Tag Archives: foreign languages/linguistics

Word Root Exercise: Cephal/o, Encelphal/o

Posted on January 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, wrapping up on a Wednesday afternoon, here is a worksheet on the Greek roots cephal/o and encephal/o. They mean, respectively, head and brain. Now you know, instinctively, that encephalitis is a disease of the head or brain.

As I’ve now said ad nauseum, if you have students interested in a career in healthcare, this is a word root that will quickly build their professional lexicon.

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.

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Word Root Exercise: Phyll/o

Posted on January 23, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, closing out the afternoon and the first semester of this school year, here is a worksheet on the Greek root phyll/o. It means leaf, and is very productive, particularly in the sciences, in the English language. You can find it, for example, in a commonly used noun in biology: chlorophyll.

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.

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Word Root Exercise: Physi/o

Posted on January 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

Alrighty, then: here is a worksheet on the Greek root physi/o, which means both nature and physical. This root is, needless to say, very productive in English, especially in the sciences. Once again, if you teach students interested in working in healthcare, this is a word root they’ll need to know.

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.

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Etruscan

Posted on January 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Etruscan: Ancient language in an area of Italy to the north of Rome, attested by inscriptions from around 700 BC, until extinguished by Latin. Not genetically related to any language any better documented; hence only partly and insecurely understood. Written in an alphabet derived from that of Greek and itself one source of the Roman.”

Excerpted from: Matthews, P.H., ed. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

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Word Root Exercise: Quin, Quint, Quintu, Quinque

Posted on January 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Latin roots quin, quint, quintu, and quinque. You probably already recognize the meaning of these roots as five and fifth. This root is very productive in English and probably quintessential to student vocabulary building.

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.

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A Lesson Plan on the Greek Word Root Auto

Posted on January 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you scroll down to the seventh post below this one, you will find a pair of context clues worksheets on the noun autobiography and the adjective autobiographical.

Perhaps this lesson plan on the Greek word root auto–it means self and same–might complement those worksheets, or vice versa. I probably don’t need to tell you how productive this root is in English; it is at the basis of huge number of words used across academic domains.

I open this lesson, hinting at the meaning of the root, with this context clues worksheet on the adjective identical. Finally, here is the word root worksheet that is the mainstay 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.

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Cultural Literacy: Zeitgeist

Posted on January 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

If there was ever a time for kids to learn this German noun, one of those abstractions that the Germans are good at contriving in compounds, it is now. To that end, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the word and concept zeitgeist.

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.

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Term of Art: Ad Hominem

Posted on January 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Ad Hominem To the man: appealing to the sentiments or prejudices of the hearer of listener rather than to his or her reason or intelligence; disparaging a person’s character rather than his or her sentiments; personal rather than substantive or ideological.

‘The boss knows all about the so-called fallacy of the argumentum ad hominem. ‘It may be a fallacy,’ he said, ‘ but it is shore-God useful. If you use the right kind of argumentum, you can always scare the hominem into a laundry bill he didn’t expect.’ Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men.”

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

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Word Root Exercise: Phor, Phore

Posted on January 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

It turns out to be a complicated piece of language, but here, nonetheless, is a worksheet on the Greek roots phor and phore. These mean, variously, to bear, to produce, to carry, and state. As you’ll see from the English words that grow from this root, it basically divides its labors between the concrete and the abstract in 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.

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Word Root Exercise: Radic, Radix

Posted on January 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you can use it, here is a worksheet on the Latin roots radic and radix. They mean root. I imagine teachers in both mathematics and the hard sciences recognize these roots. They are at the base of terms of art in your domains such as radical as well as some big words related to neuropathic disease.

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.

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