté (a meat paste), and words. For example, Americans use many French words to describe people, including their personalities, occupations, and personal habits. Some of these borrowed words are adjectives like naive (ny-eev), which means “unsophisticated or simple,” and petite (peh-teet), which means “small and trim of figure.” Others are nouns, such as ingenue (an-zhuh-noo), which means “a frank or artless young woman.” You may be surprised by how many English words with French origins you use regularly. The following words, for example, are other ordinary English words that also happen to be French:

Avalanche (av-uh-lanch): a sudden rush of snow and/or earth down a mountain

Crouton (krew-tahn): a small cube of bread

Etiquette (et-i-kit): rules of conduct and behavior

Garage (gah-rahj): a building used for housing a car or other vehicle

Toile (twahl): a sheer, airy fabric

An effective way to learn new vocabulary is to expose yourself to words that are used in particular topics: words relating to social situations, for example, or words relating to food and cooking. Giving the words a common frame of reference makes them easier to memorize, recall, and use correctly. For that reason, I arrange the words in the following sections into related groups.

Socializing with French flair

At one time, France in general and the French courts in particular were the center of the western world. Considered the zenith of European culture and refinement, the French courts set the standard of courtly behavior. As a result, from the French came many English words that relate to social interactions and etiquette (itself a French word). Table 11-1 lists a few of these words.

Talkin’ the Talk

Estelle is having a conversation with her new, very sophisticated acquaintance, Sarah Snooty. They’re sitting in a posh French restaurant, thinking about trying the overpriced escargot (a fancy-schmancy word for snails in garlic butter — I think they taste like greasy rubber bands, but what do I know?). Let’s be shameless and listen in.

Sarah Snooty: | Since I’m so popular, beautiful, and rich, I get
| along with everyone. I even have a good rapport
| with the staff here.
Estelle: | Yes, you seem very genteel.
Sarah Snooty: | We’ll both order the steak tartar. It’s very chic.
Estelle (no | No, raw meat with a raw egg is so gauche. I’ll
longer afraid | have the escargot.
of making a |
faux pas and |
fed up with |
Sarah Snooty’s |
attitude): |

Practice makes perfect, so practice using new words. Who knows, some cutie-pie may walk by, overhear your conversation, and be impressed with your sophistication and polish!

More pig, please

France has almost always been closely — although not always happily — tied to England for several reasons. First, only a short distance separates the two countries (the English Channel is only about 30 miles wide). Second, there were several marriages between the countries’ royal families. Third, the countries were politically entangled. Several English kings, for example, claimed to rule parts or all of France, and several French kings claimed to rule all or parts of England.

But perhaps the event that led to the greatest influence of the French on the English was the Norman invasion. In 1066, the Normans (folks from the northern part of France, called Normandy), led by William the Conqueror, invaded Anglo-Saxon England. The victorious William (actually the last person to invade the British Isles successfully) became king, bringing with him French customs and the French language. Of course, the ruling class (the Normans) spoke French; their subjects (the Saxons) spoke English.

An interesting result of the division between the aristocratic French and the conquered Saxons is that the names of meats (a culinary luxury of the wealthy) come from French words: beef, pork, mutton, and venison, for example. The names of animals — cow, pig, lamb, and deer — have English histories. It would seem that the English subjects raised the livestock, and the French invaders ate the meat.

Dining on words

In addition to French words related to social ineptness and style (see the preceding section), the French have also given English a whole slew of words that have to do with food. (Given that French chefs are among the world’s most renowned, this is appropriate.) Table 11-2 lists several food-related words that English appropriated from the French.

The word crepe, without the accent on the first e, also comes from French and indicates a thin, crinkled fabric. You can spell the thin pancake crepe without the accent if you wish, but it’s kind of fun to feel French for a moment.

To reinforce your knowledge, try to use each word in a sentence — preferably while you’re cooking a delicious French dish.

Entertaining words from French

New York may be the city that never sleeps, but France’s capital city, Paris, is the City of Light and, as such, has quite a reputation for being a pretty lively place. France can also lay claim to some of the world’s greatest artists (Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, and Georges Seurat, to name just a few). So it seems fitting that the French language has given English several words related to entertainment and the arts. Table 11-3 lists a few of these words.

Walking the streets

You have to give the French credit for having a beautiful language. Even French words that represent the more mundane things in life — like streets, buildings, and desks — sound pretty darn good. In fact, you can probably say “I am eating a worm” in French and have the folks around you order up a helping, too.

So, to end this little tour of French words turned English, Table 11-4 has a few of the more ordinary items. Even when you’re not talking about culinary delights or artistic expression and technique, French words are still pretty darn cool. You have to admit, after all, that sitting down at an escritoire (es-kri-twar) to do your homework sounds a lot cooler than plopping yourself down at a desk.

Talkin’ the Talk

Buff Bruce and his arm-candy, Leslie, are shopping for antiques at a trendy shop on the boulevard. Having taken a page from this book, they can now talk the talk and walk the walk. Because they’re so attractive, feel free to lean closer and eavesdrop.

Leslie: | Let’s get a bas-relief for the living room.
Bruce: | Huh?
Leslie: | There’s an attractive bas-relief over there. It
| would fit right over the fireplace.
Bruce: | Now I know what you mean. And the answer is no.
Leslie: | You’re so cheap. Next you’re going to tell me that
| we can’t afford that chateau in the Loire Valley.
Bruce: | The Dow tanked, baby. We can’t afford a house in
| France — we’d be lucky to afford a shed in the
| Loire Valley.

Ole! Words from Spanish

Before the 1500s, English was only lightly flavored with Spanish. Queen Mary’s marriage to Philip II of Spain changed all that. Even though the reign of “Bloody Mary” lasted only five years before Queen Elizabeth (the first one, that is) took charge, it was enough time to forge a strong link between the Spanish and English courts. Spanish coins, precious goods, and words were freely traded. Although the money and spices are musty relics, most of the words remain robust nearly 400 years later. In the following sections, you find a listing of some Spanish-born words that have become a part of English. The words are used in everyday English and can become a valuable addition to your daily vocabulary.

Don Quixote the quixotic

In 1605, Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes created the downtrodden nobleman Don Quixote and his faithful servant Sancho Panza to satirize the valiant knights and faithful servants of previous writers. The elderly Don (a title of respect, almost like “ma’am”) was the embodiment of chivalry — gallant, helpful, and polite.

Unfortunately, Don Quixote was blinded by some very strong rose-colored glasses. He was almost pitifully unaware that his efforts to embody and demonstrate the highest principles were directed toward people who had no desire for or appreciation of his usually ineffectual efforts. Today, the word quixotic describes lofty but impractical sentiments like those held by Don Quixote.

Spanish words have entered English not only from Spain, but also from the many other Spanish-speaking places around the world, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Central America, South America, and Cuba.

Eating words

I’m a practical person, so I’m going to cut to the chase and give you the words near-and-dear to my heart: Spanish nouns for foods that have become commonplace in America (see Table 11-5). The words are especially useful when you’re ordering delicious dishes in restaurants. (My kitchen is closed until I finish this book . . . and then I’ll think of another excuse!)

Building on Spanish words

Many Americans know that the British and French colonized America, but many do not know that the Spanish colonized America, as well. In fact, until Americans began pushing westward and moving out the folks already there, much of the American southwest was under Spanish and then Mexican control (Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821). As a result, many of the names of places in the American southwest — as well as words related to agriculture and architecture in that region — came from Spain. Table 11-6 lists some Spanish words that are used in English to describe places and building materials. Table 11-7 lists Spanish words that are related to ranching — the primary livelihood of the people who settled the American southwest.

You can use some Spanish-flavored words to help spice up your vocabulary. Check out the following:

Before

Tomorrow is that big horsey event. Are you showing the horses?

Let’s get the rope and see if we can tie him up. We don’t want him running into the trees or frightening the other animals.

After

Tomorrow is the rodeo. Are you showing the mustangs and broncos?

Let’s get the lariat and see if we can lasso him. We don’t want him running into the chaparral or starting a stampede.

Welcome to America!

According to The New York Times 2001 Almanac, 21,631,601 Americans are foreign-born. Of these newcomers, over one-third come from Spanish-speaking countries, including Spain, Cuba, Mexico, South America, and Central America. Nearly 40 percent of all Hispanics in the United States are first-generation immigrants.

But Spanish-speaking people have a long and illustrious history in America. In fact, the names of many places in America come from the Spanish language. Some of my favorite Spanish names are Amarillo (yellow), Los Angeles (the angels), Rio Grande (large river), Santa Fe (holy faith), Mesa (table), Las Vegas (fertile plain), Los Alamos (the poplar trees), Sierra Madre (mother mountain range), and Sierra Nevada (snowy mountain range).

Getting to know you

In Table 11-8, you find words from Spanish that describe people. Many of these words are common English words that just happen to be Spanish (albino and renegade, for example). But some of the words — don, doña, duenna, and hombre, for example — are rarely used in general conversations, unless you’re speaking colloquially or, in the case of don and doña, referring to a person who actually uses the title. As the American South and Midwest become more multicultural, however, knowing these words may help you communicate successfully.

Every word has a denotation (its dictionary meaning). In addition, many words also have connotations (emotional overtones). For example, peon is a word for a day laborer or a person who tends a horse. The word’s connotation, however, is negative. The term peon is often used to refer to a peasant or a person of a lower class.

Señor, Señora, and Señorita

If you’re ever lucky enough to travel in a Spanish-speaking country or be a guest in a Spanish home, you may want to know the traditional terms of address. Señor is Spanish for “Mister,” Señora is Spanish for “Mrs.,” and Señorita is Spanish for “Miss” or “Ms.” (And be sure to ask for second helpings of paella, a delicious chicken and fish dish.)

Living la Dolce Vita: Words from Italian

Along with Latin and French, Italian has provided the English language with some of its most frequently used foreign words and phrases, from la dolce vita (the good life) to arrivederci (good-bye). Many imported Italian words relate to areas of art, music, and literature, but other areas are flavored by Italian, as well. Knowing some of these words can help you polish your vocabulary — whether you’re with your sweetie, a client, or the kinfolk.

Soothing the savage beast

Attention culture vultures: It’s not every day that you get to attend a formal music event, such as a concert, recital, or opera. If you do get the chance to go to an opera, it may be handy to know the lingo. Allegro (ah-ley-groh), for example, means “a brisk or rapid pace.” It’s an adverb or adjective that is often used as a musical direction. Table 11-9 lists a group of music-related words that have entered English from Italian — hardly surprising because Italian is the language of opera, and of music in general. The words in this section can help you to articulate your feelings about the selection of music you’re enjoying.

The Italian phrase prima donna refers to the principal female singer in an opera or concert company. Literally, the word translates to “first lady.” Prima donnas are notorious for their unwillingness to share the spotlight. In modern American usage, prima donna means “a temperamental, vain, or arrogant person.”

Talkin’ the Talk

Cassandra has dragged Penelope to the opera. The intermission finally comes, giving Cassandra and her friend an opportunity to talk about the performance thus far.

Cassandra: | Didn’t I tell you? Opera can be so uplifting.
Penelope: | You’re just here because the maestro is good-
| looking.
Cassandra: | I am not. I liked the soprano’s aria.
Penelope: | That wasn’t a soprano, and it wasn’t an aria. It
| was the tenor singing a duet with someone in a
| donkey suit.
Cassandra: | You’re just mad because you wanted to see a
| movie instead.
Penelope: | No, I’m mad because I’m still waiting for the fat
| lady to sing.

Being an armchair architect

The Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Colosseum. The Sistine Chapel. The Vatican. There’s no doubt that Italian architects have given the world some magnificent buildings. Along with these landmark buildings come the words to describe their features. Today, these born-in-Italy words are found in common English currency. No doubt you’ve heard them used often. Check out the list of architectural terms in Table 11-10 and find the common terms that you might have missed. All the words came from Italian originally, but English-speakers have made them their own.

Don’t worry if you confuse pizza and piazza. If you do, you have plenty of company! To set the record straight, pizza is the delicious bread, sauce, and cheese pie; piazza is a plaza.

In the Middle Ages, the short, upright columns that supported handrails were made in circles that swelled to a pear shape at the bottom. The handrails looked like the flowers of the wild pomegranate, called balaustra in Italian. Because the handrails had this flowerlike appearance, they came to be called balaustras. The French took the name and spelled it balustra, which became baluster in English. Careless speech soon turned the word into the familiar term banister.

Invigorating Italian words (and a couple of others)

Italians have a reputation for being a passionate people. Stereotype or not, they have given English speakers a lot of action-packed words. Many of the words listed in Table 11-11 are military terms, while others, like fracas, simply refer to an action-filled event.

Okay, so parasol and valise aren’t action-packed words. But have you ever seen a person hit someone with a valise or parasol? It can be pretty intense.

Before

Let’s eat outside and watch the group of boats.

After

Shall we eat alfresco and watch the regatta?

Using foreign-born words gives your vocabulary panache (pah-nash) — a dashing, stylish elegance.

Chapter 12

Borrowing from the Neighbors: Words from Other Languages

In This Chapter

Lifting language from Latin

Drinking in words from the Irish and Scots

Getting expressive with words from Yiddish

Incorporating Arabic words

Y ou can borrow sugar from a neighbor only because English borrowed the word “sugar” from Sanskrit centuries ago. And the borrowing didn’t stop there. In fact, many of our most useful everyday words come from other languages, including Latin, Celtic (Irish and Scottish), Arabic, and Yiddish. In case that isn’t enough for you, I go through some Indian, West African, and Russian words that English adopted.

To help you discover the variety of English words incorporated from different languages, this chapter explains some of the common — and not-so-common — words English gained from other languages.

If you wonder whether there are any English words in the English language, take heart. There are. I just don’t have room to include them in this book. Just kidding. Actually, all of these words are English words. But knowing where they came from can help you remember what they mean. It can also help you understand why some words (like Latin nouns) behave oddly.

Liking Latin

Latin is considered a “dead” language, but that hasn’t prevented it from having a major impact on today’s English. Many of English’s most common words have Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes (see Part II for more on word parts, particularly the ones that came from Latin). But the impact of this ancient culture on English extended far beyond mere word parts. English took piles, stacks — even truckloads — of actual Latin words, also.

Using Latin every day

Would you believe that the words major and minor are actually Latin words? They are. Major means “greater or larger;” minor means “lesser.” Ursa Major is the Big Bear (the constellation we call the Big Dipper); Ursa Minor is the Small Bear (the Little Dipper). You can find more Latin words that came intact into English in the following list. Some of these words are probably familiar to you. Others you may have heard or read and wondered what they meant.

decorum (deh-koh-rum/kor-um): This word is a noun that means “propriety and good taste in behavior and dress.” Example: The maid of honor’s lack of decorum at the wedding caused a rift in the family.

gratis (grat-is): Gratis is an adverb that means “without charge or payment” or “free.” Example: The lawyer provided her services gratis. Many people say something is “free and gratis,” but that’s redundant. It’s like saying its free and free.

in toto (in toh-toh): In toto is an adverb that means “in the whole” or “as a whole.” Example: The editor decided to print the book in toto, not just selected passages.

You often hear the French word en masse used instead of in toto. En masse means essentially the same thing as in toto, but it is usually used in reference to people: The crowd moved en masse to the gates to greet the arriving starlet. See Chapter 11 for other French words English has usurped.

odium (oh-dee-um): This noun means “intense hatred of a person or thing regarded as loathsome.” Example: I feel only odium for that toad. The adjective form of odium (odious) is more common. That odious toad got pond slime all over my garage floor.

per se (pur say): The adverb per se means “by or in itself.” Example: He is not a lover of fine art, per se, just someone who appreciates looking at pretty pictures.

pro tempore (proh-tem-puh-ree): This adjective means “for the time being” or “temporarily.” Nowadays, people usually shorten this term to pro tem, as in “The president pro tem is the senator who presides over the Senate when the vice president is absent.”

status quo (stat-us kwoh): This noun means “the existing state of affairs.” Example: Politicians are generally skeptical of new policies and block legislation in order to preserve the status quo.

terra firma (ter-uh fur-muh): This noun means “dry land” or “solid ground.” Although it is not an everyday term, you usually hear terra firma used when someone has finally touched ground after a prolonged or harrowing journey either at sea or in the air. Example: The ship’s crew, after months in rough and stormy seas, was glad to be back on terra firma.

The following sections offer other Latin words that have come into English pretty much unscathed.

Paying attention to problematic plurals

To form most English plurals, you simply add -s or -es to a noun: boxes (box), houses (house), and cats (cat). Of course, not all nouns fall quietly into line: knives (knife), children (child) and mice (mouse), for example. Some of the most baffling irregular plurals come from Latin. Why? Because many Latin words don’t follow the English rule for making plurals (add -s or -es). Nor do they fall nicely into line with the other English irregular nouns. Instead, Latin words insist on using the Latin rule for making plurals. And the Latin rule is to change the last letters of a word to -a, -ae, or -i. Table 12-1 lists several examples of irregular plurals from Latin and Greek.

Embracing the British Invasion

The British have given us a lot more than rock bands. (Okay, so there’s also fish and chips.) You guessed it: I’m going to steer the conversation around to some British English words. Many terms used by the British seem to be the same as American English words, but you may be surprised at how differently the terms are used. Most Americans know that a bobby is a police officer in Britain. But did you know that a jitney is a bus or that a mackintosh is a raincoat? Check out these other examples:

In the United States, bonnet is used to describe a hat. In England, bonnet means the hood of an automobile. The trunk is the boot.

When Americans want something to dip into the onion dip, they ask for potato chips. The British ask for crisps.

Americans wait on the curb before crossing the street. The British wait at the kerb.

In America, French fries are a popular side dish. In England, this same side dish is known as chips.

At the license branch, Americans line up. The British get in a queue.

