Exactly one year ago, I started The Word Explorer to share my love of etymology with other people. I believe that words are beautiful and if you understand where they come from, it adds to their beauty.

Two goals that I wanted to reach by my first anniversary were to have 1000 views and 25 followers. I am happy to say that I have surpassed both goals thanks to all of you. I want to extend a special thank you to all of my followers for supporting me. I hope you all stay with me for another exciting year of word exploration!

bibliophile (bi-blē-ə-ˌfī-əl)

Books are my great love!

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is all about love, so I have decided to write about one of my great loves – books. I am a bibliophile.

A bibliophile is a  lover of books. Bibliophile contains the Greek roots bibli- meaning book andphil meaning love of. The root phil- can occur at the beginning of words such as philanthropy or at the end of words like bibliophile.

I enjoy reading many different genres of books but my favorite books are those in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I have read these books countless times and I am captivated by the author’s use of Latin throughout the series. As a student of Latin, I find that the books are much more interesting because of the clever utilization of Latin.  I also love that the author makes many references to Greek mythology! During the next few weeks I would like to explore the Latin that occurs in the Harry Potter series as well as references to Greek mythology.  If you have never read Harry Potter, I strongly recommend reading these amazing books! If you are a Harry Potter fan, I hope you enjoy my series of posts on this topic.

 

mnemonic (nēˈmänik)

I recently competed in my school spelling bee and it was a lot of fun! Sometimes, when I study for spelling bees, it is really hard to remember how to spell certain words so I have to use mnemonic devices. Mnemonics are memory aids people use to remember things.

For example, I know how to spell principal by remembering that the head of school is my “pal.” How can you tell the difference between tempura (food you eat) and tempera (the paint)? I remember that “u eat tempura.” 🙂

The word mnemonic comes from the Greek root mnem meaning remembrance, memory.

Do you find mnemonic devices helpful? If so, I would love to hear some of your tricks to remembering things.

One of my followers, Mr. M, asked me to write about the word oikos. Oikos is the Greek word for house. My mother mentioned that this is also the name of  a company that makes Greek yogurt. The people who named the  company probably wanted to persuade buyers that their product tasted homemade. What do you all think?

I am always on the lookout for new and interesting words, so if any of you come across any cool words, comment and let me know!

 

 

polyglot (pälē glät)

Happy New Year! My New Year’s resolution is to continue to improve my Hindi using Rosetta Stone. I have a strong interest in learning Hindi because I have lots of family in India. Hindi is one of the official languages of India and is spoken by nearly 500 million people. Some other languages I would like to learn are Mandarin, Japanese, German, and Telugu.

I hope to become a polyglot one day. A polyglot is a person who knows many different languages. Polyglot comes from the Greek roots poly- meaning many and glot meaning tongue, language.

Are there any languages you would like to learn?  Are any of you polyglots? If so, what languages do you speak?

Looking back… 2014

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone! I thought that today would be a good day to look back at my blog’s progress in 2014. I started this blog in February to share my love of words with others. I was very surprised that so many people actually took an interest in my blog. I want to especially thank all of my followers for supporting me this year! I am looking forward to exploring more words with you in 2015. Click on the link below to view my annual report.

Click here to see the complete report.

philanthropy (fə̇ˈlan(t)thrəpē)

Students at my school participate in Penny Wars to raise money for charity.

This season is all about giving back to those in need. Every year, students at my school participate in an event called Penny Wars. During the Penny Wars, teachers and students are divided into three teams according to their birthdays. We drop pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters in jars to raise money for charity. At the end of the event, the team with the most money has the privilege of deciding where to donate all of the money. Last year’s winning team donated the money to Heifer International.

Merriam Webster defines the word philanthropy as Goodwill toward one’s fellowmen especially as expressed through active efforts to promote human welfarePhilanthropy contains the Greek roots phil- meaning love of and anthrop- meaning man. The word philanthropy literally means “love of man.” 

Thank you to everyone who participated in my Name That Animal challenge!  Canopteran, Canornis, and Cynocephalornis were the names that were submitted to me. If you haven’t participated, please take a moment to create and submit a name for this interesting “dog bird” here: Name That Animal Challenge #1

Name That Animal: Challenge #1

What would you name this "dog bird?"

This semester, I am taking a fabulous etymology class called The Witty Wordsmith. Recently, the instructor challenged the class to name weird animals that people had created using Photoshop. We had to use our knowledge of Greek and Latin roots to name the animals. I had a lot of fun doing this assignment so I have created my own challenge and I hope you all enjoy it.

Pretend that you are a scientist and you have just discovered this new species of bird and you have the privilege of naming your species. Scientists usually name new species by using Greek or/and Latin roots because the prefixes, stems, and suffixes are just like building blocks that you can utilize in countless ways.

Your challenge is to name the unique animal in the picture above using your knowledge of Greek and Latin roots. Keep in mind that you can use characteristics like size, color, or shape to name the animal. Feel free to search my blog to find root words to help you or use the list below.

Greek:
cyno                            dog
cephal                        head
soma, somat           body
pter                             wing, feather
ornith, ornis            bird

Latin:
avi                              bird
can                            dog

Submit your names by leaving me a comment!

nyctophobia (nik-tuh-foh-bee-uh)

The decorations in my neighborhood are fun to look at and the people handing out candy are very nice.

Happy Halloween! I am excited to go trick-or-treating tonight in my Bellatrix Lestrange costume. For those of you unfamiliar with Bellatrix, she is an evil character in the Harry Potter series. I’m glad I don’t have nyctophobia, otherwise I couldn’t go out tonight or any night!

Nyctophobia comes from the Greek root nyct- meaning night and the suffix –phobia meaning abnormal fear of. Nyctophobia literally means “abnormal fear of the night.”

Are you dressing up this year? If you are, be sure to comment and tell me about your costume!