Schemata-Building Role of Teaching Word History in Developing Reading Comprehension Ability

Schemata-Building Role of Teaching Word History in Developing Reading Comprehension Ability

Gholam-Reza Abbasian*

Imam Ali University

Saeid Maskukian

Isalmic Azad Uniersity, Garmsar Branch

Methodologically, vocabulary instruction has faced significant ups and downs during the history of language education; sometimes integrated with the other elements of language network, other times tackled as a separate component. Among many variables supposedly affecting vocabulary achievement, the role of teaching word history, as a schemata-building strategy, in developing reading comprehension has received the least, if not any, attention. This study was an attempt, in fact, to explore the possibility of an integration of word history and reading comprehension ability of a group (No=100) of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To conduct the study, 60/100 participants, identified as homogeneous members based on the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT), were randomly divided them into two groups; an experimental and a control group. They were exposed to a teacher-made pretest and a post-test to check the participants' knowledge of word history and reading comprehension ability prior and posterior to the experiment. Pertinent statistical analyses proved that teaching word history plays both statistically and affectively, through enhancing motivation and attitude, meaningful schemata-building role in developing reading ability. Pedagogically, resort to word history may then be suggested as an effective and affective mechanism as far as teaching language skills, in particular reading, is concerned.   Keywords: Vocabulary, Word History, Schemata, Reading Skill

The history of research on the integration of language skills and language components, in general, and that of reading comprehension and vocabulary, in particular, can be traced back in to the notion of Unitary Competence Hypothesis of Oller and Hinofitis (Oller & Perkins, 1980, cited in Abbasian, 2008). The problems of FL/SL readers in the process of reading comprehension, arising mainly from   unknown vocabulary, have convinced researchers to delve deeply into the significance of  vocabulary not only as a predictor of overall reading ability , but as an obstacle in this process (Nation, 1990; Grabe, 1991 cited in Levine & Reves, 1998).  The integration looks so strong that Levine and Reves (1998) report in their study that “in certain contexts, a sentence or even an entire paragraph might appear incomprehensible because of the occurrence of even a small number of unknown vocabulary items” (Ulijn, 1981; Alderson, 1984; Koda, 1989; Barnett, 1988; Coady, 1991; Huckin et al., 1993). Furthermore, vocabulary used to receive prime attention even when the Divisibility or Multidimensional Hypothesis of language proficiency (Vollmer, 1983, cited in Abbasian, 2008) was dominant; suggesting that neutrality of theoretical positions toward vocabulary is obviously an additional support to its crucial role from the two paradigms as far as one’s language proficiency and pragmatic knowledge is concerned.     

As Celce-Murcia (1991) states, the most traditional technique of vocabulary study is using a text; in particular, a reading passage. The main reason for reading the text may not be to study the vocabulary in it, but at some points the teacher inevitably has to deal with lexical problems. One commonplace practice for the teacher is to prepare students for reading by selecting a number of difficult or key items and pre-teaching them. Sometimes these words are selected by textbook writers and listed or glossed at the top of the reading text. This practice of the pre-teaching vocabulary makes intuitive sense. Several pieces of research strongly suggest that pre-teaching vocabulary may have a negative effect on reading comprehension.

The importance of reading in FL vocabulary learning is apparent, but the actual learning that takes place is slow and unpredictable and the process by which it occurs is little understood. Much vocabulary learning through reading is apparently “incidental” in the sense that there is no instructional manipulation nor is there necessarily an intention on the part of learner to learn words. For a language teaching program that aims to develop learners’ reading proficiency and related receptive vocabulary, a reading-based incidental learning approach may be adequate, but for programs that aim to develop learners’ production skills, including rapid vocabulary, and seek some measure of influence over what is learned, such an approach would appear insufficient (Paribakht & Wesche, 1996). Stoller and Grabe (1993) argue that both reading-related instructional intervention and informed learner intention could make vocabulary learning more predictable and efficient. 

Word Origin

Word origin knowledge, according to Shipley (2001, cited in Littlefield-Adams, 2002), is to know how men think and how they have fashioned their civilization. Word history traces the path of human fellowship, the bridges from mind to mind, from nation to nation.  According to Kemmer “word origin study is a fascinating way to discover the history of language and of a people. Learning where words in a language originated can tell us a lot about early influences on a society” (2001, p. 126). He continues that “word origin in the English language, for example, indicates that this culture originated from many others. Many of our most commonly used words are Latin based, but come from countries as distinct as Italy, Spain and France” (2001, p. 127).  Their incorporation into English is indicative of the exploration, invasion and immigration, reflecting word history on a large scale.