I know what you’re thinking: “I’ll never go to England. The weather stinks, and the beer’s warm.” Ah, you may be right about your vacation plans, but keep in mind that British English — not American English — is taught, spoken, and used in India, the Caribbean, Africa, and many other places around the world. So when you meet English speakers who have come to America from around the world, you’ll have the words you need to understand what on earth they’re talking about!

Some English words (hippopotamus, thesaurus) can be made plural the Latin way (hippopotami, thesauri) or the English way (hippopotamuses, thesauruses). To complicate matters even more, some Latin words, because of common usage, can take the English plural: mediums, curriculums, and phenomenons, for example. If you’re not sure how to make a word plural or which is the preferred form, look the word up in the dictionary.

Talkin’ the Talk

Sam Shark has just picked up an important British client, Ms. Thornberry-Smyth-Throckmorton-Blain, at the airport. A slick cookie, Sam Shark is trying to impress Ms. T-S-T-B with his smooth lines.

Sam Shark: | I’ll just fill ‘er up with gas, and then we can catch
| a flick.
Ms. T-S-T-B: | Pardon?
Sam Shark: | I’ll just fill up with petrol, and we can go to the
| cinema.
Ms. T-S-T-B: | Cheeky bloke, aren’t you?
Sam Shark: | Shall we stop at the hotel bar before we unload
| your luggage — or after?
Ms. T-S-T-B: | You’re quite the bold boy. But I have a better idea.
| Drop me at the kerb. There’s a cab rank; I’ll get on
| the queue. You can take yourself to the pub.

Talking Blarney: Words from the Irish and Scots

Another fertile source of English words is Celtic (pronounced with either a hard or soft “c”), the language spoken by the Irish, Scottish, and Welsh. America’s Celtic immigrants have added great richness to the English language. The following list contains a few of the more common Irish words:

blarney (blar-nee): Blarney is a noun that means “smooth talk used in flattery and coaxing.” In other words, a sweet-talker who convinces you to do something against your better judgment by telling you how intelligent/beautiful/handsome/charming/intriguing you are is using blarney.

The origin of the word blarney comes from the Blarney Stone, a stone in Blarney Castle near Cork, Ireland. According to legend, anyone who kisses the Blarney stone receives the talent for eloquent cajolery.

brogue (brohg): A brogue is an Irish accent or pronunciation — the lilt that folks from Ireland have when they speak English. (While the Irish have a brogue, the Scottish speak with a burr, characterized by a rolled “r” sound.)

galore (guh-lor): Galore is an adjective that means “in abundance.” You use galore after the word it modifies. For example, you may say “My favorite restaurant has desserts galore.”

plaid (plad): Plaid is a fabric with stripes or bars of various colors and widths that cross at right angles.

A plaid whose design represents a particular Scottish clan is called a tartan. Scots wear plaids over their left shoulders as part of their national costume.

shamrock (sham-rok): A shamrock is a type of clover with three leaves. In the United States, you often see this emblem of Ireland around St. Patrick’s Day, when just about everyone drinks green beer, wears buttons proclaiming “Kiss me, I’m Irish,” and pretends to know who Brian Boru was.

Table 12-2 lists more useful everyday words that have come into English from Irish and Scottish immigrants. All of the words in the table describe objects that you likely know and use — or have wondered about for years!

If you’re ever lucky enough to visit Ireland, the superlatives are grand, gorgeous, and brilliant, as in “Ah, but it’s a grand potato, a gorgeous loaf of brown bread, and a brilliant pint of lager.”

Oy Vey! English Words from Yiddish

Some people claim that Yiddish is a dying language. If that’s so, why have so many Yiddish words become commonplace in the daily usage of English? Yiddish words appear in books, on television, and in conversation. The word bagel, for example — also called “a donut with a college education” and an “alligator teething ring” by comedians — has become ubiquitous throughout America, thanks to mass marketing.

Table 12-3 lists some Yiddish words that pertain to food. (All the words in the list are nouns.) How many of these Jewish-American foods would you like to add to your shopping list?

Talkin’ the Talk

Happy Guest is at a bar mitzvah. The solemn ceremony is over, and the 13-year-old Jewish boy has officially become an adult member of the Jewish community. (The female version is called a bat mitzvah or bas mitzvah.) The reception has started, and it’s a lavish spread indeed.

Happy Guest | Ah! Blueberry blintzes — so nice with a dollop of
(first trip to the | sour cream. But aren’t they fried in butter to get
buffet table): | that crispy golden shell?
Glowing Hostess: | How many times a year do you get blintzes?
| Splurge a little.
Happy Guest | A slice of lox on a bagel would be perfect.
(second trip |
to the buffet |
table): |
Glowing Hostess: | Don’t forget a schmeer [spread] of cream cheese
| and a slice of onion.
Happy Guest | The rabbi [Jewish religious leader] is cutting the
(third trip to the | challah. It looks tasty, but I don’t think I should.
buffet table): | I already have borscht.
Glowing Hostess: | Look at you, you’re so thin. What’s a little more?
| And how about a nice fat oval of gefilte fish,
| with a dab of the aspic it’s nestled in.
Happy Guest | Time for dessert. Let’s see, there’s rugelach
(fourth trip | (pastries filled with jam) — prune-filled,
to the buffet | raspberry-filled, apricot-filled. So many choices!
table): |
Glowing Hostess: | What, you’d insult the cook? Take a little of each.

Dressing Up with Words from Arabic

Many Arabic words filtered through French or Spanish during the seven centuries that the Arabs ruled Spain, and later, as words passed from trader to trader along the spice routes that linked the Eastern world of the Orient with the Western world of Europe. Much later, these words passed into English. As a result, English is flavored with words from northern Africa, especially the Arabian states. Arabic words adopted into English include everyday words like cotton (thread or fabric made from seed hairs of certain plants), bandana (large, colored handkerchief), sequin (small, shiny spangle sewn as decoration to clothing), henna (a dye used to dye hair or skin auburn), lute (stringed instrument similar to a guitar), and sherbet (a frozen fruit dessert).

Trading words along with goods

Because of its access to seas and proximity to both the Eastern and Western worlds, Northern Africa was a key hub along the ancient and not-so-ancient trade routes. Not surprisingly, most of the words the English language received from Arabic identify items traded in the Middle East, as Table 12-4 shows.

As you may expect, the words listed in Table 12-4 are especially useful for shopping, home decorating, and communicating with people who trace their heritage to the Middle East.

Changing words to gold

As the study of chemistry developed in Europe in the late Middle Ages, much knowledge came from the work of Arabian alchemists who had preserved and developed scientific scholarship during the Dark Ages. The following list describes just a few examples. (Table 12-5 lists other useful English-Arabic words. All of the words in the table are nouns.)

The word chemistry (the study of the properties of substances and reactions) comes from the mystical science of alchemy.

The word alchemy comes from the Arabic al-kimiya (“philosopher’s stone”), which may have derived from an Arabian name for Egypt — Kemia. An early form of chemistry with philosophic and magical associations, alchemy’s chief aims were to turn base metals into gold and to discover the elixir of perpetual youth.

Other chemical terms, such as alkali (a water-soluble chemical containing hydroxide) and alcohol (a pungent chemical combination), derive from Arabic words.

The prefix al- is simply the Arabic word for “the.”

Table 12-5 lists several nouns that come to English by way of Arabic.

An almanac (ahl-muh-nak) is a book published every year that contains a wealth of information on such topics as countries, states, nature, and culture. Nobody knows where the word comes from, but linguists conjecture that it’s an Arabic derivation.

Pursuing English-Arabic words about people

The useful words listed in Table 12-6 entered English from Arabic. All of the words are nouns and describe people. You probably use some of these words every day. Now that you know their origins, you may be able to link them to the words on the list that you have not encountered before.

Today, Arabians still use the language of the prophet Mohammed more than 1,300 years after his death. Modern written Arabic — and the spoken language of educated Arabians — is not significantly different from classical Arabic, the language in which the Koran was written down soon after Muhammad died. Modern colloquial Arabic, however, has diverged from the written language. The numerous dialects are as different from each other as Dutch is from English. So, although today Mohammed would be able to speak to educated Arabians, he would probably need an interpreter to talk with Arabians who speak colloquially.

Talkin’ the Talk

Amber and her husband Ted have each spent a busy day preparing for their move to a new house. Amber’s been shopping for last-minute things. Ted cleaned out the attic of their current home. They meet at a restaurant for dinner.

Amber: | What’s that smell? Is it you?
Ted: | What smell?
Amber: | That overpowering odor. What have you been
| doing?
Ted: | Oh, it must be the camphor oil I put on. Being
| in the attic all day really made me congested.
Waiter: | Are you ready to order?
Amber: | Yes, thank you. I’ll have the albacore.
Waiter: | And you, sir?
Ted: | I’ll take the same thing. We’d also like to go
| ahead and order sherbet for dessert.
(Turning to Amber) | So what did you do today?
Amber: | I found the perfect ottoman for the family
| room. It goes with our sofa and will look
| wonderful in the alcove.
Ted: | How much did it cost?
Amber: | I got it on sale.
Ted: | How much?
Amber: | You don’t want to know.
Ted (to Waiter): | Could you bring us a carafe of wine?
Waiter: | How many glasses, sir?
Ted: | One.

1, 2, 3, 4, can I have a little more?

The numeral system used almost universally today was probably invented by the Hindus (the inhabitants of India). This numbering system simplified calculations by making the value of a number depend on its position, as well as on the number itself. In fact, a synonym for Arabic numerals (1,2, 3, 4, 5, and so on) is Hindu numerals.

The Hindu system, which included a zero, was adopted by the Arabians and may have reached Europe as early as the 10th century (although it was some time before it replaced Roman numerals). English appropriated two useful mathematical words from the Arabians: algebra, a branch of mathematics, and algorithm, a set of rules for solving a problem.

Lapping Up Words from Other Lands

In addition to the languages mentioned so far, scores of other languages have contributed to our word-hoard. For example, from West Africa, we get cameroon, a game of chance played with five dice. From various Indian dialects, we get shampoo, loot, and pal, as well as the following:

chutney (chut-nee): sweet and sour sauce

ginger (jin-jer): a spice

darjeeling (dar-jee-ling): a fine variety of tea grown especially in the mountainous districts of northern India

nabob (nay-bob): wealthy, powerful person

thug (thug): a hoodlum, gangster and so on

From Russia, English absorbed babushka (a folded kerchief worn over the head and tied under the chin), shaman (a priest or medicine man reputedly able to heal the sick and foretell the future), and tundra (vast, treeless plains of the arctic regions). Table 12-7 lists other words that came into English from the Russian language.

Guess how much I love you

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is a mausoleum of pure white marble, built by the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan to house the body of his beloved second wife, Mumtaz Mahal (“The Chosen of the Palace”). She bore him 14 children and died during childbirth in 1630 at the age of 39. Originally, Shah Jahan had planned to build a matching mausoleum in black marble on the opposite bank of the river to house his own body. The project was never completed. Instead, he was buried (in 1658) beside his wife in the shrine that he had built for her.

Part IV

Getting Savvy with Vocabulary

In this part . . .

Y ou can pick and choose among these chapters for the specific type of words you want. Your choices include words related to business, money (and how to spend it on food and clothing), law, and healthcare.

I devote a chapter to pointing out ways to use vocabulary basics on standardized tests. I fill you in on some of the words added to the language within recent memory (at least my recent memory), and I tell you about people and places whose names have become words in their own right.

Read them all or just dip into the chapters that interest you. Either way, you can increase your vocabulary savvy.

Chapter 13

Trying Your Skills on Standardized Tests

In This Chapter

Knowing which vocabulary skills can help you on standardized tests

Understanding the different types of test questions that require vocab knowledge

Preparing for a test

H umans have invented many cruel kinds of torture — stiletto heel shoes, the Department of Motor Vehicles, automated dialing systems, and standardized tests. SAT, LSAT, GRE, GMAT, and ACT are some of the better-known tests, but you don’t have to be heading to college, law school, or graduate school to face a standardized test. Many states require that students get an acceptable score on one (or several) standardized tests before moving on to the next education level.

A broad vocabulary can help you when you take standardized tests: After all, the more words you know, the better you do on the verbal portions of the tests. But the ugly fact is that you’re not going to know every word — and in some cases, most of the words — you come up against. Instead of panicking, you can use a few vocabulary skills to increase your chances of getting a better score.

For more in-depth help on preparing for standardized tests, check out one of the many Hungry Minds books devoted to test preparation, such as The GMAT For Dummies, The ACT For Dummies, CliffsTestPrep SAT I/PSAT, or CliffsTestPrep LSAT.

Assembling the Skills You Need

Some portions of standardized tests are specifically designed to test your vocabulary. The test questions are generally multiple choice, and you select the best answer from the options provided. One example is antonym questions, in which you have to indicate which word means the opposite of a given word. Other sections of standardized tests (like the dreaded analogy sections) try to determine how good you are at understanding implied relationships between words. Still other sections — like the sentence completion or fill-in-the blank sections — test how good you are at completing an idea based on context clues. In addition to these types of questions, standardized tests often include sections that test your reading comprehension (how well you understand written material) and your writing ability (how well you express yourself).

In each case, vocabulary plays a large part, regardless of whether vocabulary skills are being tested directly (as in the analogies or sentence completion portion of the tests) or indirectly (as in the reading comprehension and essay portions of the test). Following are a few language skills that can help you with standardized tests.

Knowing roots, prefixes, and suffixes

One of the handiest vocabulary skills to have is being able to define each of the elements in a given word. Many English words are built from root (or base) words, and they often include prefixes and suffixes that alter or narrow that root’s definition. For example, if you dissect the word transmutable, you see that it’s made up of the following parts:

trans- (prefix): Trans- is a Latin prefix that means “beyond, across, or through,” as in transatlantic (across the Atlantic) and transform (to change shape).

mut (root): Mut comes from the Latin word mutare, which means “to change.” You see this root in words like mutation (a major change) and immutable (unable to change).

-able (suffix): The suffix -able means “capable or worthy of,” and it appears in a host of words, including abominable (worthy of abomination) and portable (able to be carried).

If you put these definitions together, you get “able to change through or across.” Now this doesn’t give you the precise definition of transmutable (capable of being altered into another form or substance), but it does give you an idea of the definition, and sometimes that’s all you need to make an educated guess.

Many English prefixes, roots, and suffixes come from Greek and Latin. One of the best ways to prepare for any standardized exam that tests your verbal skills is to know as many of these as you can. The chapters in Part II of this book cover prefixes, roots, and suffixes.

Using context clues

If you come across an unfamiliar word and can’t decode it by breaking the word into its prefix, root, and suffix, as explained in the preceding section, you can sometimes get an idea of the word’s meaning by looking for context clues. When you use context clues, you look in the surrounding sentence or paragraph for embedded information about the word. Sometimes this context information is as obvious as a definition (the italicized word is the one I’m focusing on):

The fuselage, the body of the airplane, sustained little damage during the emergency landing.

Other times, the context clues are less obvious:

The fire chief, suspecting arson, searched for the incendiary agent, only to discover later that faulty electrical wiring was to blame.

In the first example, the definition of fuselage is given in the sentence. In the second example, you have to use the clues to figure out what an incendiary agent is (a substance that causes a fire).

Being able to comprehend a word’s meaning by the information around it can help you in the reading comprehension and sentence completion portions of standardized tests. Chapter 3 offers more detail in using context clues to define unfamiliar words.

Understanding the relationship between words

Understanding the relationship between words means knowing whether the terms are synonyms (have similar meaning) or antonyms (have opposite meaning). This skill is vital for scoring well on the analogy section of a test. A typical question in an analogy section gives you three words in the following format: “chatty : talkative :: unhappy :___.” Turned into words, this reads: “chatty is to talkative as unhappy is to ___.” Your job is to find the word that is in the same relationship to “unhappy” that “talkative” is in to “chatty.” Because chatty and talkative are synonyms, you want to choose the word that is the best synonym for “unhappy”: “sad.” In addition to synonyms and antonyms, you also need to be able to identify more complex relationships and the order of the relationship. For example, if the first pair of words are synonyms that go from lesser to greater, the second pair must have the same relationship and structure. For example,

hill : mountain :: pond : lake

is a valid analogy, whereas

tadpole : frog :: horse : colt

isn’t. In the first example the word pairs go from smaller to larger; in the second, the younger to older relationship of the first pair is reversed in the second pair.

Understanding the word’s connotation (or implied meaning) is also important because the connotation becomes part of the relationship. A word with a negative connotation followed by a word with a positive connotation is, in a sense, a type of order, from negative to positive. For details on using connotation and denotation to understand words, head to Chapter 8.

Getting Familiar with the Types of Test Questions

Vocabulary skills won’t help you much on the math portion of standardized tests — unless, of course, you’re left wondering what an equilateral triangle is (a triangle with equal sides) or how many sides a hexagon has (six). Language skills can help you, however, in the verbal sections — especially in the following types of sections:

Vocabulary: Depending on the test you’re taking, this part may simply ask you to indicate a word’s definition or, in some cases, a word’s antonym (a word that means the opposite).

Analogies: To correctly answer an analogy question, you not only have to be familiar with the given words, you also have to be able to see the relationship between pairs of words.

Sentence completion: This type of question offers a sentence with blanks you have to fill in. To do your best here, you need to have at least a passing familiarity with the possible answers. You also need to be good at recognizing and using context clues.

Reading comprehension: In this portion of a test, you answer questions about a passage you read. Sometimes you’re asked a simple question of fact. Other times you have to draw conclusions or make inferences about the passage. Having a broad vocabulary is a big plus when you’re working on reading comprehension questions. If the vocabulary in the passage gives you problems, however, you can use context clues to get a better idea of the material’s meaning.

The following sections explain, in more detail, the different types of questions and how you can put your vocabulary skills to use when you answer them. If you’re actually preparing for a particular standardized test, such as the SAT or the ACT, check out the test-prep books that Hungry Minds has for you. You can search by the test name at www.dummies.com to find a book that can help you prepare for the particular test you’re facing.

