Building a Better Vocabulary

z Although +REVRQ¶VFKRLFH refers to a choice between something and nothing, it has also taken on a second sense: a choice betw ...

Lecture 26: A Vocabulary Grab Bag Detritus (noun) Disintegrated or eroded matter; debris. z The primary sense of detritus appea ...

z Mollycoddle means to treat with excessive attention to the point of spoiling. z Propitiate means to appease or try to regain ...

Lecture 27: Words for Words Words for Words Lecture 27 W ords are truly the tools with which we explore and interpret every aspe ...

ż Because the Ephraimites could not pronounce the phoneme /sh/ in shibboleth, that word became the perfect test. z According t ...

Lecture 27: Words for Words Vernacular (noun) Form of a language spoken by the common people, as opposed to the learned and lite ...

z The phrase lingua franca might tempt you to think that the original lingua franca was French, but it was actually a language ...

Lecture 27: Words for Words ż Satchmo for Louis Armstrong ż The Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, the Titan of Terror, the Co ...

z Somniloquy is an easy word to remember if we break it down by its morphemes: somni and loq. The root somni is from the Latin ...

Lecture 28: Specialty Words for Language Specialty Words for Language Lecture 28 O ver the years, linguists and language scholar ...

ż “Let us glaze our rasses to the queer old dean” instead of “Let us raise our glasses to the dear old queen.” ż ³,VWKHEHDQG ...

Lecture 28: Specialty Words for Language z A few common homophone pairs include the following: blue/blew, faint/feint, haul/hal ...

different sources, and just happen to have evolved into the same spelling and pronunciation. z ,Q DQ HDUOLHU OHFWXUH ZH H ...

Lecture 28: Specialty Words for Language ż +RZHYHU ODQJXDJH XVHUV WRGD\ DUH PRUH OLNHO\ WR ÀLS WKLV GH¿QLWLRQXVLQJ ...

PDUNHWDW%LOOLQJVJDWHLQ/RQGRQZKHUHWKHIHPDOH¿VKPRQJHUV spewed forth harsh but creative profanity. z Another toponym wit ...

Lecture 28: Specialty Words for Language z The acronyms USA, FBI, and CIA are pronounced as a series of initial letters rather ...

z In the following acronyms, the initial letters of a set of words make up a new word that is pronounced as a whole word: ż RA ...

Lecture 28: Specialty Words for Language ż Microsoft = microcomputer + software ż Amtrak = American + track Clipped word (noun ...

English speakers seem to have a propensity for saying more with less; this tendency is apparent in our fondness for __ and __. ...

Lecture 29: Nasty Words and Nice Words Nasty Words and Nice Words Lecture 29 W e all know that the word nasty means “offensive, ...