Extending Word Stocks

According to Katamba, the term productivity has sometimes been used to refer to creativity, that is, the capacity of all human languages to use finite means to produce an infinite number of utterances. In the domain of morphology, “creativity manifests itself in two distinct ways: rule-governed creativity and rule-bending creativity” (1993, p. 74). For the most part words are formed following general rules and principles internalized by speakers in the process of language acquisition. For instance, if the suffix-ly is added to an adjective (e.g., quick), an adverb (quickly) is produced; if the prefix post- is attached to a noun base (as in post-war), an adjective meaning ‘after’ is formed, and so on. However, Katamba holds that speakers have the ability to extend the stock of words idiomatically by producing words without meticulously following the standard rules of word-formation. No synchronic rules can be devised to account for the meaning of a semantically unpredictable compound like ‘stool pigeon’. But, in some cases, delving into history might show that some of these compounds originally had a literal meaning that was superseded by later metaphorical extensions. To take one example, consider the word ‘deadline’ which, during the American Civil War, was “the line round the perimeter fence beyond which soldiers were not allowed to go. A soldier who wandered beyond that line risked being shot dead for desertion” (1993, p. 74).

Word History and Vocabulary Acquisition

In the past two decades, a growing number of studies have examined the strategies that language learners use to learn new words. When second language readers encounter an unfamiliar word while reading, they often infer its meaning using available information and knowledge without referring to dictionary (Hustijn, Hollander, & Greidanvs, 1996; Schmitt, 1997). Contextual information and word etymology (word roots, affixes, inflectional suffixes, and words with historical background) are two major sources that readers use to interpret novel words (De Bot, Paribakht, and Wesche, 1997; Morrison, 1996; Paribakht and Wesche, 1999). Existing literature has documented second language learners' ability to use contextual information (Brown and Sagers, 1999; Day, Omura, &  Hiramatsu, 1991; Dubin & Olshtain, 1993; Dupuy & Krashen, 1993; Krashen, 1999; Li, 1988; Mondria and Wit-de Boer, 1991; Wode, 1999), the ability to analyze the etymological structures of new words (Arden-Close, 1993; Bensoussan & Laufer, 1984), and, most important of all, the ability to combine the two information sources (Moris & Nagy, 1999; Moris, 2002; Paribakht  & Wesche, 1999).

Research in first language has shown that an understanding of second language etymology is an effective tool for building vocabulary (Freyd & Baron, 1982; Hanson, 1993); however, little research has been done on the knowledge of etymology in second language learning and on the effects of such knowledge on first language vocabulary building.

Pica (1988) pointed to the importance of the study of etymology and to the belief that "etymology learning can provide important insights into the sentences, processes, and input relevant to second language acquisition" (p. 107). Tyler and Nagey (1989) tested different aspects of the etymology knowledge of English among students in the fourth, sixth, and eighth grades. One important result of their study was that in L1 acquisition, different aspects of knowledge about etymology are acquired simultaneously. Children first develop a relational knowledge of etymology, or the ability to see etymological relationships between two words that share a common base morpheme. White, Power and White (1989) also note that, coupled with contextual learning of word meanings through reading, the application of etymological analysis; (roots, affixes, and word history) could allow middle elementary students to learn potentially thousands of words per year between the third and seventh grades.

Stoller and Grabe (1993) identified some points that run through much vocabulary instruction. These points are as follows: a) vocabulary knowledge is vital for reading comprehension, and; b) whereas explicit vocabulary instruction cannot account for all the vocabulary a student needs to know, incidental learning from context may account for a large proportion of vocabulary growth; and c) new lexical items must be related to background knowledge, which consists of many levels of knowledge.

The Notion of Schema

Hawkins (1991) believes that "schemata (the plural of "schema") are the fundamental elements upon which all information processing depends"(p.176). This means that, for understanding a text there should be a relationship between the stored information in the brain and the incoming data. The function of brain is not limited only to collect information, but to process the information to comprehend the world around it. Trevarthen (1980) emphasizes the ability of the mind to experience the outside world and to take up this experience, store it in memory, and use it to make acts that change the world as its key feature. Rumelhart (1997) defines schemata as packets or units of knowledge that organize much of what we know about objects, classes of events, actions, etc., that is, the brain organizes its information into related units, schemata, that are easily retrievable.

Following the shift of attention to research into the influence of background knowledge on comprehension, top-down (from the reader's mind) explanations such as schemata theory (Bartlett, 1932; Goodman, 1967; Schank & Abelson, 1977; Mandler, 1984; Anderson & Pearson, 1988) became popular. This trend originates from the fact that reading is a meaning-making process involving an interaction between the reader and the text. Readers use their mental activities in order to construct meaning from text. These activities are generally referred to as reading strategies or reading skills. Successful readers will consciously or unconsciously engage in specific behaviors to enhance their comprehension of texts.  Both top-down and bottom-up strategies are used by effective readers as they read (Goodman, 1996; Smith, 1980). Thus, if readers have background knowledge of the words, say, word history considered as a means of schema establishment, it is hypothesized that they can better recognize vocabulary items in a reading text.  In fact, in line with this trend, the present study attempts to theorize much more  scientifically possible role of word history as a type of knowledge enhancing word power, and thereby, improving reading comprehension ability through the integration of the latter with the former. More specifically, this study attempts to explore whether explicit instruction of word history as a schemata-building mechanism may have any significant effect on the enhancement of learner’s reading comprehension ability.