Analogies

Analogies contain two pairs of words. Analogies are presented in the form of a mathematical equation, in which a colon (:) stands for is to and a double-colon (::) stands for as. For example, big : small :: large : tiny is read as “big is to small as large is to tiny.” Your task is to recognize the relationship between the first pair of words and then identify which of the answer choices has the same relationship. When you find the second pair that duplicates the relationship shown in the first pair, you have a winner. Check out the following example:

stallion : rooster :: mare : hen

Stallion is to rooster as mare is to hen. A stallion is a male horse; a rooster is a male chicken. In the second pair, a mare is a female horse; a hen is a female chicken.

Generally, you match the grammatical form of every item in an analogy. For instance, if the first word in the analogy is a noun, the other three words must be nouns.

Analogies can show many different relationships. The most common analogy relationships you may encounter on standardized tests are explained in the following sections.

Figuring out the type of analogy you’re looking at can help you answer the questions correctly. Unfortunately, the folks who make the tests don’t just out-and-out tell you. You have to determine the correct answers for yourself.

Synonym analogies

Synonyms are words that have essentially the same meaning. Because the first pair of words in synonym analogies are synonyms, you want the second pair to be synonyms, too.

gumption : spunk :: verve : vitality

Gumption and spunk both mean courage and initiative. As such, the two words are synonyms. Verve means “vigor and energy,” as does vitality. So they’re synonyms, too. Each pair of words relates to characteristics that a person may have.

Sometimes the words are not synonyms, but merely similar.

skiff : dinghy :: hansom : calash

A skiff and a dingy are both small boats. A hansom and a calash are both small, lightweight carriages. All four words refer to a means of transportation.

Antonym analogies

An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. As always, the relationship that is formed between the first pair of words must also be found between the second pair of words.

naiveté : maturity :: gullibility : sophistication

Naiveté (nah-eev-tay) and gullibility (gul-ih-bil-ih-tee) both mean “innocence,” while maturity and sophistication both mean “experience.” Naiveté is an antonym for maturity; gullibility is an antonym for sophistication.

Remember that the relationship shown in the second pair of words must be the same as the relationship shown in the first pair of words.

Make sure to match the part of speech of the first word to every item in the analogy. For instance, if the first word in the analogy is a noun, the other three words must be nouns, too. You can find more about parts of speech in Chapter 7.

“Type Of” analogies

In this form of analogy, you’re asked to show that an object belongs to a class of objects. For instance, a smirk is a type of smile, a squall is a type of storm, and a panda is a type of bear. Follow this example:

cranial : nerve :: ulna : bone

Here, cranial (kray-nee-al) is a type of nerve; ulna (ul-nah) is a type of bone.

“Part to Whole” analogies

In this type of analogy, the first word in the sample pair is a part of the whole category represented by the second word. For example, a note is part of a song, a letter is part of a word, and a brim is part of a hat.

The relationship must always flow in the same direction for an analogy to be valid. For example, consider this analogy and the two choices:

couplet : poem

A. paragraph : sentence

B. sentence : paragraph

A couplet (kup-lit) is two lines that rhyme. Therefore, it is a small part of a poem. A sentence is a small part of a paragraph (choice B). However, a paragraph is not a small part of a sentence, so choice A is not valid. To be valid, the relationship must be presented in the same order.

The following example shows another “part to whole” analogy:

coda : symphony :: epilogue : novel

A coda (koh-dah) is a part of a symphony. An epilogue (ep-ih-log) is part of a novel. The relationship is even closer, however. A coda is the last part of a symphony, and an epilogue is the last part of a novel. Finally, both a coda and an epilogue are optional: You can have a symphony without a coda, just as you can have a novel without an epilogue.

A key to solving more complex analogies is to consider the relationship between the sample pair of words in as much detail as possible so that you look for that exact relationship in the answer choices. If you precisely define the relationship between coda and symphony, for example, you can skip right over answer choices such as introduction : novel or chapter : novel because those relationships are not the same as the one between coda and symphony.

“Object to Function” analogies

This type of analogy tests whether you can determine the function of a specific tool or item.

ax : chop :: pliers : grip

The function of an ax is to chop something, while the function of pliers is to grip something. Both an ax and pliers are tools. Therefore, the analogy is valid.

Because the “object to function” relationship is a fairly easy one to recognize, test writers often include some tricky vocabulary to make the analogies more challenging.

“Lack of Something” analogies

In this type of analogy, one word in each pair lacks some quality. The other pair must reflect the same relationship, in the same order. For example, a coward lacks courage and a pauper (paw-per) lacks money. The following examples illustrate this type of analogy:

hermit : friends :: mendicant : money

A hermit is someone who hides away alone, so he or she lacks friends (much like a recluse [rek-loos]). A mendicant (men-dih-kent) is a beggar, so he or she lacks money.

“Place For” analogies

In these analogies, you figure out where something takes place or where someone belongs. For example, an actor belongs on the stage, a pilot belongs in an airplane, and ore belongs in a mine. The following example illustrates this type of analogy:

horse : stable :: pig : sty

A horse is usually kept and fed in a stable in the same way that a pig is cared for in a sty. This particular relationship is easy to see, but the word sty might present problems if it’s unfamiliar to you.

Tips for analogies

When you’re working on analogies, make the relationship between the words in the test analogy as precise as you can. Don’t go for the simplest relationship; add enough detail to make the relationship distinctive. As you work your way through analogies on standardized tests, follow these steps:

Start by fitting the words into one of the seven relationships explained in the preceding sections.

See which relationship works best.

Use context clues to figure out any words with more than one meaning.

If none of the choices make sense or you have too many answers that seem to be correct, make the relationship more precise.

To find the relationship between word pairs, you have to think creatively. But when you think creatively, be sure not to overthink. When you overthink, you analyze your answers so deeply that you create relationships that don’t really exist. You might get hopelessly lost, too.

If you’re not sure which pair is the right answer, go for the most logical and obvious choice. If that doesn’t fit, dig more deeply into the question and look for an answer that matches your line of thought.

Talkin’ the Talk

Larry and Mary finished their SATs at the same time and bumped into each other in the hall.

Mary: | How’d you do on the analogy section?
Larry: | I thought I was doing fine until I got to the act :
| play question. I did what my test prep books said:
| I made a sentence showing relationship out of it,
| but it didn’t help me.
Mary: | What was your sentence?
Larry: | ‘An act is a part of a play.’ But with that sentence,
| each of the other pairs made sense, too. A note
| is a part of music. A line is a part of a poem.
| A page is a part of a novel. And a chapter is
| a part of a book.
Mary: | I see your problem. Your sentence wasn’t precise
| enough. An act is a major part of a play. So
| the right answer was chapter : book because a
| chapter is a major part of a book. Even though a
| line is part of music and a page is part of a novel,
| neither are large parts, so they’re not the answer.
Larry: | Well, a lot of good that does me now.
Mary: | You can always take it again.
Larry: | Yeah, but who’d want to?
Mary: | Here’s another analogy for you: joker is to clown
| as quitter is to . . . You fill in the blank.
Larry: | Very funny.
Mary: | Want me to explain it to you?
Larry: | No, I get it.

Antonym questions

Several standardized tests, particularly those given in junior high and high school, have vocabulary sections. In some sections, the task is as simple as picking the right definition (simple, that is, if you know what the word means). In other sections, your task is to pick a synonym (a word that means nearly the same thing) or antonym (a word that means the opposite). The Graduate Records Exam (GRE) — the test that people take to get into graduate programs — uses the antonym twist.

Choose an antonym in this example:

ENCOMIUM:

A. panegyric

B. invective

C. tribute

The answer is B. An encomium is a formal expression of high praise, such as a eulogy. A panegyric and a tribute are essentially the same thing as each other and as encomium. Because you’re looking for the opposite, you know that they can’t be the answer. Invective, which is a verbal attack, is the opposite of encomium.

For more information about antonyms, head to Chapter 8.

Sentence completion

Sentence completion questions include a sentence with one or two words omitted. One-blank sentence completion questions are generally easier than two-blank sentence completions. Regardless of what type of sentence completion you’re answering, if you don’t know the vocabulary involved, these questions can be more brutal than an IRS tax audit or an afternoon at the Department of Motor Vehicles.

One-blank sentence completion

The next question is an example that has one blank that you must fill with the correct answer:

By working a great deal of overtime, Ramon gave the boss a(n) ______ reason to give him a raise.

A. autocratic (aw-tih-kra-tik)

B. despotic (des-pah-tik)

C. compelling (kum-pel-ing)

D. dogged (daw-gid)

E. intrepid (in-trep-id)

The answer is C: By working a great deal of overtime, Ramon gave the boss a compelling reason to give him a raise. Compelling means “forceful; urgently demanding attention.” Definitions of the other choices show you why they’re not good choices:

A. autocratic means “tyrannical”

B. despotic means “dictatorial, oppressive”

D. dogged means “stubbornly persevering”

E. intrepid means “courageous, fearless”

Two-blank sentence completion

The following item has two blanks:

The critic neither ______ nor ______ the director’s latest film: She evaluated the film’s strengths and weaknesses carefully and fairly.

A. aggrandized (uh-gran-dyzd) . . . favored

B. maligned (mah-lynd) . . . criticized

C. celebrated . . . adapted

D. lauded (law-did) . . . derided (deh-ry-did)

E. disregarded (dis-ree-gar-did) . . . showcased

In this case, you can use context clues to help you arrive at the correct answer. The first sentence tells you what the critic didn’t do: She didn’t blank or blank the film. The second sentence tells you what she did do: She gave an unbiased appraisal of the film. From these clues, you know that you’re looking for verbs that indicate bias. Finally, the “neither . . . nor” structure of the first sentence lets you know that you’re probably looking for opposites.

The answer is D: The critic neither lauded nor derided the director’s latest film. She evaluated the film’s strengths and weaknesses carefully and fairly. Lauded means “praised;” derided means “ridiculed.” Both words express bias: one positive, one negative. The other choices spelled out are:

A. aggrandized means “increased, expanded;” favored means “preferred”

B. maligned means “disparaged, defamed;” criticized means “condemned, denounced”

C. celebrated means “honored;” adapted means “fashioned to one’s own needs”

E. disregarded means “ignored;” showcased means “set off for display.”

Tips for solving sentence completion questions

To solve one-blank sentence completion test items, follow these five steps:

1. Cover the answers. Read the sentence and substitute the word blank for the blank space.

2. Look for links in ideas and clues in the sentence that show how the sentence makes sense when complete.

3. Predict the best answer without looking at the choices.

4. Read the possible answers and choose the one that best matches your choice. Use the process of elimination to narrow the field.

5. Check your answer by reading the entire sentence. Rereading the answer you’ve chosen can help you decide if the sentence makes sense. If it doesn’t, revise your answer.

To solve a two-blank sentence completion test item, follow these steps:

1. Cover the answers, read the sentence, and focus on the blank that you think is the easiest to complete. Look for hints that point out the word needed to fill in the easier blank.

2. Provide your own answer without looking at the choices.

3. Look at the answers, pick the one that best matches your word, and fill in the easier blank.

4. Follow the same process for the second blank.

5. Be sure to use process of elimination. As you read the answer choices, cross out the ones that are obviously incorrect.

Plugging in every answer choice in a completion question is just as dangerous as plugging in every appliance in your home: You overload your circuits and cause problems for yourself. The folks who devise test questions try to confuse you by making every answer sound reasonable. You’re much better off coming up with a word on your own and looking for a synonym to it in the answer choices.

Reading comprehension

Being an involved reader can greatly increase your grasp of the writer’s point, as well as the subtle elements of his or her style. These two things are important when you’re working on reading comprehension questions.

By picking up details, you can make inferences (unstated conclusions). When you make an inference, you combine story clues with what you already know to “read between the lines.”

Of course, reading between the lines is hard when you don’t know some of the words in the passage. In that case, use your knowledge of prefixes, roots, and suffixes, and context clues, to puzzle out a word’s meaning. Ask yourself the following questions:

What does this unfamiliar word mean? How can I use prefixes, roots, and suffixes to define the word? How can I use context clues?

Am I confused because the word has multiple meanings? If so, which meaning is being used here?

What point is the author making in this passage? Where is the topic sentence or main idea?

What is the author’s purpose? Is it to tell a story? To explain or inform? To persuade? To describe?

How is this passage organized? How is the text organization linked to the author’s purpose?

The answers to these questions may not only help you divine the meaning of the word that’s tripping you up, but it also may help you identify the main points and the main purpose of the passage — information you need to know.

Paying attention to organization

Identifying the structure of a reading selection can also help you increase your comprehension. Fiction is structured according to chronological (krahn-ih-lahj-ih-kul) order, the order of time. Events are arranged from first to last, as on a timeline. Fiction writers often use dates to show the order of events. In addition, writers can use time-order words to show when events happen. Time-order words include: after, at length, before, currently, during, eventually, first, second, third (and so on), finally, immediately, in the future, later, meanwhile, next, now, soon, subsequently, then, and today.

Nonfiction articles are often arranged in one of three ways: chronological order, cause and effect order, or comparison and contrast order.

Cause and effect order shows the reason why something happened (the cause) and the results (the effect). Signal words include: as a result, because, consequently, due to, for, for this (that) reason, if . . . then, nevertheless, since, so, so that, therefore, thus, and this (that) is how.

Comparison and contrast order shows how two people, places, or things are the same (comparison) and different (contrast). Signal words include: like, just as, in the same way, likewise, similarly, unlike, but, however, on the other hand, and by contrast.

Alphabet soup for the test taker’s soul

You’re not in this alone! This section offers a couple of effective reading strategies that can help you boost your reading comprehension. At first glance, these techniques may look like a bowl of alphabet soup. But don’t let that put you off. They’re easy and effective ways to boost your level of reading comprehension.

Use SQ3R

To use SQ3R, follow these steps:

1. Survey: Preview the text by reading the title, headings, illustrations, and captions. Based on your survey, make predictions about the contents, and then skim the passage to get its overall meaning.

2. Question: As you survey and skim, ask questions about the material and what you find. Start by turning the title into a question. As you read, look for the answer to this question.

3. Read: Read the passage and make predictions. Revise the predictions as you need to. Try to find the main idea by looking at the topic sentence and details in each paragraph.

4. Recite: After you finish reading, look back over the passage. Focus on the title, headings, and topic sentences. Summarize the material in your head, reducing what you read to a few sentences. Then say your summary aloud.

5. Review: Look back to your predictions. Were they on target? If so, find the details you used to make them. If not, figure out where and why you guessed incorrectly.

Use SMRR

To use SMRR:

1. Skim: Preview the passage by scanning the title, heading, art, and captions. Then read the passage as quickly as you can.

2. Mark: Using a highlighter, pencil, or pen, mark the topic sentence and key details. Of course, never mark a text that doesn’t belong to you!

3. Read: Read the text slowly and carefully, checking that you correctly identified the main idea and important points.

4. Reread: Go back over the text, checking that you understand the main idea.

Incorporating General Test Prep Tips

Standardized tests are similar to classroom tests in many ways, but they have a few significant differences. These differences change the strategies you use:

The test items on standardized tests are often arranged from easier to more difficult. As you work through the test, the questions will get more and more challenging. Therefore, you have to budget your time differently. Spend less time on the first questions and more time on the last questions.

Be prepared not to know everything you’re asked on a standardized test. You can (and do!) study for a classroom test. As a result, you may be able to ace the test because you know the material and test-taking strategies. This is not true with most standardized tests. You can prepare by learning the types of information you can expect, but you can’t study the specific material because the content isn’t released beforehand. As a result, there will most likely be questions you can’t answer. Don’t be upset; this is the way the test is designed.

Following are some suggestions for maximizing your time and avoiding panic.

Make a plan of attack

Here are some suggestions for taking standardized tests:

Answer the easy questions first and then go back and work on the harder questions. This strategy benefits you in many ways:

You use your time well by getting some correct answers down in a quick manner.

You build confidence as you write down the correct answers.

You often think of clues that help you answer the more difficult questions.

You may find that clues to difficult questions are revealed in other test questions.

You build momentum, which gets your mind into the test mode.

You leave time for the harder questions.

If you don’t know the answer to a question, eliminate any choices that you can. Narrow down your choices to two or three items (out of five) and choose the most likely answer from among the remaining choices. The odds are in your favor.

If the test that you’re taking doesn’t penalize you for wrong answers (and some don’t), answer every single question, even if you have to guess.

If you decide to work from the beginning of the test to the end, put a checkmark next to any question you skip. Write in pencil so that you can erase the checkmarks (in case you’re not allowed to write on the test). When you get to the end of the test, go back to the beginning and start answering the questions you skipped.

Don’t panic

Panic is a natural reaction to a pressure situation. Nonetheless, panic can prevent you from doing your best on tests, so reduce or banish it. Here are some don’ts that can help you deal with panic:

Don’t panic if some questions seem much harder than others. They probably are! That’s the way the test was designed. This is especially true on standardized tests. Accept this, and do the best you can. On standardized tests, you don’t have to answer each question to do well. That’s because you’re not being marked against yourself; rather, you’re being judged against all other test takers. They’re feeling the same way you are.

Don’t panic if you can’t get an answer. Just skip the question and move on. If you have enough time, you can return to the question later. If you run out of time before you can return to it, you were better off answering more questions than wasting time on a question you didn’t know.

Don’t panic if you blow the test all out of proportion. It is true that some tests are more important than others — especially standardized college admission tests. But tests are only one factor in your overall education. Remind yourself that you have been working hard in class and keeping up with all your homework. Keep in mind that how you do on one test will not affect your entire academic career.

