Lecture 1: Five Principles for Learning Vocabulary
ż Morphology. Next, we’ll explore each word’s morphological
structure. Morphology is the study of the structure of words,
including meaningful word parts, such as roots, and patterns
and processes of word formation. The morphological system
in English can be an incredibly powerful system for learning
vocabulary if you know how to tap into it. To remember the
word factotum, we broke it down by its meaningful parts: the
Latin root fac and the word totum.Procrustean (adjective)Tending to produce conformity by arbitrary, ruthless, or violent means.z %HIRUHZHPRYHRQWRWKH¿IWKSULQFLSOHOHW¶VSUDFWLFHWKH¿UVWIRXU
with the word procrustean. This word means “tending to produce
conformity by arbitrary, ruthless, or violent means.”z Here’s procrustean in context: “Even though the student’s poem
unanimously won the all-county writing contest, the procrustean
English teacher gave her an F for failing to dot the i in her name.”z Now make a personal connection. Have you ever met someone
ZKR¶VFRPSOHWHO\LQÀH[LEOHDVWLFNOHUIRUUXOHVDQGUHJXODWLRQV"7U\
to associate that person in your mind with the word procrustean.z Procrustean comes from Greek mythology. Procrustes was a
mythical bandit of Attica who would waylay hapless travelers and
DWWHPSWWR¿WWKHPWRKLVLURQEHG,IWUDYHOHUVZHUHWRRORQJIRUWKH
bed, he’d cut off their feet. If they were too short, he’d stretch them
out. A procrustean bed has come to mean an arbitrary standard to
which something is forced to conform.
ż You now know an etymological narrative about procrustean.
The etymology of a word is its history, including its origin,
evolution, spread to other languages, and shifts in meaning
and form over time. A narrative, of course, is a story. Thus, an
etymological narrative is a story about the history of a word.