Method

Participants

The participants of the study were 60 Iranian male EFL learners homogenized in terms of their language proficiency level on the basis of the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT). The selection was made out of 100 language learners on the basis of their standing position on the normal probability curve; those whose score ranged between one standard deviation above and below the mean were identified as intermediate EFL learners and participated in the study.

Instrumentation

In addition to the CELT , a teacher-made diagnostic pre-test, and a teacher-made achievement post-test, Select Readings: Intermediate ( Lee & Gundersen, 2001) was used as the course book , as well as Concise Dictionary of English Etymology (Skeat, 1993) and an Online Dictionary of Etymology for extracting the history of the target words.

Procedure

1. Test construction

A lengthy procedure was followed to develop roughly reliable instruments for screening achievement measurement purposes. Two similar but separate reading comprehension test batteries composed of a set of reading pieces, with 45 multiple-choice items were developed. The KR- 21 formula was used to estimate the reliability coefficients. The descriptive statistics of both tests are represented in Table 1  and 2.

 

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics for the Final Pretest

N	Mean	SD	Variance	Reliability
20	19.75	6.19	38.35	0.77

 

 

Table 2

Descriptive Statistics for the  Final Posttest

N	Mean	SD	Variance	Reliability
20	21.6	7.714	59.515	0.86

 

As Farhady, Jafarpour, and Birjandi (1994) mention, the reliability coefficient more than 0.75 is considered high. Finally, a pilot study was conducted to validate the pretest and the posttest. The process involved administrating both the pretest and the posttest and the standardized CELT test to a group of 20 participants with the similar characteristics to those of the subjects in the experimental and control groups. To determine whether the samples meet the criterion of homogeneity of variances, an F max test was used. Then, the mean and the SD were calculated for each. After calculating the SDs, they were squared to get the variances. Afterwards, the test of homogeneity of variances using F max test was performed. The related data are given in Tables 3 and 4, respectively.

 

Table 3

Descriptive Statistics for the Pilot-Group on the Pretest and CELT

Group	N	Mean	SD	Variance	d f	F-observed
CELT test	20	43.8	12.45	155.07	38	2.31
Pretest	20	21.2	8.18	67.04	38

 

Table 4

Descriptive Statistics for the Pilot-Group on the Posttest and CELT

Group	N	Mean	SD	Variance	df	F-observed
CELT test	20	43.8	12.45	155.07	38	1.89
Posttest	20	22.6	9.05	82.01	38

 

In the F max statistic table, the critical value of F at 0.05 level of significance with 38 degrees of freedom was 4.10. Since the observed Fs in Tables 3 and 4 did not exceed this value, it was concluded that the variances fulfilled the condition of homogeneity and there was no evidence for heterogeneity.

The pretest was given to the experimental group (EG) and the control group (CG) to check their prior knowledge of vocabulary including word history in a reading text and to ensure that there were no significant differences between the two groups prior to the treatment. To do so, the mean scores of the two groups were computed. The related data are given in Table 5.

 

Table 5

Descriptive Statistics for EG & CG on the Pretest

GROUP	N	Std. Deviation	Mean
			Std. Error	Statistic
Pre. EX Pre. Con	30 30	2.39054 2.60494	.33807 .36839	10.8600 11.5000

 

Later, an independent t-test was run to compare the mean scores of the experimental and control groups on the pretest. As displayed in Table 6, the t observed value was 1.280 which, at 58 degrees of freedom, is lower than the critical t-value (2.66). This provides an assurance on the homogeneity of the subjects in terms of word history knowledge in reading comprehension.

After being confidant about the homogeneity of the subjects in terms of word history knowledge in reading comprehension, the researcher began the treatment.