Don’t panic if you freeze and just can’t go on. If this happens, remind yourself that you have studied and are therefore well-prepared. Remember that every question you have answered is worth points. Reassure yourself that you’re doing just fine. After all, you are! Stop working and close your eyes. Take two or three deep breaths. Breathe in and out to the count of five. Then go on with the test.

A minor case of nerves can actually help you do well on a standardized test because it keeps you alert and focused.

Chapter 14

Taking Care of Business Vocabulary

In This Chapter

Discovering vital words common to all businesses

Exploring words specific to individual professions

Making workplace words a part of your everyday vocabulary

C omputer geeks discuss bits and bytes; the aeronautics industry demands BAFO (the best and final offer). Doctors order things to move stat (fast); teachers require an authentic assessment (a type of evaluation). All careers and occupations have their unique words. In addition to these specialized terms, the world of work shares a core vocabulary — the essential words that all job seekers, employees, and employers need to know.

The bottom line is that business has a language all its own, filled with traditional words, new words, and traditional words with new meanings. It’s essential for people who currently occupy the corner office — as well as those who aspire to it — to master the vocabulary of business.

To that end, this chapter provides you with a solid overview of the essential words of many businesses. In addition, because each profession has its own jargon, I give you a list of the specific terms you need to know to be comfortable talking to people from different professions.

Talking on Company Time

Regardless of what business you’re in, how you communicate is important. Whether you’re speaking with customers or writing reports for bosses, you want to sound like you know what you’re talking about. Use the following tips:

Know the specialized language of your profession. No one is comforted by a surgeon who calls a scalpel a thingamajig, or a gourmet chef who doesn’t know the difference between a terrine (a casserole dish) and a tureen (a giant soup pot).

Be familiar with general business terms. If the project leader puts you in charge of preparing a flow chart (a chart showing each step in a process), you don’t want to prepare a report on how things are going instead.

Writing in professional terms

If you didn’t like high school English class, you probably convinced yourself that, because you were going to be a computer programmer/mathematician/ sales representative (pick a profession), you’d never be forced to put pen to paper again. Or maybe you were going to be your own boss or inherit the family business and have other people write for you. As you have probably discovered by now, you miscalculated.

Although this book can’t help you with how you write (get English Grammar For Dummies for that), it can help you with what you write. Table 14-1 lists common business reports that require certain types of information. Because the words are all tangible (they can be touched), they’re all nouns.

In addition to the different types of communication, you may also (or may have already) run across terms that describe a report’s format — its style, organization, and arrangement. In addition, how the document is presented (is it given to everyone, is it in electronic format, and so on) can be important, too. Table 14-2 lists some common formatting terms. (All the terms in the table are nouns.)

Keeping current with modern business lingo

Language — especially the English language, it seems — is changing all the time. Not only do old words take on new meanings, but new words and terms are created to describe modern workplace concepts and processes, as well. Consider the following examples:

The latest hot business term for a take-charge person is proactive (assuming an active role). Be sure to use it properly, as an adjective:

Correct: “I’m a proactive manager.” (adj.)

Incorrect: “I’m getting some proactive in today.” (noun)

Face time is today’s trendy term, meaning “meeting someone in person.” It’s a noun, so use it like this:

Correct: “I got ten minutes of face time with the boss on Tuesday.”

Incorrect: “I face-timed with the boss on Tuesday.”

The grapevine is the informal informational network in an organization, which carries gossip and rumors, as well as accurate information.

Office politics is the term for the strategies that people use in both public and private organizations to gain or maintain a competitive advantage in their careers.

The nouns listed in Table 14-3 describe aspects of today’s workaday world. Knowing these terms can help you do your job better and get ahead in your career.

To procrastinate (proh-kras-tih-nayt) is to “put off doing something unpleasant or burdensome until a future time.” Not surprisingly, the root of procrastination is a Latin word meaning “belonging to tomorrow.” We’ve all worked with people who promise more than they can deliver. I know that you’ll put the pedal to the metal and your nose to the grindstone, apply some elbow grease, and master the words you need to get the job you desire — and deserve.

Before

I keep calling the boss and missing her. We keep leaving messages for each other. I want to find out what standards the company is using to judge my qualifications. Maybe there’s a job I don’t even know about available at the company.

After

I keep playing phone tag with the boss. I want to find out what criteria (kry-teer-ee-ah) the company is using to judge my qualifications. I know there’s a hidden job market — jobs that are never advertised but may be available or may be created for the right candidate. I need to tap into it.

Talkin’ the Talk

Junior is visiting Uncle Tony. Junior found a good job with the law firm Cheatum and Run, and is getting some advice from his uncle.

Uncle Tony: | Junior, you need a rabbi [rab-eye].
Junior: | Uh, Uncle Tony, last time I checked, we were
| Catholic. A rabbi is a Jewish religious leader.
Uncle Tony: | Junior, rabbi is a slang term for a business
| mentor — a person who shows you the
| ropes, who teaches you the basics of the job.
| You don’t have to convert to have a rabbi.
Junior: | Can’t I climb the ladder of success on my own?
Uncle Tony | We all have to network by using personal
(as heplayfully | contacts to help us in business.
smacks Junior’s |
cheeks): |

Doing double duty: Words with two meanings

When English speakers need a word, they beg, borrow, or steal one. On the upside, the casual attitude toward word formation enriches the language and makes it easier for you to express yourself. On the downside, English words often get pressed into service to do double duty, which can make it tough to figure out which meaning is being used.

Table 14-4 shows common words that have uncommon business meanings. When you encounter words like these, you simply have to use context clues to figure out which meaning is the right one. Chances are, if the guy in the next cubicle says, “I need the most recent minutes,” he isn’t talking about time.

Getting the ax

How come there are so many ways to say someone lost a job and only a few ways to say, “I got the job!”? I’m just a writer, not a sociologist, so I don’t know the answer to that. I do know, and share, some of the ways former co-workers describe a colleague who is no longer with the company.

No matter what you call it, the poor schlub is outta there.

Mastering Jargon

Each profession has its own special words, or jargon — the specialized terminology for a particular field. For example, you call a mistake in a computer program a “bug.” You know that a computer “bug” is not the same as the insect you swatted yesterday. That’s because the computer term “bug,” as with many specialized terms, has become a part of everyday vocabulary. Educated people, like you, know how important it is to keep informed so that you can keep pace with a fast-changing world.

You already know that mastering the jargon of your business is essential if you want to understand what people are saying and respond intelligently. However, knowing other business jargon can be almost as important. Being familiar with the jargon in a few areas can be a real asset. For example, I earned my Ph.D. in literature but find myself doing more and more technical writing — which has little to do with my original training in deconstructing fiction and drama.

The following sections list the jargon you’re likely to encounter in the areas of computers, engineering, and publishing. See Chapters 14, 15, and 16 for language that pertains specifically to finances, law, and medicine.

Speaking of software (and hardware, too)

Most offices use computers; many have access to the Internet. In fact, the business world is abuzz today with electrical currents hooking workers up with each other and the outside world. Whether you love computers or hate them, chances are you have to deal with them. Table 14-5 lists computer and software terms you should know. Many of the terms are acronyms, and you pronounce them by saying their letters, as in CPU. Only when this is not the case did I provide pronunciation guidelines in Table 14-5. So just say the letters unless you see a different pronunciation.

A computer term you don’t ever want to forget is backup. Essentially it means to save your heinie by making sure that you have recent copies of important work and information.

Engineering jargon

Table 14-6 lists ten engineering terms that well-educated people should know. (All the terms listed in the table are nouns.) As you read the chart, see how many of these terms you have heard in conversation or on television.

Some of the instruments that engineers use are important in your daily life, as well. Below are five terms that describe measurement devices. As you read Table 14-7, cover the last column to see if you can figure out what each instrument measures. (For clues, head to Chapters 5 and 6, which list common Greek and Latin roots.)

Stop the presses: Publishing and printing jargon

Publishing is another industry that has a lot of jargon. Consider, for example, what a blanket is. If you’re a printer, it’s the rubber sheet in a printing press that transfers the image from the plate to the paper. A slush pile isn’t something you avoid when the snowdrifts melt; rather, it’s the pile of unsolicited manuscripts that pour into publishers. Following are other publishing terms that you may find interesting:

When doctors use the term bleeding, it’s rarely a good sign for the patient. But when printers and publishers talk about something bleeding, they’re referring to illustrations or printing that extends beyond the trim size (finished size) of the page. If a bleed is the effect they’re seeking, it’s just dandy.

To a printer, a dummy isn’t a blockhead; rather, it’s a laid-out copy of a manuscript used to check pagination (the numbers on the page).

Live art? It’s the actual art being used in a publication — not the placeholder, which is often labeled “FPO” (for placement only).

And when printers or publishers ask for the proof, they’re looking for a sample impression of composed type that they can use to check for errors.

Newspaper and magazine folk also talk about putting the issue to bed, which means finishing it. I’m now putting this chapter to bed. Sleep well!

Chapter 15

Mutterings on Money Matters

In This Chapter

Discovering the vocabulary of money management

Exploring words for investments and the financial world

Forming tax-related words

I t’s been called moolah, cash, bread, lettuce, clams, scratch, bucks, and greenbacks. No matter what you call it, you know what we mean — money. The word money comes from the Latin moneta, meaning “a mint.” Since ancient times, money has fascinated people like few other tangibles.

I’ll be the first to assert that money isn’t everything, but having the vocabulary to discuss money knowledgeably does make it easier to manage the green stuff. This chapter gives you the words you need to talk about financial matters, understand the basics of money management, and give intelligent consideration to investments.

Managing Your Money Day to Day

The eccentric American billionaire Howard Hughes once made half a billion dollars in one day. A recluse (rek-looz) who never left his home in his later years, Hughes received a bank check in 1966 for $546,549,171 in return for his 75 percent holding in TWA airlines.

Table 15-1 can help you manage your millions. It presents essential words for dealing with financial issues.

Both checks and credit cards are essentially promises to pay, backed by the person signing the card and guaranteed within limits by a bank or credit card company. Increasingly, electronic banking has begun to replace paper money and coins completely, leaving no trace of metal or paper.

Talkin’ the Talk

Lorna Doone’s life would be wonderful if only she could get a credit card. Because she’s a smart cookie, Lorna talks the matter over with her friendly neighborhood banker, George Bailey. Hurry up and listen in because the bank closes promptly at 3 p.m.

Lorna Doone: | George, what’s a credit limit?
George Bailey: | A credit limit is the maximum amount a person
| can borrow under a credit account agreement.
| Your credit limit will be about $500, for now.
Lorna Doone: | How much will I pay in interest?
George Bailey: | Your card’s APR (annual percentage rate) is used
| to determine your daily periodic rate. The higher
| your card’s APR, the more interest you may pay.
| Variable rate cards are based on inflation and are
| guided by the financial index (such as the prime
| rate). When the index goes down, so does the
| interest rate on your card. Fixed rate cards keep
| the same rate of interest, regardless of inflation.
Lorna Doone: | In other words, if I get a variable rate card, the
| rate keeps climbing?
George Bailey: | We cap the rate by limiting how much the inter-
| est rate can increase or decrease during a set
| length of time.
Lorna Doone: | George, you’re an angel.
George Bailey: | Actually, that’s my friend Clarence. . . .

Folding money

The use of paper money is believed to have started in China sometime between the 7th and 9th centuries A.D. to overcome a shortage of coins. In medieval Europe, letters of credit (amounting to personal checks) were exchanged between tradespeople who knew and trusted each other. Later, goldsmiths started giving receipts for gold left in their keeping. These receipts could then be exchanged for money — basically, the first gold standard.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, private bankers, and eventually central banks, took over this role. They issued notes with a “promise to pay” — words that still appear on many bank notes. Until the 1930s, when many countries went off the gold standard, the holders of these bank notes were entitled to redeem the notes for gold.

Investigating Investment Terms

Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is likely the greatest investor of all time. If you had invested $10,000 in Berkshire Hathaway when Buffett took over in 1965, you would have more than $20 million today. Buffett’s investment record is strong evidence that it’s possible to consistently outperform the market.

Of course nowadays you don’t have to be a Warren Buffet — or a Warren Buffet wannabe — to invest money. Table 15-2 describes some basic terms for investors in the stock and bond markets. (All terms in the table are nouns.) If you’ve been investing for a while, and you read the finance section of your newspaper, you’re probably already familiar with these words. If you’re new to investing (or if you aren’t particularly interested yourself but find that the folks in your carpool are), you may find that knowing these terms can be helpful.

Lucky Lucinda has just come into a windfall (an unexpected gain or piece of good fortune). She’s standing in the bank trying to decide how to invest her money. After she learns the vocabulary of investment, Lucinda can pick the investment vehicles that suit her needs.

Before

Ms. Banker, I need to invest this money in different stuff.

After

Ms. Banker, I need to diversify my portfolio. Perhaps I’ll put some of the money in certificates of deposit (federally insured investments offered by banks) and the rest in money-market funds (short-term investments that are typically safe and easy to redeem).

Talking about Markets

Bull market is the term for a prolonged period of rising prices, usually by 20 percent or more. A bear market is the opposite — a prolonged period of falling prices, usually by 20 percent or more, accompanied by widespread pessimism.

Are you bearish (pessimistic about the market) or bullish (optimistic about the market)? In either case, knowing the inside lingo of the stock and bond markets can help you increase your assets and minimize your liabilities.

Table 15-3 lists essential words for anyone who wants to invest in the stock and bond markets. And who doesn’t want to make money?

Inflation grew to dizzying heights in Germany after World War I. The government printed money frantically as the value of the mark (the German monetary unit at the time) plunged. People needed wheelbarrows of paper money to buy everyday necessities. In 1921, the German rate of exchange was 81 marks to 1 U.S. dollar; two years later, the U.S. dollar was worth 100 million German marks.

Saying it with money

Check out this list of common expressions that contain the word money. Use these sayings in your conversation and writing to express yourself with more precision and style.

blood money: fee paid to a hired assassin

conscience money: money paid, sometimes anonymously, by someone who hopes to atone for previous wrongdoing

even money: equal stakes, with no odds, given or offered in a wager

front money: money paid in advance, especially to start a project

hush money: money paid as a bribe to keep a person from revealing something, such as a scandalous or criminal act

mad money: bit of money set aside for emergency use or for frivolous purchases

pin money: small sum of money, as for incidental expenses

pocket money: cash for small expenses; small change

seed money: money provided to begin the financing of, or to attract additional funds for, a project

Taxing Terms

According to American humorist Will Rogers, the income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf. Liars or not, all working Americans have to deal with taxes. If you can grasp a few common tax terms, making your way through the tax forms will be much easier (not more pleasant, mind you, just easier). Table 15-4 lists some of these nouns.

Here are two words you don’t want to hear, especially together — audit and fraud. During an audit, someone from the IRS (the Internal Revenue Service) examines your tax form to verify that it’s accurate and that you’re being honest. If you commit fraud, you knowingly and willing lie to pull a fast one on ol’ Uncle Sam. And he doesn’t take kindly to that, which can lead to two more particularly unpleasant terms — penalty and jail time.

So who are the people you love to hate? The folks at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the federal agency responsible for administering and enforcing the U.S. tax laws. They’re the ones who assess and collect taxes, determine pension plan qualification, and do other stuff that generally ticks people off.

All that glitters isn’t necessarily gold

Many early prospectors in the American west and northwest mistook chunks of pyrite — a gold-colored iron ore — for gold. The ore became known as “fool’s gold” and was considered worthless. However, the golden phrases in the following list are valuable, as you’ll discover when you mine them for your speech and writing.

gold bond: bond backed by gold, often issued by gold mining companies

gold bug: one who buys gold as protection against an anticipated collapse in the value of currency, stocks, and so on

gold fixing: twice-daily setting of the price of gold, based on supply and demand, by specialists in London, Paris, and Zurich

Gold Pool: representatives of seven countries who seek to stabilize the price of gold

gold standard: monetary system that backs its currency with a reserve of gold and allows currency holders to convert their currency into gold (The U.S. went off the gold standard in 1971.)

goldbrick: anything worthless passed off as genuine or valuable; a lazy person

golden handcuffs: rewards and penalties designed to discourage key employees from leaving a company

golden handshake: financial incentive for a worker to retire early

golden parachute: large payment made by a company to a senior executive upon termination of employment

goldilocks economy: term used to describe the U.S. economy of the mid- and late-1990s as not too hot, not too cold, but just right

Talkin’ the Talk

Laurie is meeting with her tax preparer, her long-suffering husband Bob. Because Laurie works well with words, and Bob works well with numbers, their annual tax conferences are rarely pretty. However, the meetings are always instructive, as well as amusing. The walls are thin and their voices loud, so listening in is a snap.

Laurie: | Dear husband, I have so many deductions this
| year.
Bob: | Remember that a deduction is an allowable
| reduction of income. Deductions come off your
| gross income [total assets or earning], not your
| net income [the amount remaining after certain
| adjustments have been made for debts, deduc-
| tions, or expenses].”
Laurie: | Gotcha. . . . I want to deduct the lawn because it
| would die without me.
Bob: | No lawn deduction.
Laurie: | Can we take exemptions for the kids? That would
| make them deductions.
Bob: | Yes, because the kids are still dependents. They
| rely on us for support.
Laurie: | Goody. Remember that we have 25 kids.
Bob: | Last time I looked, we had two kids. Let’s follow
| the Internal Revenue Code, so if we are called for
| an audit and our income tax return is checked,
| the IRS won’t fine you for fraud.
Laurie: | No lawn deduction?
Bob: | No lawn deduction. Besides, the lawn is dead.

Chapter 16

Speaking Legalese

In This Chapter

Discovering words related to the law

Exploring terms used in government

Making legal terms a part of your daily vocabulary

I t’s almost too easy to find a good lawyer joke, but it’s no joke that we all have to know the language of the law. In addition to helping you deal with everyday legal business — leases, credit, mortgages, wills, and so on — legal language also helps you understand the finer points of government and politics. That’s what this chapter is all about.

