Tag Archives: foreign languages/linguistics

Cultural Literacy: Hoi Polloi

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun hoi polloi, from the ancient Greek meaning “the many.” This noun phrase isn’t much used anymore, perhaps because it has negative or even contemptuous connotations. Still, if we want to produce educated citizens who are capable of sustaining a civil society, this might be a word and concept for them to understand.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Ad Hoc

“Ad Hoc (ad hok) To this matter: for this specific instance or purpose; in this case; immediate; provisional.

‘Polly’s motivating force was love; she wanted a world in which everybody else whether they liked it or not, but she set this overflowing feminine cup in motion with a thoroughly masculine arsenal of charts, graphs, quorums, task forces, ad hocs, tunnel vision, and lists.’ Florence King, When Sisterhood Was in Flower”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Icon/o

Last but not least on a rainy Thursday afternoon, here is a short worksheet on the Greek word root icon/o–it means image. But you already knew that because of the word icon itself is so commonly used in the English language.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Iatr/o

Here is a short worksheet on the Greek word root iatr/o. It means healing and medical treatment. You’ll find it at the base of words like psychiatry and pediatrics. This is another word root students interested in careers in healthcare ought to know.

Not bene, please, that this is a short exercise designed to open a class period. While it could be expanded to fill a class period, it won’t do so like the longer word root exercises found on Mark’s Text Terminal.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: -Ics

Alright: here is a worksheet on the Greek root ics, which is enormously productive in English. It means study of, science, skill, practice,  and knowledge. You’ll find it in words like physics, phonics, and analytics among many, many other English words used across the domains of the common branch curriculum.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Vivacious (adj)

It’s the kind of adjective the late, great Joseph Mitchell called a “tinsel word,” and I am hard pressed to disagree. Nevertheless, here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective vivacious. I wrote this, I think, to help native Spanish speakers make the connection between the Spanish verb vivir, “to live” and the use of the Latin roots at its base–viv, vivi, vit, “life, living, live.”

In that role, this document might work well with this worksheet on the Latin word roots viv, vivi, and vit.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Cide

OK, last but not least this afternoon, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root –cide. It means, you won’t be surprised to hear, “to kill.” This worksheet has several more words–eleven in all–than I usually include in such an exercise. That said, bear in mind that the words selected for inclusion are there because they often show up in high-stakes college admissions tests. That said, if this worksheet is too long, I would think you could dispense with germicide (any kid who uses hand sanitizer, which I hope is all kids during this pandemic) will quickly figure out what that means, uxoricide, and tyrannicide.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

The Weekly Text, October 23, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Matr, Matri, and Mater

Last but not least this morning, this week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots matr, matri, and mater. They mean, simply, (as you’ve surely inferred) mother. They are very productive in English.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the adjective matrifocal, which supplies a hint about the meaning of the roots under study; it is also a good sociological, anthropological, and historical term of art for students to know. Finally, here is the word root worksheet on matr, matri, and mater that is the work of this lesson.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Cede, Ceed, Cess

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots cede, ceed, and cess. They mean to go and to yield. However, the words that stem from these roots, which are extremely productive in English, like proceed, precede, and succeed point up the necessity of an adverbial question, e.g. to go when and where? To yield when and where? 

Those kinds of questions will help students arrive on their own at the fundamental meaning of these roots.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Bar/o

This  worksheet on the Greek word root bar/o yields in English, as Greek roots tend to, a number of words related to the physical sciences. In this case, bar/o means pressure and weight. You find it at the base of weather-related words like barometer and millibar.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.