 

 

 

 

 

Table 6

Independent Sample t-test of the Pretest

	Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances			T-Test for Equality of Means					95% Confidence interval of the difference
	F		Sig.	t	Sig. (2-tailed)		Mean Difference	Std. Error Difference	lower	upper
Pretest Equal variances        assumed   Equal variances not assumed	.521	.472		1.280       1.280	.204       .204	.64000       .64000		.50001       .50001	-.35225       -.35225	1.63225       1.63225

 

1. Treatment

 

First, the CELT was used for the selection of the participants, then, they were administered a teacher-made diagnostic pretest in order to scrutinize their reading ability and word power. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: the experimental group (EC) and control group (CG). Both groups attended a ten-session reading instruction focusing on vocabulary knowledge. To this end, 80 vocabulary items identified,  through the pretest, as new words for both groups were selected from the reading texts to be taught.However, the method of instruction for the groups differed; the CG received the instruction based on conventional way (i.e., explanation, exemplification, translation, etc). On the contrary, the EG was primarily exposed to the history of the target words that was extracted from Concise Dictionary of English etymology and online dictionary of etymology.  Each session the learners read just four paragraphs of the reading passage, and as they encountered the highlighted vocabularies (including historical background), the teacher elaborated on that word, describing its history as a schema- building mechanism. For example, the participants in the experimental group encountered the word maverick in the reading comprehension text (“The president said that he did not want yes-men or mavericks in his cabinet”), and the teacher described it as: "Samuel Maverick was a Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle as others were doing"; This word means:  one who acts independently (See Appendix for the list of the vocabulary items taught).

Following the word history-based reading instruction, the posttest was administered to the participants. The purpose of the posttest was to determine whether the treatment the experimental group received would make any significant difference in the reading comprehension ability of the participants.

Data Analysis and Results

This study was based on "true-experimental" design (pretest- posttest control group design). The data obtained were of two distinct categories: prior to the main experiment and posterior to the experiment. The details of the former were presented in the above tables (i.e., Tables 1-6). However, the data related to the post-test stage, as the results of the reading comprehension test in the two groups, were compared using an independent t-test. First, to see if there is any difference on the performance of the participants in each group on the posttest, two paired-samples t-tests were run on the performance of the experimental group on the pretest and the posttest. The result is illustrated in Table 7.

           

Table 7

Paired-Samples t-test for EG in the Pretest and Posttest                            

	Paired Differences					t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)
Pair        Ex. Pretest 1             Ex. Posttest	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean	95% confidence Interval of the Difference		-22.876	29	.000
				Lower	Upper
	-.2416000	7.46792	1.05612	-26.28236	-22.03764

 

As displayed in Table 7, the t observed value is 22.876, with 29 degrees of freedom, which is higher than the critical t-value of 2.75. It was then concluded that there was a significant difference in the performance of the experimental group on the posttest compared with the pretest. Table 8, also shows the descriptive statistics of pre-post tests (mean scores: 10.86 and 35.02, respectively) for the experimental group, which sustain the claim made in Table 7.

 

Table 8

Descriptive Statistics for EG on the Pretest and Posttest

GROUP	N	Std. Deviation	Mean
Ex. Pre Ex. Post	30 30	2.39054 8.48646	10.8600 35.0200

 

The second paired-samples t-test was run to compare the mean scores of the control group on the pretest and the posttest. As the results display in Table 9, the t observed value was 17.229, with 29 degrees of freedom which is higher than the critical t-value of 2.75.

 

Table 9

Paired-Samples T-Test for CG in the Pretest and Posttest

	Paired Differences					t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)
Pair        Con. Pretest 1             Con. Posttest	Mean	Std. Deviation	Std. Error Mean	95% confidence Interval of the Difference		-17.229	29	.000
				Lower	Upper
	-14.42000	5.91811	.83695	-16.10191	-12.73809

 

Based on the results, it can be safely concluded that there was a difference between the mean scores of the control group on the pretest and posttest. The performance of the participants in the control group was better on the posttest. Table 10 shows the difference between the mean score of the control group from the pretest to posttest.

 

Table 10

Descriptive Statistics for CG on the Pretest and Posttest

GROUP	N	Std. Deviation	Mean
Con. Pre Con. Post	30 30	2.60494 7.00682	11.5000 25.9200

 

The mean score increased from 11.50 to 25.920, indicating an improvement in the light of the instruction, though not comparable with the achievement of the experimental group in the light of the pertinent instruction. It shows that teaching  word history as a schemata-building mechanism causes better achievement in reading comprehension.

 

Table 11

Paired Samples Test for Gained Scores of EX and CG

	Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances		T-Test for Equality of Means					95% Confidence interval of the difference
	F	Sig.	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	Mean Difference	Std. Error Difference	lower	upper
Gained S      Equal variances              assumed Equal variances not assumed	2.060	.154	7.343 7.343	58 58	.000 .000	9.780000 9.780000	1.331979 1.331979	7.136771 7.135086	12.423229 12.424914

 

 

 

Finally, an independent t-test was run to compare the gained scores of the experimental and control groups. As displayed in Table 11, t observed was 7.343. This amount of value , with 58 degrees of freedom, which was higher than the critical t-value of 2.66.