Mastering Legal Terms

Americans like courtroom drama. Whether it’s fiction (think Perry Mason, L.A. Law, or Law & Order) or reality TV, like Court TV, The People’s Court, or the televised O.J. Simpson trial, Americans are fascinated by the idea that the truth will come out, and justice will be served.

Even if you don’t care about anybody’s legal business but your own, you still need to know a few general legal terms. You may encounter legal terms as you take care of your own legal matters or as you read the newspaper.

E is such a small letter that it can’t have much impact on your legal rights . . . or can it? Actually, that little e matters a whole lot when it comes to cases and cakes. To a lawyer, a tort is a civil wrong for which the injured party is entitled to compensation. To a baker, a torte is a rich cake, especially one that contains little or no flour. Both words are pronounced the same way. The only change is that itty-bitty e. Small, but powerful.

Bellying up to the bar: General legal terms and your rights

Knowing your legal rights not only helps you protect yourself against possible legal problems but also enables you to avoid potentially disastrous misunderstandings. You can’t fully understand your legal rights until you know commonplace legal terms. Table 16-1 shows general legal terms, some of which concern individual rights under American law. Here’s your chance to bone up on the language of the law so that you can become a real legal beagle!

An appeal is a request to a higher court for the review of the decision of a lower court. Knowing what appeal means can help you decode related words. For instance, an appellant is a person who makes the appeal or the person on whose behalf the appeal is made. The appellate court reviews the judgments of other courts. As you may expect, the appellate court has appellate jurisdiction, the legal authority to review a decision made by a lower court.

Many legal terms are built on similar roots, so knowing just a handful of legal words can help you figure out many more.

Courting legal myths and facts

The judicial system in the United States is subject to perhaps more than its fair share of misinformation. The following list debunks a few common myths:

Myth: America has too many lawyers — more than any other country.

Fact: The United States has 9.4 percent of the world’s lawyers and ranks 35th in number of lawyers on a per capita basis. Among those ranked ahead of the United States are Japan, France, and Italy.

Myth: The jury system is a uniquely American institution.

Fact: The origins of the jury system have been traced to ancient Egypt (circa 2000 B.C.). The right to trial by jury was guaranteed to English citizens by the Magna Carta, signed by King John at Runnymede in 1215.

Myth: The unemployed and illiterate make up juries. Therefore, juries are not a true representation of the American population.

Fact: Juries are typically chosen from voter and driver lists, which provide a fair representation of the population. A recent study indicates that the average prospective juror is educated, employed, middle-aged, and married.

Myth: People dislike serving on juries.

Fact: A National Center for State Courts survey revealed that 81 percent of those who served on juries had a favorable attitude toward jury service.

Talkin’ the Talk

The neighborhood is discussing the delicious news about their neighbor’s recent arrest. The neighborhood folks aren’t really mean-spirited; they just enjoy some good gossip — especially when it’s about Mr. Big, who seems to have more than his share of goodies. Pull up a fence post chair and join the gossip.

Eleanor: | So now we know how Mr. Big was able to afford
| a tennis court, an in-ground pool, and a private
| jet — he committed credit card fraud.
Ben: | You heard that he used credit cards to get things
| he had no intention of paying for? I heard he was
| a cyber-criminal.
Brianna: | Computer crimes? Naw, he committed arson.
Arturo: | Setting buildings on fire? I don’t think so. Harry
| down the street heard that he’s guilty of embez-
| zlement and extortion.
Eleanor: | I can buy that. Mr. Big seems like the kind of crim-
| inal to misappropriate money and use threats to
| do it.
Brianna: | Well, we all know for sure that he’s a felon. Such
| a criminal!

Punishing words about crime

Basically, there are two classes of crimes: A misdemeanor (mis-duh-meen-ur) is a minor crime, one for which you pay a fine or spend a limited time in jail. A felony (fel-uh-nee), on the other hand, is a major crime (like murder or arson) and generally results in greater punishment than a misdemeanor. Within these two classes, however, are a lot of different types of crimes. Consider the following examples:

Assault (ah-salt) means “to threaten or attempt to do violence to another person.”

Battery (bat-er-ee) — often paired with assault for assault and battery — is a physical attack on another person, from mere touching to more severe violence.

Aggravated assault (ag-ruh-vay-ted ah-salt) means “to cause serious injury to someone else, with or without a weapon.”

Table 16-2 lists more words describing crime. By becoming familiar with these words, you can more easily understand what you read in the paper or see on the evening news.

Judging the law: Words related to “judge”

When reading or writing English words related to the legal system, you can’t help but run up against the Latin root jus/jur, which means “right” or “law.” It’s the root used in the English words judge (a public officer authorized to hear and determine cases in a court of law), justice (the use of authority and power to uphold what is right, just, or lawful), and jury (the group of people who hear the evidence and decide guilt or innocence). Table 16-3 lists some words that contain the jus/jur root.

Not all terms that contain the word jury pertain to the legal system. The following example shows just such a boo-boo:

Correct: The jury-rigged television antenna worked well until last night’s storm.

Incorrect: I’m going to serve on the jury-rig tomorrow.

The adjective jury-rigged describes setting something up to work for temporary or emergency use. It has nothing to do with the law.

Talkin’ the Talk

The judge has impaneled a jury by selecting people to hear evidence and make a ruling. The jury’s deliberations of the evidence presented during the trial are dragging on and on, however. The lawyers have their ears to the jury-room door. Feel free to listen as a couple members of the jury vent their frustrations.

Elsie: | Jury tampering, jury shampering . . . is it our fault
| that two members of the jury took bribes to spill
| their guts to the press?
Elmer: | I hear you. Being sequestered is a royal pain.
Elsie: | Being sequestered makes me feel like a prisoner.
| We’re not allowed to talk to anyone outside the
| jury, we’re not allowed to read the newspapers,
| we’re not allowed to watch TV.
Elmer: | And we’re a blue-ribbon jury, which means that
| we all have a lot of education and a higher-than-
| average income. We’re prominent citizens.
Elsie: | Fat lot of good that did us.

Courting courtroom terms

Notice the two courts in the heading just above: As a verb, court means “to woo or entice,” but as a noun, court refers to “a physical space,” “a group of judges,” or “a specific judicial region.” Table 16-4 lists essential words about trials and courtrooms. Every educated American, and anyone who wants to understand the judicial process and what goes on in a courtroom, should know these words.

The Latin root corp means “body.” Several important legal words come from this root, including the phrase habeas corpus (hay-bee-uhs kor-puhs). Literally, the phrase means “you have the body.” A writ of habeas corpus is used in some criminal proceedings to order the court officer to bring the detained person to court to determine the lawfulness of his or her imprisonment. Therefore, a writ of habeas corpus safeguards individuals from being unlawfully taken into custody.

Given the corp connection, you may be able to figure out the definition of the term corpus delicti. Literally, the phrase means “body of the crime.” It is used to refer to facts that show that a crime has taken place.

Talkin’ the Talk

As the days pass without the jury reaching a resolution, the jurors are getting increasingly cranky. Elsie and Elmer are especially vocal in their opposition. Our cantankerous buddies complain to each other as they munch on some cookies during their break. Feel free to listen in.

Elsie: | Now we’re deadlocked. That’s a pretty kettle of
| fish.
Elmer: | Deadlocked — it sounds just as bad as it is. Our
| deliberations are at a complete standstill.
Elsie: | Did you hear the rumors of a suspended sen
| tence? That would mean the court would decide
| to delay imposing punishment.
Elmer: | If we ever reach a decision, the judge could com-
| mute it, so it would be reduced.
Elsie: | Gimme another cookie. I sure need it.

Legal Latin

Many legal terms on leases, wills, deeds, and other official documents are in Latin. Some legal terms even appear on bills of sale. Use the following table to figure out some seemingly obscure legal lingo.

Hailing the Chief: Words about Government

The U.S. legal system has given English some strange but important terms. For example, ever hear the phrase lame duck? When applied to cartoons, it likely means that Donald Duck had his wing clipped in a hit-and-run. When applied to politics, however, a lame duck is an elected official who, because of term limits, retirement, or defeat, won’t be returning to office after the end of his or her present term of office. Presidents serving in their second term are not eligible to run for a third term and are, therefore, “lame duck” Presidents. Pork-barrel is another odd political term. It refers to government spending that primarily benefits a specific person, group, or interest.

Knowing the basic terms used in government can help you better understand the news when you read it, hear it, or even see it being made.

Governmental terms with multiple meanings

Table 16-5 shows some political nouns that are especially confusing because they mean one thing when applied to general interests and quite another when applied to government and politics.

Making sense of political terms

The end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century were interesting periods in American politics. Americans experienced impeachment proceedings against a President (Bill Clinton) and a hair-raising presidential election (between Al Gore and George W. Bush) that took weeks to resolve.

During all this coverage, and regardless of which side you were on (and even if you weren’t on any side and just wanted the thing to end), you couldn’t help but get bombarded with terms and concepts relating to U.S. politics. Even when the action isn’t as rollicking, you’re still likely to encounter other political terms. After all, who can say no to C-SPAN? Table 16-6 lists some common political terms.

A word that no elected official wants applied to him or her is impeachment (im-peech-ment). This noun refers to the process by which members of the executive branch or the judiciary are formally charged with crimes that could be grounds for removing them from office. A trial takes place after the impeachment to determine the fate of the impeached individual. Nasty stuff, boys and girls.

Chapter 17

Doctoring Your Words: Medical Terms

In This Chapter

Exploring roots used in medical terminology

Matching doctors and their specialties

Mastering words that describe sickness and health

Using medical lingo when you visit your health care providers

S ometimes it seems as though you go in a big circle when it comes to medicine. But the number of medical treatments — and medical terms — created in the past century show that medicine has come a long way, indeed. To be an informed medical consumer, you must know the language of the profession. It’s the best way to make sure that you and your loved ones are getting the treatment you need — and deserve. In this chapter, I help you master many terms that pertain to your medical needs.

Talking about Your Body

Most medical terms can be broken down into multiple word parts: a root, prefix, suffix, and perhaps a linking vowel or two. For example, pericarditis can be divided into three parts:

1. The prefix, peri-, means “surrounding.”

2. The root, card, means “heart.”

3. The suffix, -itis, means “inflammation.”

Therefore, pericarditis is an inflammation of the area surrounding the heart — or an inflammation of the outer layer of the heart, anatomically known as the pericardium.

Medical terms always consist of at least one root, although they may contain more. The root conveys the essential meaning of the word, as in pericarditis. The root card refers to the heart, so any prefix or suffix added to the root makes it more specific. Therefore, if you add the prefix brady- (slow), you get bradycard, which means “slow heart.” Add the suffix -ia (abnormal state) to get bradycardia, which means “slow heart rate.”

Table 17-1 lists several medical roots and their meanings.

Medicine and the gods

A number of medical terms and conditions come to English by way of Greek gods and goddesses. For example, in his winged cap and sandals, Hermes (the Roman “Mercury”), son and messenger of the supreme Greek god Zeus, was among the busiest of the gods. When not carrying tidings or leading the dead to Hades, he was the god of roads, fraud and cunning, commerce, and luck. Hermes’ serpent-entwined staff is still the emblem of the medical profession. The staff is known as the caduceus (kuh-dew-see-us). To the ancient Greeks, a snake’s ability to shed its skin was a symbol of renewal and fresh strength, and hence, the healing power of medicine.

Narcissists — people who are obsessed with their looks — are named after Narcissus, a handsome youth in Greek mythology. Narcissus refused all offers of love, including that of the nymph Echo. Aphrodite punished him for his indifference by having him fall in love with his own reflection in a forest pool. Unable to possess his reflection, Narcissus pined away and was changed into the flower that now bears his name.

The modern psychological term narcissism, meaning immoderate love of oneself, was coined by Austrian psychiatrist and pioneer of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939).

Psychology, the science of the mind, gets its name from Psyche, a beautiful girl in Greek mythology who was desired by Eros, the god of love. He forbade her to look at him because he was a god. When she disobeyed him by lighting a lamp in the dark, he abandoned her. Eventually she joined the immortals and was reunited with Eros. She was worshipped as the personification of the human soul.

Choosing a Specialist

Some medical specialties are easy to tell apart, but many are a little more difficult to distinguish. Professionals who deal with eye care and mental health demonstrate this:

Ophthalmologists and optometrists: Ophthalmologists (ahp-thal-mahl-ih-jists) are medical doctors who identify and heal diseases of the eye. They can prescribe drugs and perform surgery, as well as examine eyes and sell corrective lenses. Optometrists (ahp-tahm-ih-trists) are not medical doctors. An optometrist has a degree in eye care and can test vision and prescribe and sell eyeglasses and contact lenses. Optometrists, who may write “O.D.” after their name, can detect eye diseases, but they cannot prescribe medicines or perform surgery, as ophthalmologists can.

Psychiatrists and psychologists: A psychiatrist (sy-ky-ih-trist) is a medical doctor who specializes in treating mental disorders. Patients see these doctors for extended therapy dealing with mental illness or trauma. Psychologists (sy-kol-ih-jists) are not medical doctors, but they are trained to deal with mental and emotional processes and conditions.

Table 17-2 lists a wide variety of doctors and their areas of expertise. Familiarity with these words can make it easier to know just what kind of medical specialist to call when you need one.

Several types of doctors deal with women’s reproductive health and the health of their children:

Gynecologist (gy-neh-kol-ih-jist): Specializing in female reproductive organs, a gynecologist is the person women see for yearly checkups and Pap smears.

Neonatologist (nee-oh-nay-tol-ih-jist): A neonatologist is a doctor who specializes in treating very young infants (usually up to two months old).

Obstetrician (ahb-steh-trih-shun): An obstetrician actually delivers babies. All obstetricians are gynecologists, but gynecologists are not obstetricians unless they deliver babies.

Pediatrician (pee-dee-eh-trih-shun): This type of doctor treats infants and children.

Talkin’ the Talk

Little Billy suspects that he broke his toe trying to kick his brother, Little Willy, out the window. Although the pain serves Little Billy right, he still needs to find a doctor. Follow Little Billy’s adventures as he attempts to get medical help while deceiving his Sainted Mother. Little Billy hops to the Emergency Medical Care facility at the end of the block.

Little Billy: | Excuse me, I think I broke my toe trying to
| drop kick my brother to Mars. I need to see an
| obstetrician.
Nurse: | Child, an obstetrician delivers babies. Since you’re
| hopping on one foot and holding your toe, per-
| haps you need an orthopedist.
Little Billy: | Okay, I’ll take the orthopedist.
Doctor: | First, we’ll x-ray your foot. For that, you need a
| radiologist. Then maybe we’ll get you a psycholo-
| gist or a psychiatrist to see why you were trying
| to drop kick your brother to Mars.
Little Billy: | I don’t need a head doctor. I just wanted to see if
| Little Willy could fly. He can’t.

Poor Little Billy — if only he knew the terms for doctors and their specialties. We must send him a copy of this book. He can read it while he’s grounded.

Determining What Ails You

Epidemiologist. Otolaryngologist. Oncologist. With all these interesting names, doctors must treat some pretty fancy diseases, right? Table 17-3 lists just a few of the conditions that you may want to consult your medical practitioner about.

The suffix -itis means “inflammation.” For example, dermatitis is a “skin inflammation,” gastritis is a “stomach inflammation,” gingivitis is a “gum inflammation,” meningitis is the “inflammation of the lining of the brain,” and phlebitis is the “inflammation of a vein.”

Decoding Medical Lingo

If you’re watching a TV drama about doctors, it doesn’t matter whether you understand exactly what’s being said. But when you’re sitting in a doctor’s office and he or she is talking about your child, your parent, or you, understanding the doctor is a must.

Kind and gentle medical terms

Modalities of therapy. Capillary hemangiomas. Spontaneous involution. Believe it or not, doctors bandy about complicated terms as though the terms actually mean something. And, believe it or not, they do — but only to other doctors. At some point in your life, you may have to deal with a medical specialist — and their language, as the preceding terminology shows, can be very intimidating. So what do you do when you have to talk to a doctor who uses complex medical terms? First, you ask them to put everything in plain English:

Modalities of therapy? It means “treatments.”

Capillary hemangiomas? It refers to strawberry birthmarks.

Spontaneous involution? It means “disappearing on its own.”

Table 17-4 can help you get a grasp of some basic, benign medical terms that you actually may not mind hearing your doctor say . . . until you get the bill, of course!

A CAT scan (computed axial tomography) is an x-ray image of an organ — often the brain. CAT scans help doctors view the body by providing a computer reconstruction of multiple images at different planes. An MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) is a scan of the body that uses magnetic energy, rather than radiation, to view an organ or body part. An MRI is especially useful for visualizing soft tissue. Still another way of seeing what’s going on inside a body is a sonogram, which creates a visual image from sound waves. Sonograms are often used to determine the gender of a baby before birth.

Medical terms to come to terms with

It’s true that medical jargon all too often makes simple and relatively harmless things sound scary. After all, most lay people would quake at a diagnosis of acute paronychia only to feel immense relief to discover that it’s an infected hang nail.

Still, many medical terms are a bit more worthy of their scary sounding names. Hearing one of the terms in Table 17-5 may make you sit up a little straighter. If your doctor applies one of the following words to you, you may want to do some additional research on your condition.

Preoccupying manias and frightening phobias

The root mania means a “compulsion” or “preoccupation with.” Phobia means “fear.” While doing research for this book, I was astonished to discover the number of fears people have. Although the following lists show the most common fears, I also discovered some very strange revulsions indeed. For example, arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. I’m not making this up — honest!

Talkin’ the Talk

Marissa is visiting Jordan, who recently delivered her first child through caesarean section (surgical operation for delivering a baby through the abdomen) and is still on family leave.

