Stories of Words
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Stories of Words: Computers
March 29, 2018
When computers were invented in the 1930s scientists created new words to describe the new machine. When computers became widely used by people, people began to change the words used to describe computers. Now that computers have made its way into every corner of the world, new words and definitions of old words are created with lightning speed.
Stories of Words: Toponyms
February 12, 2018
Las Vegas. New York. Pie Town. Toponyms, or the names of places, are as different as the people who have named them. By learning the story of a toponym, you also learn the story of the people who lived in that place.
Stories of Words: Nym Word Groups
November 6, 2017
Putting words into groups can help us learn more words. For example, synonyms are a group of words that similar meanings. The word pretty is a synonym for the word beautiful. By knowing about the group, you can expand your vocabulary and knowledge about words. Words are labels for things and ideas. It makes sense that we have words to label groups of words, too.
Stories of Words: Spanish
September 8, 2017
Every day, millions of Americans are speaking Spanish. They are introducing Spanish words to the English language. Americans are speaking English words with deep Spanish roots. Or they are mixing Spanish and English words together and making new words. Whichever the case, Spanish is everywhere in the United States.
Stories of Words: Music
May 15, 2017
Music has its own set of words. Some words are used in other areas of life, but have very specific meanings in music. These words include notes, staff, and scale. Then there are words that are unique to the subject of music, such as aria.
Stories of Words: Clothes
December 27, 2016
Many people like to wear the latest fashions. Fashion is a style of clothes, items, or ideas that is popular at the moment. Fashions change frequently. Words are needed to describe new trends. When those trends are no longer popular, people stop using the words. Like fashions, words, too, go into and out of style.
Stories of Words: Transportation
June 28, 2016
Have you ridden a bike? Have you been a passenger in a boat, car, train, or airplane? If so, you’ve used transportation. When new forms of transportation are invented, we often invent new words to describe them or give existing words new meanings.
Stories of Words: Arabic
March 3, 2016
You may think that most of the Arabic words that came into English refer to animals and customs that are unique to countries in northern Africa and the Middle East, where Arabic is the primary language. But you’re in for some surprises, too. You might be using words with Arabic roots every day to describe the world around you.
Stories of Words: Flight
January 1, 2016
Since the earliest times, people have looked up to the stars and wanted to travel there. They saw birds flying and tried to build machines that would help them fly, too. Legends tell of people who used wax wings or kites to attempt to fly. These attempts, of course, did not end well. Over hundreds of years, people built kites and boomerangs that were inspired by how birds glide through the sky. Only in the last few hundred years, though, did people have the technical skills needed to build flying machines. Once flying machines became real, new words were needed to describe them.
Stories of Words: Names
October 29, 2015
What’s your name? Maybe you were named for your mom or dad, or for someone else in your family. Many families name babies after an older relative to honor him or her and to carry on the person’s name. Sometimes places and things are named in this way, too—to honor a person or event, or to keep an important memory alive. Words like this, in which people’s names are used to form new words, are called eponyms. Eponym is a Greek word that means “to give one’s name to something.”
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