Based on these results, it can be claimed that there was a significant difference between the gained scores of both groups. The experimental group gained better scores than the control group. The mean of the gained scores for the experimental and control groups were 14.22 and 24 respectively.                                             

 

Table 12

Descriptive Statistics of Gained Scores

GROUP	N	Std. Deviation	Mean
Gained Con. Gained Ex.	30 30	5.859895 7.373422	14.22000 24.00000

Discussion

The findings sustain existence of a significant relationship between teaching for word history as a schemata-building mechanism and reading comprehension. As the results in Table 7 and Table 9 show, the participants of the experimental group who were exposed to teaching for word history as a schemata-building mechanism improved significantly more from the pretest to posttest than the control group. It is important to mention that the participants in the control group had also an improvement from the pretest to the posttest, though statistically non-significant. These findings are commensurate with those of Pica (1988) that pointed to the importance of the study of etymology and to the belief that "etymology learning can provide important insights into the sentences, processes, and input relevant to second language acquisition” (p. 107). Meanwhile, the findings of this study are in line with White, Power and White’s (1989) findings. They note that, coupled with contextual learning of word meanings through reading, the application of etymological analysis (roots, affixes, and word history) could allow middle elementary students to learn potentially thousands of words per year between the third and seventh grades. What is more, the result of this study, is also similar to those of Paribakht, and Wesche (1997), who hold that contextual information and word etymology (e.g., word roots, affixes, inflectional suffixes, and words with historical background) are two major sources that readers use to interpret novel words and reading comprehension.

Conclusion

The findings sustain existence of a significant relationship between teaching for word history as a schemata-building mechanism and reading comprehension. Therefore, the present investigation lends further support to the claim that in the field of SLA, learning historical background of words is a necessary condition for language learning and that word history plays a crucial role in reading comprehension. Teaching word history as a schema- building mechanism and a means of learning vocabulary will motivate participants and arouse their curiosity in case of vocabulary recognition. Learner involvement in investigating word history has proved so effective that it has sometimes resulted in coining new words and it has thereby functioned as a motivating factor in the process of language learning in general and vocabulary development in particular. That is to say, this mechanism is characterized by some pedagogical values and contributions as far as learners’ affection and creativity are concerned.

The Authors

Gholam-Reza Abbasian, an assistant professor of TEFL at Imam Ali and Islamic Azad (South Tehran Branch) universities, has been teaching English for more than 15 years at various levels. He has presented at a good number of both national and international conferences. He is also the author of five books and has translated at least ten others. Furthermore, he has published several scholarly articles in foreign and national academic journals. It is for some years that he is offering courses like psycholinguistics, language testing, and syllabus design at MA level, as his main areas of interests. He has supervised a number of MA theses. Meanwhile, he has been introduced as the top scholar for four consecutive years and identified as the most successful teacher in 2011 at Imam Ali University.

Saeid Maskukian, holds an MA in TEFL from Islamic Azad University at Garmesar, Iran. He is now involved in teaching at various institutes and educational centers. He is also more interested in doing research in the areas of teaching reading and vocabulary.

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Appendix

List of the target words subject to history-based instruction

Source: Select Readings by Lee and Gunderson (2001)

Definition of highlighted words                                  

Source: Concise Dictionary of English etymology (Skeat, 1993) and online dictionary of etymology.