Marissa: | Hey, you! How’s the convalescence going? You
| look good.
Jordan: | I’m so tired. I swear, being up all night with a
| baby is more exhausting than insomnia.
Marissa: | Have you been back to your OB [short for obste-
| trician]?
Jordan: | Yes, and she says everything’s healing the way it
| should. The incision looks good, and the sutures
| are almost all gone.
Marissa: | How’s the baby doing?
Jordan: | He’s fine. Stanley’s worried, though.
Marissa: | About what?
Jordan: | He’s afraid the baby has congenital alopecia.
(snickering) |
Marissa: | Because the baby’s bald?!
Jordan: | No, because Stanley is.

Chapter 18

Acquiring Shopping and Eating Language

In This Chapter

Discovering terms for antiques and collectibles

Trying on clothing words

Dining on words

E veryone shops. Whether you love to shop or hate to shop, you’ve probably already spent a good portion of your life in grocery, discount, and department stores. And you’re undoubtedly familiar with the vocabulary you need to buy ordinary, everyday things. After all, what are the three most important words to any shopper? You got it — coupon, credit, and sale. But shopping for special things (like antiques, gourmet items, and clothing), or in special ways (like online), calls for its own vocabulary. The words you need are in this chapter.

I also give you vocabulary for food and food dishes. Why? Because everyone eats, too (everyone that is, except a few models and movie stars). And, despite what your physician may say, the most important food words are not low-fat, low-calorie, and low-cholesterol.

Cashing In with Collectibles

Many people collect something — stamps, figurines, rocks, fine art, or sausage grinders. You name it, and someone, somewhere, is probably collecting it. You have your serious collectors for whom amassing memorabilia (mem-uh-ruh-bil-ee-uh), or collectible items, is a full-time hobby. And you have your dabblers who collect here and there when something catches their eye.

In addition to these bona fide collectors, you also have people who don’t want to collect so much as they want to own a bit of history. For example, in 1998, the baseball Mark McGwire hit for his record-shattering 70th homerun sold for $3 million. In 1999, a Titanic boarding pass went for $110,000. (According to auctioneer Alan Gorsuch, it is the only known complete Titanic pass. The original owner, 19-year-old Anna Sofia Sjoblom, ended up safe and sound on lifeboat #16, with the pass still pinned to the inside of her coat.)

The world of collectibles and antiques has its own language, and the words in this section can help you understand that language.

Collecting words, or words for collectors

Prices for many desirable objects are rising faster than flood waters during a Midwestern spring. You can get baseball cards for the price of a pack of gum (usually less than a dollar). But let those cards become collector’s items, and you may have to pay into the thousands. So, if you want to get the best deals at flea markets, garage sales, swap meets, antique stores, and online auctions, take a peek at the nouns in Table 18-1.

Talkin’ the Talk

Flea markets and swap meets are great places to find bargains on collectibles, but the tension can build as collectors jockey for the best buys. Stake your ground and start grabbing as they’re gabbing.

Carmen: | Move over and gimme me that record.
| I’m a discophile.
Miranda: | So you collect records. Big deal. I’m a
| philatelist (fih-lah-tel-ist), and your
| records are blocking my stamps.
Manuel: | You’re obviously a philistine (fil-ih-
| steen), totally lacking in culture. I can’t
| believe they let you people in.
Carmen: | Yeah? So what are you doing here?
Manuel: | I specialize in breweriania (broo-er-ay-
| nee-uh). I collect beer cans and barrels.
Miranda: | Oh that’s really classy. My uncle collects
| those, too. You know what my aunt calls
| them? Trash.
Manuel: | How dare you, you . . . you . . .
Carmen: | . . . Stamp-stealing harpy?
Marcella: | Hey! Hey! Break it up! Who’s going
(coming to break up | to pay for this damage?
the fight that ensues) |

Cybershopping: Terms for buying and selling memorabilia online

The familiar advertising slogan “Let your fingers do the walking” has taken on a whole new meaning since the start of the Internet explosion. No matter what you want to buy, you can find it for sale on the Web. This has been a real boon (blessing) for collectors, especially those who live in isolated places or collect unusual items. The terms in Table 18-2 all pertain to shopping for online collectibles.

The perfect wedding gift

People in the Middle Ages rarely tolerated their enemies, so poison sales were brisk. Because of the constant danger of poisoning, wealthy people had a servant whose duty was to sample food and drink for the master. If the servant didn’t keel over, the master could eat.

In Spain, a special word was created for such precautionary measures — salvo, meaning “to save or protect.” (The word salvo is still used in English to describe a discharge of artillery or armaments.) Because the master’s food was served on a separate tray, the tray came to be called a salvo. As poisoning passed out of general fashion, the term salvo came to be connected with the tray alone, which today we call a salver. Remember this the next time you shop for a salver!

Let the buyer beware

The ancient Latin phrase caveat emptor (kav-ee-at or kay-vee-at emp-tor) has been warning buyers to beware for centuries. It’s good advice, especially relevant when you’re shopping at online auction Web sites: Always check the site first. The largest online auction sites are middlemen that bring together buyer and seller. Therefore, just because an online auction house has a great reputation, it doesn’t mean that you won’t get burned. Remember that you’re not trading with the site; you’re trading with the person who uses the site. To protect yourself, consider the following suggestions:

Make sure you clearly understand the bidding procedures before you place a bid.

Resist the temptation to jump right into the action.

Spend some time online at the auction site before you bid.

Factor in the fees. Some auction sites are free, but others charge a percentage of the winning bid. Nail down the site fees (as well as shipping fees) before you buy. You may discover that a “great buy” is a stinker by the time you add on site fees, shipping, and handling.

Make online auctions fun instead of frightening.

Dressing for Success: Terms for Clothes

You can’t buy only the things you like, such as collectibles, antiques, and computer equipment. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and shop for more mundane things, like clothing.

Ordinary words for ordinary clothes

If you’re relatively new to English, the names of particular items can be a bit confusing. Not because the words are unfamiliar, but because their use is determined by custom. (Although the rules have gotten much more relaxed over the past few years.) Consider the following examples:

Men wear trousers and pants. Women wear slacks. All of these words refer to long pants not made of denim. Anyone can wear jeans, which specifically means “pants made of denim.”

Pants and slacks can be used interchangeably for men and women nowadays. Trousers has largely fallen out of use. These words just illustrate the point that English is ever changing.

Men wear shirts (and so do women). Women wear blouses. Anyone can wear a top.

Everyone (well, almost everyone, I suppose) wears underwear, also called undergarments. But if you’re in the company of people over a certain age, you use the term unmentionables (if you mention it at all).

Nowadays, men wear boxers or briefs; women wear panties. But in the 1800s, men wore the panties. Yep. You read that right. Panties were drawers for men and were so named because they were the diminutive of pants, a male article of clothing. So what did the women wear under their clothes? Actually, probably nothing. In fact, underwear for women and children wasn’t recorded until the early 1900s.

You can find a whole slew of words for shoes: mules, pumps, flats, saddle oxfords, wingtips, loafers, sneakers, and tennis shoes, just to name a few. With the exception of sneakers and tennis shoes, you can’t use the words interchangeably. Each word represents a particular style of shoe, as the following table shows.

Searching out named clothing

If you’re like me, shopping for clothing is not a chore at all — especially when you get to shop for fun clothing or clothing for special occasions. The following list provides some words for items of clothing that bear the name of a person or place.

bikini (bih-kee-nee): An itty-bitty two-piece bathing suit. The name was chosen by designer Louis Reard, in 1946, because he hoped the abbreviated garment would have the same explosive effect as the atomic bomb detonation that had occurred a few days earlier on the tiny reef of Bikini in the Pacific. Reard’s hopes proved prophetic, as the bikini shows no signs of declining in popularity.

bloomers (bloom-erz): Loose, knee-length underpants designed for girls and women.

Originally, bloomers consisted of a short skirt and loose trousers gathered at the ankles. They were designed by and named for Amelia Bloomer (1818–1894), a social reformer. A few women and girls wore bloomers in the mid-1800s, but because people considered them scandalous and improper, they never really caught on.

knickers (nik-erz): Knee-length loose pants. Named for Diedrich Knickerbocker, the pen name of American writer Washington Irving. These pants were a popular fashion for both men and boys in the early 1800s; later, they became the attire of boys too young for long pants. Today, very few people wear knickers. (In Britain, knickers is the slang term for women’s panties.)

cardigan (kar-dih-gan): A sweater that opens down the front. It was named for James Udenell, seventh earl of Cardigan (1797–1868), who wore buttoned woolen sweaters while commanding the Light Brigade of the Cavalry during the Crimean War.

Levi’s (lee-vyz): Blue jeans. Named for Levi Strauss, the man who created denim blue jeans.

leotard (lee-ah-tard): One-piece garment that covers only the torso. Leotards are also a close-fitting leg covering, or tights. Named for Jules Leotard, a 19th-century French trapeze artist who wore tights.

tuxedo (tux-see-doh): Black dinner jacket with satin lapels. Named for the place where tobacco millionaire Griswold Lorillard first wore the dinner jacket without tails — the Tuxedo Park resort near Tuxedo Lake, New York.

wellingtons (wel-ing-tunz): Tall, waterproof boots. Named for Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), the Iron Duke. We can only suppose that his feet were always dry, even on the battlefield.

Putting on the Ritz

Men, what do you do when you get a wedding invitation that says tailcoat required? You rest easy, for now you know that a tailcoat (also called tails, dress coat, cutaway, swallow-tailed coat) is a coat with the front portion cut away at the waist, and long, tapering tails. The rest of the outfit includes an Oxford gray coat with striped pants, a pearl gray vest, and a tie. A tailcoat is the most formal outfit men can wear. White tie calls for a tailcoat accented with a white bow tie.

Next on the formal scale is formal dress — a tuxedo or tailcoat. Black tie, which used to mean a black bow tie and a tuxedo, comes next. Now, however, men can wear a bow tie and cummerbund (kum-ur-bund), a thick belt-sash, of any color.

Semiformal dress means that men can wear anything from a dark business suit to a tuxedo. It’s also called evening wear or evening clothes.

Chowing Down: Terms for Food

Do you live to eat or eat to live? I confess: Strolling through a gourmet (goor-may) food store always gives me a little thrill of pleasure. Tables 18-3, 18-4, and 18-5 list some delicious treats from around the world that can now be found in American shops and restaurants. Knowing these words can help you order with confidence in gourmet shops and restaurants, and at different social events. Best of all, the words can ensure you some really good eats and tasty treats! (All the words are nouns.)

Beginning at the beginning: Appetizers

An appetizer is food or drink served before a meal. Contrary to what your boorish Uncle Max might think, appetizers aren’t supposed to fill you up. They’re supposed to stimulate your appetite. If you ever want to branch away from the onion rings and fried cheese, Table 18-3 lists a few appetizers you may want to try:

Other words for appetizers include the French words hors d’oeuvre (or-durv) and aperitif (uh-per-uh-teef). An hors d’oeuvre is food you eat before a meal; an aperitif is the liquor you drink before a meal. The English synonym of aperitif is cocktail.

Enter the entrees

In America, an entrée (on-tray) is the main dish. Whether the dish is spaghetti pie, roast duck, or peanut-butter-and-jelly, the entrée is the food you build your meal around.

The United States has always been a multicultural place. Like most multicultural places, you can treat yourself to similar foods prepared in different ways. Take, for example, the idea of a meat- or vegetable-filled pastry. If you know where to look and what to ask for, you can take a culinary trip around the world just by eating meat or veggie pies, as Table 18-4 shows.

Not quite pastry, a falafel (fuh-lahf-ul) is a deep-fried chickpea patty that comes to the United States from the Middle East.

Diving into dessert

What’s the use of eating while you’re out, if you can’t splurge on dessert? Sure, you can always go for the ice cream sundae (ice cream covered with syrup, fruit, nuts, and whipped cream) or the carrot cake, but why not try something different? Table 18-5 lists a few desserts that you may have bypassed for fear that your caloric sacrifice would have been for naught.

Chapter 19

Expanding the Language: Recent Additions

In This Chapter

Discovering brand-new words

Understanding how new words are formed

Using freshly coined words when you need them

A nyone can create new words. President Thomas Jefferson created the word belittle, which means “to disparage or ridicule.” Other words created in the past include such familiar goodies as groundhog, lightning rod, and seaboard — as well as many, many more. Shakespeare himself created many of the words he used — among them bedroom, olympian (characteristic of the gods), bandit, premeditated (to think of and plan beforehand), and madcap (zany, which, by the way, is another of Shakespeare’s words) — and look where it got him. There’s even a word that means “newly created word” — neologism. Creating new words keeps English fresh, vital, and alive — and ever-changing.

As you can imagine, dictionary editors at Webster’s New World, for example, aren’t particularly happy-go-lucky about the changes that language brings. The influx of new words keeps them scrambling. They are constantly collecting new words, which they feed into a database. The editors then sift through these words to decide which ones merit inclusion in their dictionary.

Fortunately, you don’t face the challenge that dictionary editors do. You don’t have to verify that a word is actually a word or evaluate whether it merits official acceptance as a bona fide, real-life, no-questions-about-it word. You just have to know what the words mean. That’s where this chapter can help.

Sputnik appeared in the dictionary faster than any other word in history, says David Barnhart, editor of the Barnhart Dictionary. In 1957, six hours after the Russian satellite was launched, Barnhart’s father stopped the presses and added the word to the dictionary.

Combining Old Words to Make New Words

Many new words are created by combining two existing words. This process of blending two words to create a new word is so common that it even has a name: a portmanteau word. (Pronounced port-man-toh, it’s a term for a suitcase, especially the kind that opens up to reveal two halves.)

Unlike a compound word, in which two complete words are combined intact (eye and ball form the compound eyeball), portmanteau words are formed by blending the two words. For example, the English writer Lewis Carroll blended the words “chuckle” and “snort” to create a new word: chortle. It means “chuckle, to utter with glee.”

Looking at common blended words

English has several common portmanteau words. More recent words created this way are motel (from the words motor and hotel), bookmobile (from book and automobile), and ebonics (from ebony and phonics), which is a term for Black English vernacular. Table 19-1 lists other more modern portmanteau words. (For information on how compound words are formed and a list of common compound words, head to Chapter 10.)

Speaking a bit of slanguage

Slanguage is a word blended from slang and language. You can probably guess what it means: slangy speech or writing. Table 19-2 describes some fascinating new words that have been created through this blending or portmanteau process.

New Words Galore: Neologisms

A neologism is simply a new word. Some words are so new, in fact, that they’re still waiting to be included in the dictionary. Here are some examples:

An attack fax (noun) is an aggressive fax.

A freeman (noun) is a unit that measures the amount of plagiarism in a text. The word was coined in the late 1990s during a successful copyright-infringement suit.

To mad-dog (verb) is to stare at someone as though to spark a fight. It seems likely that the shift in meaning from a noun (“a rabid dog”) to a verb is the work of Los Angeles gangs.

Rug-ranking (noun) is a policy that assigns secretarial status and pay on the basis of the boss’s status rather than on secretarial skills required for the job. The earliest known usage of this word was the late 1990s.

Urban yoga (noun) is a new form of exercise, also known as “power yoga.” This coinage is similar to words like urban guerrilla, urban homesteading, urban renewal, and urban sprawl.

The neologisms in Table 19-3 are hot out of the headlines. They’re so hot that they’re sizzlin’. Or perhaps I can say that because these words have plenty of mojo (energy, power), they’ll soon become part of your wordrobe (your vocabulary). If I’m wrong, these could be the losingest words ever, an adjective that means “lagging behind the rest.” It’s all up to you. Use ’em . . . or the language will lose ’em.

Talkin’ the Talk

Amy and Kate are sharing tales of their nieces and nephews’ amazing and adorable antics. Listen in as they invent a whole new word.

Amy: | I love my nieces and nephews, but they can sure
| be a handful.
Kate: | I know what you mean, and saying ‘nieces and
| nephews’ all the time sure is a mouthful.
Amy: | Does some other language have a single word for
| both?
Kate: | Not that I know of. I don’t think Spanish or
| French does.
Amy: | Well, we can make up our own word.
Kate: | Great idea! I’ve always called my brothers and sis-
| ters my ‘siblings’ to avoid having to say ‘brothers
| and sisters,’ and because sibling is such a fun
| word. Can we do something with ‘sibling’?
Amy: | Well, nieces and nephews are the offspring of
| your siblings, but “offlings” doesn’t sound very
| nice.
Kate: | How about “sibsprings”?
Amy: | I like it! It’s cute, it’s collective.
Kate: | And it’s not gender-specific.
Amy: | All right then. If the two of us start using it, even
| just in our over-sized families, it’ll spread around
| the country in no time.

If you come upon a new word in your reading or daily conversation with friends and colleagues, I strongly recommend that you put off making it part of your lexicon immediately. Don’t use it until you’ve seen or heard it in several other situations. Not only will this help you know how to use the word properly, but it will also help you verify that it is indeed a new word and not something the writer or speaker misunderstood and mangled!

A few of my favorites

I love lists! Here are some of my favorite neologisms. Warning: My list is highly idiosyncratic.

Does the concept of coining words make you uncomfortable? Not to worry! Just take an existing word and adapt it to your needs. The catch: Enough people have to agree with you to make the word into a meaningful sound bite. (Notice how I sneaked in newly coined “sound bite”?)

New business words

Alvin Toffler’s neologism future shock (an inability to cope with the rapid changes of modern society) has stood the test of time to become an accepted part of our lexicon. Table 19-4 shows 10 new words coined from the business realm. Will they last? Who can tell! Check back in a few years to see which ones have entered English . . . and which ones have gotten downsized, rightsized, excessed, or just plain axed!

Talkin’ the Talk

Jeffrey Gen X is moaning to his mother about his tough life on the job. They’re chatting on a cell phone, so you can switch on your baby monitor and pick up their frequency. It makes listening in on private conversations a breeze.