1. Maverick: one who acts independently.  Samuel Maverick was a Texas rancher who refused to brand his cattle as others were doing.
2. Jingoist: one who boasts about his patriotism and favors a warlike foreign policy. In 1877, British prime minster Disraeli sent the fleet to Gallippoli to show up the Russians. A singer wrote a ditty called "By Jingo" in honor of that action.
3. Nemesis: agent of retribution; just punishment. In Greek mythology, the goddess Nemesis punished pretentiousness with her sword and avenging wings.
4. Philanderer: one who makes love insincerely; one who engages in passing love affairs. The word comes from the Greek philandros ("man-loving") but gained its current usage because many English play-wrights gave the name to their romantic leads.
5. Procrustean: designed to secure conformity; drastic. An ancient Greek robber named Procrustes tied his victims to a bed and then, to make them fit the bed stretched the short ones and hached off the limbs of the taller ones.
6. Cabal: a clique; a small group joined in a secret intrigue; a conspiracy. This French word was formed from the initials of Charles II's ministers (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, Lauderdale); cabal ultimately derives from the Hebrew word qabbalah, which referred to a mystical interpretation of the Scriptures.
7. Camaraderie: comradeship; good fellowship. Two soldiers sharing the same room (in German, kammer) usually developed a loyal and warm friendship. The Communist Party adopted the word comrade to denote a fellow member.
8. Herculean: tremendously difficult and demanding; resembling Hercules in size, power, or courage. Hercules was the son of Zeus and Alcmene who won immortality by performing Twelve Labors demanded by the jealous Hera.
9. Bilious: bad-tempered; bitter. It comes from the French word bilis ("bile"), the fluid secreted by the liver.
   1.   Cyclopean:  vast, massive and rough; suggestive of the Cyclops, the race of one-eyed giants, descended from the Titans. One of the most exciting tales in the Odyssey recounts the blinding of the one-eyed Polyphemus, who had confined Odysseus' crew in his cave and promised to “reward" Odysseus by eating him last.
   2. Pyrrhic victory: a victory that is exceptionally costly. Pyrrhus defeated the Romans in 279 B.C. but his losses were terribly heavy.
   3. Quixotic: romantically idealistic; impractical. The Spanish novelist, Cervantes, bought his word into our language when he wrote Don quixote. His hero went forth foolishly to tilt against windmills and help the downtrodden.
   4. Saturnine: sluggish; gloomy; grave. The planet Saturn is so far from the sun that it was thought of as cold and dismal.
   5. Protean: changeable; taking on different forms. In Greek mythology, Proteus was a sea god who could change his appearance at will.
   6. Trauma: an emotional experience that has a lasting psychic effect. The Greek word trauma means "wound".
   7. Epoch: noteworthy period. It comes from a Greek word meaning "pause"-almost as if mankind takes time out before entering a new, important phase.
   8.  Sword of Damocles: courtier of Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse; his name in GK. Nmeans lit. "Fame of people," from demos. To teach Damocles how a tyrant lives, Dionysius seated him at a banquet with a sword suspended above his head by a single hair.
   9. Boycott: 1880, from Irish Land League ostracism of Capt. Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897) land agent of Lough-Mask in CountyMayo, who refused to lower rents for his tenant farmers. Quickly adopted by newspapers in languages as far afield as Japanese. The family name is from a place in England.
   10. Antaean: possessed of superhuman strength with suggestions of earthiness. Antaeus was an African giant, the son of Poseidon and Gaea, who was invincible while touching the ground, but was lifted into the air by Hercules and crushed.
       1.  Crotchety: full of peculiar whims; ill-tempered; eccentric. Crochet work was done with a small, twisted hook; from "twisted" it was an easy jump to "eccentric"-thus the connection between crochet and crochety.
       2. Tantalize: cause to desire something even more strongly by keeping it just out of reach. From Greek, Tantalus, in allusion to his story. The fable was that he was placed up to his chin in water, which fled from his lips whenever he desired to drink.
       3. Hobnob: to associate on very friendly terms. The title of the novel to Have and Have Not is an exact translation of the original meaning of hobnob. This word was formed by a combination of the Old English words habbon ("to have"). The modern meaning suggests the egalitarian idea of friendship not based on one's possessions.
       4. Hierarchy: a group of persons or things arranged in order rank, or grade; a system of church government by clergymen in graded ranks. The Greek word hierarkhes meant "high priest". From there it was a small step to the designation of the entire church leadership as a hierarchy. With the loss of temporal power by the church after the Middle Ages, the word now refers to any arrangement by authority or position.
       5. Procrustean: designed to secure conformity; drastic. An ancient Greek robber named Procrustes tied his victims to a bed and then, to make them fit the bed stretched the short ones and hached off the limbs of the taller ones.
          1. Malapropism: ridiculous misuse of words, especially by confusion of words that are similar in sound. Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Sheridan's famous Restoration play, the Rivals, is noted for her misapplication of words.
       6. Crotchety: full of peculiar whims; ill-tempered; eccentric. Crochet work was done with a small, twisted hook; from "twisted" it was an easy jump to "eccentric"-thus the connection between crochet and crochety.
       7. Ecumenical: universal; general; fostering Christian unity throughout the world. The idea of ecumenism, as well as the spirit of brotherhood, was fostered by the far-reaching policies of Pope John XXIII (1958-63).
       8. Elite: the best or most skilled members of a given social group. The word is related to electand suggests that some people are born with "a silver spoon in their mouth" or, at least, are entitled to special privileges. Elite is also used as an adjective.
       9. Sub rosa: secretly; confidentially. In Latin, "under the rose". The rose was a symbol of silence or secrecy in ancient times.
          1.  Bucolic: rural; rustic; pastoral. The Greek word boukolikos means "herdsman". It was the name of a slack man, living outside of the city.
       10.  Tawdry: cheap; gaudy; showy. This word can be traced to St. Audrey. Scarves called "St. Audrey's laces" were sold in England where the local people changed the pronunciation to tawdry. The quality of the scarves, which at first was good, deteriorated whenj they were mass pronunced for the peasant trade.
           1. Erotic: concerning sextual love and desire; amatory. Eros was the Greek god of love, identified by the Romans with Cupid and represented as a winged child. While erotic has retained the sexual connotation, cupidity has acquired the meaning of "greed".
       11. Quixotic: romantically idealistic; impractical. The Spanish novelist, Cervantes, bought his word into our language when he wrote Don quixote. His hero went forth foolishly to tilt against windmills and help the downtrodden.
       12. Tantalize: cause to desire something even more strongly by keeping it just out of reach. From Greek, Tantalus, in allusion to his story. The fable was that he was placed up to his chin in water, which fled from his lips whenever he desired to drink.
       13. Sybarite: an effeminate person. An inhabitant of Sybaris, a town named from the river Sybaris, on which it was situated; in Luciana, Lower Italy. People of this realm often joyed with beautiful girls.
       14. Churlish: boorish; surly. This adjective comes from "churl", the old word that in Greece, people used for peasant.
       15. Debonair: courteous, gracious and having a sophisticated charm; suave; urbane. In old French the words were de bon aire ("of a good race or breed").
       16. Pamphlet: a small book of love. Pamphila, the name of a female historian of the first century, who wrote numerous epitomes of history.
       17. Solecism: substandard use of words; violation of good manners. This word derives from the Greek inhabitants of the colony of Soloi who used a slangy dialect.
       18. Saturnine: sluggish; gloomy; grave. The planet Saturn is so far from the sun that it was thought of as cold and dismal.
           1. Boycott: 1880, from Irish Land League ostracism of Capt. Charles C. Boycott (1832-1897) land agent of Lough-Mask in CountyMayo, who refused to lower rents for his tenant farmers. Quickly adopted by newspapers in languages as far afield as Japanese. The family name is from a place in England.
           2. Rhubarb: debate. Rheum from the barbarian country is an adj from the rha-plant, rhubarb, which was also called Ponticum. Rhubarb took its name from the river, i.e, Volga due to its not being smooth.
       19. Circumspect: careful; cautious; prudent. The original meaning of this word was "to look about". A person who "looks about" is cautious-hence, circumspect.
       20. Adagio: slowly, in music. The plural, adagios, refers to a slow movement in the music or a slow ballet dance requiring skillful dancing.
       21. Gypsy: 1600, alteration of gypcian, a worn-down M.E. dial. Form of egypcian "Egyptian," from the supposed origin of these people. "The gigsies seem doomed to be associated with countries with which they have nothing to do.
       22. Stoic: patient. Belonging to a colonnade, because Zeno taught under a colonnade at Athens. A colonnade, row of pillars.
       23. Cornucopia: abundance; horn of plenty. Named after the horn of the goat Amaithea that suckled the infant Zeus, the horn is always full of food and drink in endless supply.
       24. Liaison: the contact maintained between military or naval units in order to undertake concerned action; a similar connection between the units of any organization; an illicit relationship between a man and a woman. This word is a cousin to ligature, a connection on the physical level similar to the connection made on an informational level by a liaison.
       25. Ecumenical: universal; general; fostering Christian unity throughout the world. The idea of ecumenism, as well as the spirit of brotherhood, was fostered by the far-reaching policies of Pope John XXIII (1958-63).
       26. Rodomontade: vain boasting. Rodomontade a boast, due to the boastful character of Rodomontade in the Orlando Furioso of Ariosto.
       27. Silhouette: a dark design of something. This meager form of portrait, made by tracing the outline of a shadow, was named (in decision) after Etienne de Silhouette, French minister of finance in 1759.
           1.   Martial: inclined or disposed to war; brave; warlike. The blood-red planet Mars named after the Roman god of war.
              1. Draconian: harsh or vigorous; a law or code of extreme severity. Draco was an Athenian lawgiver whose code or laws, established in 621 B.C., called for the most severe penalties for the smallest offense.
              2. Arcane: beyond comprehension; mysterious; secret. The Latin word arcanus means "shut up" or "hidden".
                 1. Orgies: sacred rites, revelry. It was the name of a festival in Athens, in honor of Bacchus, orgies, rites, from sing.
                 2. Antic: old and funny; ludicrous; a playful or silly act, trick, prank, or caper. Shakespeare has Hamlet hide his real intent by assuming an antic disposition.
                 3. Gossamer: soft, sheer, gauzy fabric; fine film of cobwebs seen in autumn; anything delicate, light or insubstantial. Lexicographers theorize that this word, derived from Mi8ddle English goose and somer, was first used as a name for Indian summer, when geese were in season.
                 4. Accolade: praise or approval; an embrace of greeting or salutation. When French generals kiss the cheeks of the men being honored, they are continuing a custom of the early French kings who placed their arms around the neck (Latin ad "to" and colum "neck") of the new knight in order to kiss him. William the Conqueror used his fist to confer knighthood. Later a gentle stroke with the flat of the sword on the side of the neck became the accepted method.