Jeffrey: | Maaaaa, I hate my McJob!
Ma: | Jeffrey, what’s with this McJob nonsense? So you
| have a low-paying, low-prestige job in a service-
| related field and little opportunity for advance-
| ment. I told you to study harder in college.
Jeffrey: | Maaaaa, I’m just a microserf.
Ma: | So you’re an oppressed worker in the new econ-
| omy. I was an oppressed worker in the old econ-
| omy. Work isn’t supposed to be fun. If it was,
| they’d call it play.
Jeffrey: | Maaaaa, I sit in my cube in the cube farm and get
| dilberted all day long.
Ma: | So you sit in an office filled with cubicles. You
| think you’re exploited and oppressed by your
| boss. You always were a stress puppy — you
| thrive on being stressed-out and whiny.

Compiling new computer terms

The advent of computers brought with it a whole new vocabulary. Some words were just out-and-out new. Input and output, for example, were coined to describe what you put into a computer and what you got out of it. Other words took on completely different meanings: Bug, mouse, desktop, and monitor are just a few of many ordinary words that have specialized meanings in the computer age.

The following sections give you the words you need to know if you’re on the Internet or using e-mail. For a list of general computer terms, head to Chapter 14.

Table 19-5 lists several neologisms. They all relate to computers, which is not surprising, since the computer industry accounts for many of the new words formed every day. Some of these words, like modem and snail mail, have already passed into common usage. Others, such as globoboss and troll, are cutting-edge usage.

An Internet Service Provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. The best-known ISPs are the commercial online services such as America Online, CompuServe, Prodigy, and MSN. However, many national companies such as AT&T and MCI, as well as regional and local companies, provide Internet access. ISPs usually charge a monthly subscription rate and offer unlimited access to e-mail and the Internet.

Amazing e-mail facts

Did you know that . . .

About one-third of all Americans send messages over the Internet. (1999 World Almanac)

E-mail is currently the most popular and widely used resource on the Internet. (1999 World Almanac)

Americans now send 2.2 billion e-mail messages a day, compared with 292 million pieces of first-class mail. (U.S. News and World Report)

Traffic on the Internet doubles every 100 days. (UUNET, Internet backbone)

Around the world, about 100 million people use the Internet. (1999 World Almanac)

It is estimated that by the year 2005, about a billion people will be connected to the Internet. (1999 World Almanac)

E-mailing expressions

E-mail is formed by blending the words “electronic” and “mail” (see the earlier section “Combining Old Words to Make New Words” for more on blended words). Basically, if you have a personal computer and an e-mail program, you can send messages electronically to other people with a computer and an e-mail application.

Table 19-6 shows a half-dozen new words that have been formed as a result of e-mail. They may or may not make the cut to commonly accepted usage. Your use of these words will determine which ones eventually make it into the “major-league” dictionaries.

E-breviations

In a quest to make e-mail even quicker, a whole crop of e-breviations — some already common IRL (in real life)— have sprung up. They have come to represent an entirely new online vocabulary. The following list contains the most common e-breviations. If you use them, be prepared to translate for your less-savvy correspondents.

Chapter 20

Exploring Words from Real and Mythical People and Places

In This Chapter

Exploring eponyms, words from people’s names

Discovering toponyms, words from place names

Acquiring words from animals and myths

T he names of people are sometimes remembered when the people themselves are long forgotten. The same is true of places. This immortality comes through language. In this chapter, I share some fascinating and useful eponyms (words from people’s names) and toponyms (words from place names). Enjoy words from animals and mythology, as well.

What’s in a Name? A Lot When It’s an Eponym!

A surprising number of useful words come from (or are assumed to come from) people’s names. Such words are called eponyms (ehp-uh-nimz). Common eponyms include the following:

Caesarean (suh-zehr-ee-an): This adjective describes a method of delivering a baby by operating through the abdomen. It’s believed that Julius Caesar, the Roman Emperor and military strategist, was born this way, and hence, the procedure got his name.

Herculean (hur-kyoo-lee-an): This adjective means “having extraordinary strength” or “being tremendously difficult.” The term is derived from the mythical hero Hercules, who possessed prodigious strength and successfully completed the Twelve Labors, feats so difficult that they were nearly impossible.

malapropism (mal-ah-prop-izm): A malapropism is a humorous misuse of a word or phrase. This word comes from Mrs. Malaprop, a fictional character in the comedy The Rivals (1775), by Richard B. Sheridan.

As you can see from these examples, eponyms can come from real names, as well as from fictional and mythological characters. The section “Words from Myths and Literature,” later in this chapter, is devoted solely to these words.

A rose by any other name: Eponyms with positive connotations

Just as most words have various connotations (an implied or suggested meaning), so do eponyms. Some, like begonia — a flower named after Michel Begon, the French governor of Santo Domingo who died in 1710 — are positive or at least neutral. Others, like chauvinism (shoh-vin-iz-um), which means “intense, fanatical nationalism” and is named after Nicolas Chauvin, a French soldier devoted to Napoleon, are negative.

Table 20-1 lists several eponyms that originated from the names of historical figures. Each word in this list has a positive connotation. The next section lists eponyms with negative connotations.

Good or bad? Depends when you ask

Over time, the connotation of words sometimes changes. Take, for example, the word dunce, which comes from the name of the dazzlingly brilliant 13th-century theologian John Duns Scotus, whose once widely accepted ideas were strongly ridiculed by the 16th-century humanists. Today the term dunce has come to refer to someone who is not intelligent.

Another word whose connotation has changed over time is silhouette (sil-oh-wet). This word comes from Etienne de Silhouette, the finance minister of France under Louis the Fifteenth.

The Seven Years’ War and Louis XV’s costly mistress Madame de Pompadour left France poised on the brink of bankruptcy. By 1759, hoping for a miracle, Madame de Pompadour convinced Louis XV to replace the finance minister with a friend of hers, Etienne de Silhouette. The new appointee immediately instituted a series of stringent, and somewhat ridiculous, reforms. The nobility poked fun at many of the petty regulations, especially the rules calling for coats without folds and snuffboxes made of wood. At the same time, the ancient art of tracing the outlines of shadows went through a revival. Because these shadow profiles replaced many costly paintings, they sneeringly came to be called à la Silhouette. Silhouette lost his job within the year, but his name has become permanently attached to this art form.

Name change, anyone? — Eponyms with negative overtones

Quite a few unfortunate souls gave their names to words whose connotations are negative. Take, for example, the word gerrymander (jehr-ee-man-dur). This verb means “to rig election districts” and is named for Elbridge Gerry, an early 19th-century statesman and governor of Massachusetts whose party benefited from such rigged districts.

Gerrymander is also a portmanteau word (see Chapter 19 to find out about this type of word). It’s a combination of Gerry’s last name and the word salamander — the area that had been created by manipulating the election district to favor Gerry’s party looked like a salamander in the editorial cartoons of the time.

Following are a few eponyms that originated from the names of historical figures. This time, however, each word has a negative connotation:

bowdlerize (boud-lur-ize); verb: To bowdlerize means “to edit a literary text in a priggish manner,” and it’s named after Thomas Bowdler. Bowdler took it upon himself to edit what he considered the “dirty parts” out of Shakespeare’s play. His aim was to remove all “words and expressions . . . which cannot with propriety be read aloud to the family.” He published his new edition of Shakespeare’s works in 1818. Both he and his book were widely and publicly ridiculed. The word bowdlerize still carries negative overtones. Poor fellow; all he was trying to do was protect the public from the naughty bits in the Bard!

guillotine (gil-uh-teen); noun: The inventor of the original close shave, Dr. Joseph Guillotin suggested a beheading machine as a way of ensuring humane executions. In 1791, after Dr. Guillotin had retired from his position in France’s National Assembly, Antoine Louis actually designed the machine. The guillotine was first used in 1792 to behead a thief; soon after, it was used to execute aristocrats during the phase of the French Revolution called “The Terror.”

Machiavellian (mak-ee-uh-vel-ee-un); adj.: This word comes from the name of the Florentine political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) whose masterpiece, The Prince, argued that a ruler can justifiably use any means, however unethical, unscrupulous, or illegal, to secure and maintain a strong central government. Machiavelli’s name has since become a synonym for cunning and deception in the pursuit of power.

martinet (mart-in-et); noun: In 1660, Colonel Jean Martinet created a military drill to whip France’s soldiers into shape. Martinet proved to be such an exacting taskmaster that his name came to be applied to any officer intent on maintaining military discipline. In English, a martinet is a strict disciplinarian, especially a military one.

boycott (boy-kot); verb: Boycott means “to join together in protest, as in a strike.” The term dates back to 1880, when, in an attempt to break the death grip of Ireland’s absentee landlords, the great Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell advocated that anyone who took over land from which a tenant had been evicted for nonpayment of rent should be punished “by isolating him from his kind as if he was a leper of old.” Parnell’s suggestion was applied soon after on the estate of the Earl of Erne. Unable to pay their rents, the tenants tried to secure a lower rate. When the estate manager, Charles Boycott, refused, the tenants not only refused to pay, but they also intercepted Boycott’s mail and humiliated him in public. This treatment came to be called a boycott.

Good book, good words: Eponyms from the Bible

Sixty miles south of Baghdad, in modern Iraq, you can see the crumbling mounds of the ancient city of Babylon. According to Genesis 11:7, the ancient people of Babel tried to build a tower to heaven. They were punished for their presumption by losing the power of intelligent speech. The result provides English with the word babble, which means “a meaningless confusion of words and sounds.”

Several other biblical stories, characters, and places lend their names to English words. Table 20-2 lists a few of them. Use the words to make your language both precise and colorful.

When you use an eponym from the Bible — or from mythology or literature, for that matter — you’re making an allusion (uh-loo-zhun), a figurative or symbolic reference. As such, these types of words pack more punch than ordinary words because the connotations are so powerful and deep. For example, the actual definition of a Judas is “a traitor.” The connotation, however, implies a betrayer of the worst kind — one who betrays from a position of trust and often under the pretense of friendship.

We now use the term jeroboam (jer-ah-boh-em) to refer to “a wine bottle having a capacity of about three liters.” Historically, Jeroboam was the first king of the Biblical kingdom of Israel, described in I Kings 11:28 as “a mighty man of valor,” who, three verses later, “made Israel to sin.” Some historians trace today’s use of jeroboam to the king, reasoning that because an oversized bottle of wine can cause sin, it too is a jeroboam!

Words from Places: Toponyms

Just as words come from people’s names, so they come from place names. Such words are called toponyms. The word canary, for example, is a toponym. It comes from the Canary Islands, about 60 miles off the northwest coast of Africa. In addition to identifying a little songbird, the word canary is a slang term for a police informer. (Canary yellow is a bright yellow color.)

Toponyms are words formed from place names. The word toponym comes from the Greek words topos (place) and onoma (name).

Placing place names

Table 20-3 lists ten toponyms, words that come from the names of places. As you can see from the list, even though the origin of the word is a place, many of these are not locations at all. For example, a chautauqua is a type of meeting named after the place where these meetings first occurred. Furthermore, the few that are places (like Shangri-La) aren’t real places; instead they represent mythical or symbolic locations.

In the late 1400s, a small band of Osmanli Turks established the Ottoman Empire. The court became famous for its luxurious furnishings. Among the most noteworthy pieces of furniture was a small seat, which the French dubbed an ottomane. The English translated this to ottoman, the term we use today to describe a small stool or footrest.

Sparkling toponyms about gems and colors

What put the rhine in rhinestone? The Rhine River, of course! Originally, rhinestones were a variety of rock crystal found in this part of Germany. By 1800, the term rhinestone had come to be applied to the imitation diamonds being produced. Today, the term has also come to be applied to anything artificial or excessively showy, such as the title character in the movie Rhinestone Cowboy.

As you can tell from this brief story, toponyms also provide us with useful words for precious gems and colors. As you read the words in Table 20-4, link them to their histories to make them easier to remember.

Talking with Words from Animals

It’s exceedingly rare to hear animals describe people, but not at all strange to hear people describe animals. Further, we often use words drawn from the names of animals to talk about our fellow citizens. Images adapted from the animal kingdom, such as fishy and chameleon, add precision and flavor to speech and writing. Table 20-5 lists other such words.

A lot of descriptive words are formed by taking a root and adding -ine. When you do this with animal names, you get words like bisontine (like a bison), giraffine (like a giraffe), elephantine (like an elephant), falconine (like a falcon), and so on. The tricky part is that, a lot of times, the root is the Latin or Greek word for the animal, which may not bear much resemblance to the English word. So here’s a list to help you figure out whether you should be insulted or grateful when someone says you’re leonine.

Talkin’ the Talk

Mildred the Moose and Hector the Hippo are happily settled in the local zoo. To pass the time of day, Mildred and Hector chew the fat about some humans of their acquaintance. Here’s what they have to say. Feel free to eavesdrop, but don’t listen too closely because you’re not allowed to bother the critters.

Mildred: | The new zookeeper certainly is pig-headed.
Hector: | Indeed. He’s stubborn and won’t listen to
| anyone’s advice, even mine.
Mildred: | And such a tiny man, too. Remember our last
| keeper? He was some behemoth.
Hector: | Ah, such an enormous man. He was a giant
| among men. It’s a shame that he was such a
| chameleon.
Mildred: | True, true. He was always changing his mind. Pay
| one-price admission one day, separate tickets the
| next.
Hector: | These humans are odd creatures, no? I never
| cease to be amazed by them.

Animal packs

In addition to gaining animal words to describe people, English has also adopted special words to describe groups of animals. The following table shows some of the most useful of these words. They’ll come in handy when you have to identify animals.

Words from Myths and Literature

English has taken many words from literature and myths, just as we’ve raided the names of people and places. For example, hygiene (the science of establishing good health) was named for Hygeia, the Greek goddess of health. The goddess of health is often shown feeding a snake, a symbol of good health.

Following are other terms that, like hygiene, come from mythology or literature:

Adonis (ah-don-is): This noun for a handsome man comes from a Greek myth. In the story, Adonis is the studmuffin adored by Aphrodite and Persephone.

gargantuan (gar-gan-choo-an): This adjective means “enormous” and comes from Gargantua, the huge hero of Francois Rabelais’ satire Gargantua (1535).

laconic (lah-kon-ik): This adjective means “concise, terse, or undemonstrative.” The word comes from Laconia, a region in ancient Greece associated with the Spartans, a people who were known for their bravery, self-discipline, and stoicism in the face of difficulties or suffering.

hymen (hy-men): This noun refers to the membrane that closes the opening to the vagina. It gets its name from the Greek god of marriage, Hymen.

iris (eye-ris): This noun refers to the colored part of the eye. It takes its name from Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow.

Procrustean (proh-krus-tee-an): According to the Greek myth, Procrustes was a bandit who made his living waylaying unsuspecting travelers. He tied everyone who fell into his trap to an iron bed. If they were longer than the bed, he trimmed their legs to make their bodies fit; if they were a tad too short, he stretched their bodies. As a result, the adjective procrustean has come to mean “tending to produce conformity through violent or arbitrary means.”

mercurial (mur-kyoor-ee-al): This adjective means “unpredictable and volatile,” as well as “quick-witted and sprightly” — all characteristics of Mercury, a Roman god of commerce, as well as a messenger for the other gods.

tantalize (tan-tah-lyz): This verb means “to torment by offering something and then withholding it.” The words comes from the legend of Tantalus, a king who offended the gods by (in addition to other lesser crimes) murdering his own son and serving him as a meal to the gods. As punishment, Tantalus was send to Hades where he was condemned to stand chin-deep in water with a bough of grapes hanging just overhead. Whenever he stooped to drink or reached overhead to eat, the water and food receded.

vulcanize (vul-kah-nyz): This verb means “to strengthen rubber by heating it” and comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge. He was also a metalworker for the gods.

Table 20-6 lists other words from mythology.

Some words from myths and literature begin with capital letters, while others are lowercase. This example shows a term being misused in writing:

Correct: What an Adonis! Is he seeing anyone?

Incorrect: What an adonis! Is he seeing anyone?

Unfortunately, there’s no rule for capitalization when it comes to toponyms from myths and legends; it’s just something you have to memorize. Be on the lookout for capital and lowercase letters when you encounter words from myths and stories.

Part V

The Part of Tens

In this part . . .

These short and sweet chapters give you ten (or more) tidbits that can help you fine-tune your vocabulary. I warn you about types of language to avoid, explain the differences between some of the more confusing word pairs, and clarify some of the trickier bits of English for nonnative speakers.

Consider these chapters your dessert after an all-you- can-ingest word buffet and enjoy!

Chapter 21

Don’t Go There: Language to Avoid

In This Chapter

Staying away from phrases and terms that offend

Being aware of expressions that obscure meaning

Avoiding common pitfalls

E veryone occasionally says the wrong thing at the wrong time. It happens when your memory fails you, your tongue gets ahead of you, or your mind wanders. That’s life. You plow ahead and hope that your audience knows what you meant to say and forgives you for your blunder.

Some mistakes, however, are a lot harder to forgive and forget. Not only do these types of errors color your message, but they also affect how your audience perceives you. In this chapter, I give you 10 of the most common — and dangerous — vocabulary pitfalls.

Ageist Vocabulary

Ageism is discrimination against people of a particular age — it’s generally aimed at the elderly. Such language includes words and phrases that stereotype older folks as “doddering fools” or “past their prime.” Be sure to use vocabulary that doesn’t discriminate. For example, use senior citizen instead of old person, geezer, or gramps.

Bureaucratic Language

Bureaucratic language is stuffy and overblown. It uses far more words than are necessary. If you want to say covered, for example, don’t say covered over very completely. Similarly, don’t say revert back to its original state and form when you simply mean to say revert.

Bureaucratic language is the reason the U.S. Tax Code is about a million pages long and nearly impossible to read. It’s also the mark of an immature writer — ask any English teacher who has had to evaluate the requisite five-page theme comprised of nearly three pages of fluff.

Doublespeak

Doublespeak is evasive vocabulary that confuses meaning. A classic example of doublespeak is the word disinformation, which simply means “information that is known to be false.” In other words, “a lie.” Using revenue enhancement to describe taxes is another example of doublespeak.

Unlike bureaucratic language or euphemistic language (which obscures meaning simply by being unclear), doublespeak is intended to obscure the truth. People who use doublespeak are generally trying to hide something.

Empty Words

Some words have been used so much that they’ve lost their meaning. For example, fantastic, awesome, nice, terrific, wonderful, fabulous, and marvelous have all lost their potency by being thrown about as catchall expressions meaning “good.” If the latest flick at the cineplex doesn’t actually inspire dread, veneration, or wonder, it isn’t an awesome movie. And if Mom’s potato salad isn’t bizarre or otherworldly, it isn’t fantastic, no matter how tasty it may be.

The point here isn’t to completely give up using these words, but to use them more carefully.

Inflated Language

Inflated language makes the ordinary seem extraordinary. Folks who use inflated language are generally trying to impress people. For example, with inflated language, a mechanic becomes an automotive internist, and an elevator becomes a vertical transportation system.

Why use a cumbersome phrase or a long word when a simple phrase or short word will do just as well, and usually better? You may think you sound smarter, but your audience is likely to see you as pretentious or silly.

Euphemisms

People use euphemisms to make a point in such a way that they don’t actually have to say words that they’re uncomfortable saying or conjure images that may be just a bit too graphic. You hear euphemisms most often when people are talking about things that are potentially embarrassing or uncomfortable, such as nudity, body parts, sex, and bathroom activities.

A euphemism for nudity, for example, is in the altogether, and a euphemism for sex is making love. To get an idea of the many (often creative) euphemisms parents come up with for bodily functions and body parts, just hang around a baby changing station for a while.

It’s okay to use euphemisms to spare someone’s feelings, especially in delicate situations, as when you say, “I’m sorry your sister passed away” rather than “I am sorry your sister died.” But avoid euphemisms that obscure meaning.

Language Biased Against the Handicapped

Always focus on people, not their conditions. Avoid terms such as abnormal, afflicted, and struck down. Instead, use atypical.

If you describe a person by only one characteristic, you are essentially cataloging that person by the one trait that you see as his or her defining characteristic.

Jargon

Suppose that you ask your sister what she did over the weekend and she answers: “We went to the FTX site, grounded our gear, located our grid coordinate, and prepared for a frontal assault.” Chances are — unless you’re in the army, too — that you may wonder what the heck she just said. What she said, in plain English, is this: “We went to the campground, dropped our backpacks, looked at a map to see where we were, and got ready for an attack by the enemy.”

The reason that you probably didn’t understand what she said is because she used jargon, the specialized vocabulary that a particular group uses. Jargon is a great verbal shortcut — if you’re talking to people in the same group or profession. If you’re not, you may as well be speaking in another language.

Always consider your purpose and audience before deciding whether a word is jargon in the context of your material. For example, a baseball fan would easily understand the terms shutout and homer, but these terms are jargon to a nonfan like me.

Racist Vocabulary

First, never use any racial epithet. Second, unless race is germane to the conversation (and it usually isn’t), don’t identify people by their ethnicity. Third, if you must identify a person’s ethnic background, make sure you use the preferred term. Here’s the catch: The preferred term changes. For example, a hundred years ago, black people were known as colored. Fifty years later, the term Negro was used. Today, the preferred terms are African American and black (which you will also see capitalized: Black). Similarly, the term Asian is preferred over Oriental. Inuit is preferred over Eskimo. Latino and Latina are the preferred designations for Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and other people with Central American and Latin American backgrounds.

Finally, some terms and phrases have racist histories. For example, jew down and gyp allude to the offensive stereotypes of Jewish people as money-grubbers, and Gypsies as thieves. Don’t use these types of terms.

Sexist Language

Sexist language assigns qualities to people on the basis of gender. It reflects prejudiced attitudes and stereotypical thinking about the sex roles and traits of both men and women. Sexist language causes legal problems and perpetuates sexist attitudes. Here are some general guidelines:

Avoid using he to refer to both men and women.

Avoid using man to refer to men and women.

Avoid expressions that exclude one sex. For example: Use humanity or humankind rather than mankind. Use the average person rather than the common man.

Just as you don’t refer to a grown man as a boy, don’t refer to a grown woman as a girl.

It sometimes takes a bit of time and effort to avoid sexist language, but this woman, at least, appreciates your efforts.

Chapter 22

Distinctions Worth Making

In This Chapter

Discerning the differences in sound-alike words

Seeing differences in similarly spelled words

Distinguishing between words with similar meanings

Figuring out how many words to use

C ertain word combinations plague both native and nonnative English speakers. These word combinations are problematic because they either sound alike or have similar meanings but are used in different ways. This chapter lists a few of the most problematic, starting with imply and infer.

As a speaker or writer, you imply; as a listener or reader, you infer. Imply means “to hint or suggest,” which is an action only someone speaking or writing can accomplish. And to draw a conclusion from information presented, which is what you do if you infer something, is an action you can take only as a listener or reader — someone else has to give you information. So, if I imply that a strong vocabulary can help you get ahead in your job and in your life, you can infer that I think words are valuable.

Sound-Alike Words

English boasts a number of word pairs that sound very similar but have dissimilar meanings. I list a few of these couples in this section.

Accept and except

Accept is a verb meaning “to receive” or “to approve.” Example: They had trouble accepting a genius in their family.

Except is a verb meaning “to leave out” or “to exclude.” Example: When Marta said that she’d eat anything, she always excepted squid.

Conscious and conscience

Conscious is an adjective meaning “able to feel and think” or “in a normal waking state.” Example: Sheila appeared alert and conscious during her minor medical procedure.

The noun conscience means “a knowledge or sense of right and wrong.” Example: I can sleep with a clean conscience, knowing that I did the right thing.

Sit and set

Sit and set have the same relationship that lie and lay have: You actively lie yourself down, and you lay an object down. To sit is to put yourself in a sitting position; to set is to place an object somewhere — whether it’s in a sitting position or not. Example: Set your bag down and come sit next to me.

What a Difference a Letter (Or Two) Makes

It’s no surprise that one little letter can have a major impact. The word pairs in this section can be tricky because they look alike and sometimes sound similar, but their meanings are very different.

Affect and effect

As a verb, affect (uh-fekt) means “to influence” or “to produce an effect.” Example: The news affected her mood. Affect (af-ekt) is also used as a noun meaning “feeling” or “emotion.” This meaning is commonly used in psychology. Example: The medicine caused the patient to experience a lack of affect.

As a noun, effect means “result,” “consequences,” or “outcome.” Example: The news had a profound effect on her mood. As a verb, effect means “to make happen” or “to bring about.” Example: She effected important changes during her term as president. Both are pronounced “eh-fekt.”

Allusion and illusion

Allusion (ah-loo-shun) is a noun meaning “an indirect reference” or “the act of hinting at something.” Example: Luis’s allusion to the movie was very witty.

Illusion (ih-loo-shun) is a noun meaning “misleading image” or “misunderstanding.” Example: The heat shimmering on the road created an optical illusion of water.

Beside and besides

The preposition beside means “at or by the side of,” “alongside,” or “near.” Example: I found my car keys right beside my wallet. You can also use beside to compare things. Example: Beside your wonderful garden, my poor plants seem scrawny.

The adverb besides means “in addition to.” Examples: Besides Tony, who wants pineapple on the pizza? And, do you want onions besides?

Describe and prescribe

Describe is a verb meaning “to tell what something is like.” Example: Describe the coat for us.

Prescribe is a verb meaning “to lay down as a rule or course to be followed.” Example: The doctor prescribes medicine for people to take.

Farther and further

These two comparative forms of far are basically interchangeable as both adjectives and adverbs meaning “more distant or remote.” Example: Jupiter is farther from the sun than Venus, and Neptune is further from the sun than either of them.

However, further is more commonly used to mean “to a greater extent” and “in addition” or “additional.” Example: I need to run further tests before I can be certain.

Immigrate and emigrate

The distinction here is one of geographic direction. Emigrate is a verb meaning “to move away from one’s country.” Example: She emigrated from Colombia to America. Immigrate is a verb meaning “to move to another country.” Example: It can be hard to adjust when you immigrate to a new homeland.

Lose and loose

Lose is a verb meaning “to mislay,” “to get rid of,” or “to bring to ruin.” Example: Don’t lose that article telling you how to lose weight.

Adding an o gives you the adjective loose, which has many meanings, most of which are closely related to “free” or “not restrained.” Example: I put my loose change in a bowl and use it for mad money when I want to cut loose.

Raise and rise

As a verb, raise means “to lift or elevate.” Example: I was too shy to raise my hand. It also means “to increase in degree,” as in raising your voice. As a noun, a raise is a pay increase, and getting one would sure raise my spirits.

Rise is an active verb whose more commonly used meanings are “to stand” or “to get up after sleeping.” Example: Every morning I rise in anticipation of a wonderful day. When you talk about the sunrise, you use rise as a noun.

Uninterested and disinterested

Uninterested is an adjective meaning “indifferent” or “not interested.” Example: Eva seemed uninterested in the information.

Disinterested is also an adjective that can mean indifferent, but it is more often used to mean “not influenced by personal motives” or “unbiased.” Example: Anna is perfect as a mediator because she’s completely disinterested.

Words with Similar Meanings

English is full of synonyms that mean almost, but not quite the same thing. Tradition, more than any other factor, often dictates how you use certain words. I include a few of the more confusing pairs in this section.

Aggravate and annoy

Aggravate (ag-ruh-vayt) is a verb meaning “to make worse.” Example: Too much exercise can aggravate back problems. Sometimes people use aggravate colloquially (or informally) to mean “to irritate” or “to annoy.” That usage is fine among friends, but don’t use aggravate when you mean “to irritate” in formal speech and writing. Instead, use annoy, which means “to bother or harass.”

Amount and number

Use amount when you’re describing something that can’t be counted. Use number when you’re describing something that can be counted. For example, you can count sand castles, but not grains of sand. So, the former is measured in number (a large number of sand castles), and the latter is measured by amount (a great amount of sand).

Note for nonnative speakers: A singular noun follows amount. Example: You have to measure the right amount of flour if you want your cake to turn out. A plural noun follows number. Example: The number of stars in the sky is astronomical.

Authentic and genuine

Authentic and genuine are synonyms. That is, they mean sort of the same thing. However, if something is genuine, it’s the real thing; if something is authentic, it tells the truth about its subject. The diamond your honey gave you this weekend is genuine, and your story of the proposal is authentic.

Between and among

Use between when you talk about only two people or things, as in “Franchesca was forced to choose between the brie and the cheddar.” Use among when you discuss three or more people or things, as in “It is difficult to choose among all the delicious cheeses.”

Healthful and healthy

Healthful is an adjective meaning “wholesome.” Healthy is also an adjective, meaning “having good health” or “resulting from good health.” Example: Adopting a healthful lifestyle helps make you a healthy person.

Oral and verbal

There is a very fine distinction between oral and verbal. Oral means “spoken” and “by mouth” or “having to do with the mouth.” Examples of the former meaning: We will now hear the oral arguments. The oral exam will commence. Example of the latter meaning: Her teeth were so crowded that she needed oral surgery. Verbal can also mean “spoken.” Example: We made a verbal agreement. However, it more precisely means “having to do with words” — even written words.

Precede and proceed

Both of these words are verbs. Precede means “to come before in time, place, order, rank, or importance.” Example: I insist that you precede me through the door. “Age before beauty,” I always say.

Proceed means “to go on, especially after an interruption.” Example: Ignore the blare of the car alarm and just proceed.

Unique and unusual

Unique items are one of a kind and may be rare or unusual, but not all unusual items are unique. Example: His unusual sense of humor is part of what makes my Uncle Michael so unique.

One Word or Two?

Compound words, which I cover in Chapter 10, are two (or more) words put together to form one new word. Compound words are very handy, but sometimes figuring out when two words should be one word and when they should stay as two is confusing. One thing that may help is realizing that a compound word is generally a different part of speech than its two-word twin. I give you a few examples in the following list.

Everyday and every day: Everyday is an adjective meaning “suitable for ordinary days” or “common.” As two words, every day is an adverb indicating frequency. Example: Laura wears her everyday clothes every day — even on Sundays.

Everyone and every one: Everyone is a pronoun, and every is an adjective that modifies one. If you can substitute everybody, use everyone. Example: It will be excellent if we can get everyone to eat every one of these eggs.

Into and in to: Into and in are both prepositions, and both indicate about the same thing, though into generally indicates movement. So, as with so much of English, you have to pay attention to context.

You separate in and to when in acts as a preposition and to is part of the verb. Example: You’re just giving in to temptation if you go into the ice cream shop. (On to and onto have similar distinctions.)

Paying attention to the purpose the words serve in a sentence can help you decide whether they should be one word or two.

Chapter 23

Ten Techniques for Nonnative Speakers

In This Chapter

Discovering common English quirks

Using tips for proper English

W hen English is your second language, you face the special challenges of learning characteristics of English that native-born English speakers take for granted. This chapter lists 10 ways to help you deal with some of the most baffling problems that English vocabulary can pose for second-language speakers.

A or An

Often, it’s the little words rather than the big ones that trip up second-language speakers. A and an are small but crucial words. Although both a and an refer to a single person, place, or thing, a is used before words that begin with a consonant sound, and an is used before words that begin with a vowel sound. Remember that the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y; the consonants are all the other letters in the alphabet. However, it’s not enough to identify vowels and consonants, because their sounds can be created by other letters, as the following shows:

Check out the “The and A” section farther along in this chapter for more tips on how to use these articles.

Degree of Comparison

Adjectives and adverbs, words used to describe things or actions, have different forms to show degree (or amount) of comparison:

The positive degree is the basic form of the word without any comparison being made.

The comparative degree is used to compare two things. Often, these words end in -er or use more, but never both.

The superlative degree is used to compare three or more things. Often, these words end in -est or use most, but never both.

To see how degrees of comparison work, consider these examples: fast (positive), faster (comparative), fastest (superlative); quickly (positive), more quickly (comparative), and most quickly (superlative).

Some adjectives and adverbs do not follow this pattern. The following words pose special challenges for nonnative speakers:

You may also find the following usage tips helpful:

Use more and most to form the comparative and superlative degrees of all modifiers with three or more syllables. For example: more popular, most popular; more affectionate, most affectionate.

Don’t use more and -er together to form a comparative (more happier, for example). Similarly, don’t use most and -est together to form a superlative (most nicest, for example).

Use the comparative degree when you’re comparing two things. For example: Of the two sisters, the younger one is smarter. Use the superlative degree when you’re comparing three or more things. For example: Of the seven children, he is the youngest.

Count Nouns

Some English nouns name items that can be counted, such as newspaper, street, and idea. You say “I have a newspaper” or “I have a hundred newspapers from the past year,” for example. In other words, count nouns are plural or singular nouns that indicate number.

Noncount Nouns

English has other nouns that identify objects thought of as a whole. Therefore, these objects are not divided into separate parts that can be counted. Examples include sand, blood, beef, salt, sugar, rice, and traffic. These words are never preceded by a or an and are never plural. Table 23-1 shows more noncount nouns.

Nouns That Can Be Both Count and Noncount

Some nouns can be count nouns or noncount nouns, depending on the way you use them in your speech and writing. If the noun names something that can be taken individually or as a whole, it can be used both ways. For example:

Count: You have a hair on your shoulder.

Noncount: Luis has black hair.

Nouns as Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe a noun or pronoun. It sounds easy enough, but in English, words are used as different parts of speech all the time. Sometimes a word is a noun and sometimes it’s an adjective. Consider this sentence for example:

We went to the train station to ride a train.

Train is used twice in this sentence, once as an adjective and once as a noun. How do you tell the difference? You use the context: The first train is an adjective because it describes the kind of station. The second train in the sentence is a noun.

Adjectives do not have plural forms. When you use an adjective with a plural noun, don’t make the adjective plural. For example: the train (not trains) stations and the yellow (not yellows) flowers.

Plurals

Many nouns form regular plurals (more than one) by adding -s or -es, as in coat/coats or fox/foxes. Nouns whose singular ends in -y normally form their plural by changing -y to -ies: one city, two cities. Other nouns have irregular plurals, which means that making the plural isn’t as simple as adding an -s or -es. Examples of irregular plurals include foot/feet and leaf/leaves.

If you’re not sure whether a noun is plural, look it up in a dictionary. If no plural is given for a singular noun, add s to form the plural.

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns name specific people, places, or things. For example: Emperor Hirohito, Mexico, and Jell-O. Always capitalize proper nouns.

Most proper nouns do not require an article (a, an, the). For example, We visited (not the) Mt. Fuji. There are several exceptions, however, such as the Rocky Mountains, the Great Lakes, and the Amazon.

The and A

The and a or an precede nouns: the house, a horse, an appendectomy (ap-un-dek-tuh-mee), for example. Which one you use depends on whether you’re referring to a specific thing or a nonspecific thing.

Use the to refer to a specific person, place, or thing. For example: the soccer game (one specific game), the sari (one specific sari), and the tortilla (one specific tortilla).

Use a or an to indicate any item in a group. For example: a kitten (not any particular kitten) or an apple (any apple).

Note the subtle difference in meaning in the following sentences:

The house burned down. (A statement about a particular house)

A house burned down. (A general statement that doesn’t specify which house)

Who, Which, That

Who refers only to people: He is the man who delivered the package.

Which refers only to things: Which package was it?

That refers to both people and things: That package came from my aunt that lives on the West Coast.

Some people (my editor among them) strongly object to referring to humans as “that.” So you may want to change your referent according to your audience.