                 5. Teeming: swarming; prolific or fertile. The old English word teman meant "to produce offspring". Indeed, an obsolete meaning of teeming was "to become pregnant to produce offspring". What is perhaps more interesting is that our word team also comes from the Old English team, which meant "childbearing" or "brood".
                 6. Titanic: of enormous size, strength, or power. In classical mythology the Titanswere a race of giants who ruled the world before the gods and goddesses. Cronus, perhaps the most famous (think of our word chronology), swallowed all his childeren in an attempt to avert a prophecy of doom, but one son, Jupiter (Zeus), survived and eventually overthrew his father.
                 7. vista: a far-reaching intellectual view; a view or prospect, especially one seen through a long, narrow avenue or passage; a mental view extending over a long period of time or embracing many remembrances of experiances. This word was the name of a man in Athens, due to his transparent face.
                 8. Bevy: group; flock. Bevy comes from an Old French word that meant "drinking group".
                 9. Philippic: bitter verbal attack. Philip II of Macedon wanted to make Greece into a monarchy. He was opposed by the great orator, Demosthenes, who denounced Philip in devastating speeches that came to be known as philippics.
                    1. Hydra: the nine-headed serpent slain by Hercules; a persistent or many-sided problem that presents new obstacles as soon as old ones are solved. The hydra had to be slain by Hercules as one of his twelve labors. This monster grew two heads for each one cut off. Hercules finally destroyed the hydra by cauterizing the necks as he cut off the heads.
                    2. Solecism: substandard use of words; violation of good manners. This word derives from the Greek inhabitants of the colony of Soloi who used a slangy dialect.
                    3. Spoonerism: an unintentional exchange of sounds. Reverend Spooner of NewCollege, Oxford, occasionally twisted his words around when he got excited so that "conquering kings" came out as "kinkering congs".
                    4. Adonis: an exceptionally handsome young man; a plant with solitary red or yellow flowers. Adonis was beloved by both Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Persephone, the queen of the dead. He was killed by a boar in a hunting expedition and from his life's blood sprang up a crimson flower.
                    5. Bacchanal: a flower of Bacchus (Greek, Dionysus), the god of wine; a drunken reveler; an orgy. Early Greek drama developed in connection with the festival honoring this god.
                    6. Siesta: midday nap. In Spanish and Latin American countries, businesses often close at midday to allow for siesta time.
                    7. Phoenix: a person or thing of peerless beauty or excellence; a person or thing that has become renewed or restored after suffering calamity or apparent annihilation. The phoenix was a mythical bird of great beauty, fabled to live 600 years in the Arabian desert, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes to live through another cycle. It is an emblem of immortality.
                    8. martinet: a strict disciplinarian, so called from a F. officer named Martinet, 1676, "system of strict discipline, "reputedly from the name of Col. Jean Martineta drillmaster of the Fr. army during the reign of Louis XIV. The meaning "an officer who is a stickler for strict discipline" is first attested 1779.
                    9.  Rhubarb: debate. Rheum from the barbarian country is an adj from the rha-plant, rhubarb, which was also called Ponticum. Rhubarb took its name from the river, i.e, Volga due to its not being smooth.
                    10.  Hilarity: mirth. Cheerful, Hilary term is so called from the festival of St. on Jan. 13.
                    11. cupidity: Roman god of passionate love, late 14c., Cupido, personification of cupido "desire, love," from cupere "to desire"
                        1. Lilliputian: very small; tiny, narrow-minded, petty. In Swift's Gulliver's Travels, the hero was shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput, the inhabitants of which stood six inches tall.
                        2. Paean: any song of praise, joy or triumph. In classical mythology, a Paean was a god serving as a physician to the Olympian gods, later identified with Apollo.
                        3. Cyclopean: vast, massive and rough; suggestive of the Cyclops, the race of one-eyed giants, descended from the Titans. One of the most exciting tales in the Odyssey recounts the blinding of the one-eyed Polyphemus, who had confined Odysseus' crew in his cave and promised to “reward" Odysseus by eating him last.
                        4. Argonaut: adventurer; one who sailed with Jason on the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece. Specially, the word refers to a participant in the California Gold rush of 1849.
                        5. Narcissism:  excessive admiration of oneself; egocentrism. Narcissus was a youth who, having spurned the love of Echo, fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool, and after wasting away from unsatisfied desire was transformed into the flower that bears his name. The plant, incidentally, has narcotic effects (from the Greek narke, "numbness").
                        6. Homeric: suggestive of Homer or his poetry; of heroic dimensions; grand; imposing.
                        7. Promethean: creative and boldly original. Prometheus was a Titan who taught mankind various arts and confined all its troubles in the box that Zeus treacherously gave to Epimetheus as the dowry of Pandora. For having stolen fire from Olympus and given it to mankind in defiance of Zeus, Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle daily tore at his liver, until he was finally released by Hercules.
                        8. Oracular: uttered or delivered as if divinely inspired or infallible; ambiguous or obscure; portentous; ominous. Priests or priestesses in the shrines of ancient Greece would give ambiguous answers as the responses of god to an inquiry. One famous shrine was the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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