Etymology

funambulist (fyu̇-ˈnam-byə-list)

A sketch of a funambulist drawn by my dad.

A funambulist is a tightrope walker. Funambulist contains the Latin roots fun– meaning rope and ambul– meaning walk. This word literally means “rope walker!” One of the most famous funambulists is Jean-Francois Gravelet, known as “The Great Blondin”. In 1859, he crossed the Niagara River on an 1100 foot rope. He crossed the river many times, each time doing something more dangerous. He ran and biked across, even in the dark! I think that his most amazing feat was when he rolled a wheelbarrow containing a stove, to the middle of the rope, stopped and cooked an omelet, then lowered the omelet to passengers in a boat below him! I don’t think that I could ever be a funambulist, because I would be too scared and probably end up falling!

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hieroglyph (hī(ə)rəˌglif )

Unis-Ankh’s cartouche. Photo taken at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Hieroglyphs within Unis- Ankh’s tomb. Photo taken at the Field Museum in Chicago.
Hieroglyphs within Unis- Ankh’s tomb. Photo taken at the Field Museum in Chicago.

My favorite place to go in Chicago is the Field Museum. During a recent visit, I found the Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit most interesting.  The exhibit includes an ancient, limestone tomb which our tour guide told us was Unis-Ankh’s real tomb. Unis-Ankh was the son of King Unis, the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (2428- 2407 B.C.). We saw Unis-Ankh’s cartouche, which is a hieroglyphic name plate at the entry. Then we went inside to a little room and saw hieroglyphs all around us. A hieroglyph is a character in any system of writing that uses pictures. The word was originally used for the oldest system of writing Ancient Egyptian. Hieroglyph comes from the Greek roots hier meaning sacred and glyph meaning carve. Hieroglyphs are “sacred carvings!” There were hints of red on the wall, which the tour guide explained was from ochre. The limestone was protected with plexiglass in order to preserve the 5,000 year old stone. On the tour, I learned a lot about daily life in Ancient Egypt such as the fact that everyone, even kids, had to drink beer (or wine if they were rich), because the water from the River Nile was contaminated.  They traded for fruit, juice, beer and wine and other goods in the marketplace.  Egyptians wore little clothing, for the desert was hot, as you might imagine. I really enjoyed the exhibit and I definitely recommend going on the Inside Ancient Egypt tour if you are visiting the Field Museum.

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psittacine (sitəˌsīn)

These colorful psittacines can be found at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

A psittacine is any bird of the parrot family. Psittacine comes from the Greek root psitt, meaning parrot and includes the suffix ending “ine” which means “of or related to”.  Psittacine technically means, of or relating to parrots. I chose this word because it has an unusual root that doesn’t show up in many words, and the silent “p” makes it tricky to spell.

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Lepidoptera (le-pə-ˈdäp-tə-rə)

 

Our butterfly garden attracts many different lepidopterans.

We planted a small butterfly garden many years ago and it is starting to bloom again. The garden attracts many beautiful butterflies such as Monarchs, Swallowtails, Viceroys, and Fritillaries. Butterflies and moths belong to a large group of insects called Lepidoptera.  Lepidoptera comes from the Greek roots lepid, meaning scale and pter, meaning wing. The word literally means “scaly wing”, and refers to the brightly colored, overlapping scales that make up the wings (and bodies) of these insects.

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toxophilite (täk säfə līt)

I love the cool new bow I got for my birthday!

Yesterday was my first official day of summer vacation! I went to the archery range with my dad and we shot arrows together; it was fun! I am a true toxophilite. What is a toxophilite, you ask? A toxophilite is a lover of archery. Toxophilite is made up of two Greek roots, tox, meaning bow and phil, meaning love of. Two Greek elements usually link with “o.” Are you a toxophilite? If you are, let me know.

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ursprache (u̇ər shpräḵə)

Proto-Indo-European is the ursprache of the Indo-European family of languages. Diagram from www.german.about.com

Katharine Close spelled the word ursprache to win the 2006 National Spelling Bee. Ursprache means a parent language, especially one reconstructed from the evidence of later languages.  Ursprache comes from the German roots ur meaning original and sprache meaning language. Proto–Indo-European is the ursprache, or the parent language of Indo-European languages such as Latin, Greek, Hindi and a lot of other languages.

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euonym (yüənim)

Euonym was the winning word in the 1997 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Hello! Our championship word for this week is euonym, which means an appropriate name for a person or thing. Euonym comes from the Greek roots eu-, meaning good, and -onym meaning name. Euonym simply means “good name.” Rebecca Sealfon, from New York, shouted each letter of this word ecstatically to win the 1997 National Spelling Bee. Check out the site below for a video of Rebecca Sealfon!

http://mom.me/fun/7505-9-funniest-spelling-bee-moments/item/e-u-o-n-y-m/

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Chrysanthemum (kri-sant-thə-məm)

Chrysanthemums were originally yellow so they were named "gold flowers". (Photo credit to Missouri Botanical Garden)

I am sorry that I have kept you waiting for another post. This week we shall continue our theme of flower roots by looking at the word chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemums are fall-blooming flowers and can be multiple colors. Common names for chrysanthemums are chrysanths or mums. Chrysanthemum comes from the Greek roots chrys,meaning gold and anth, meaning flower. Chrysanthemums were originally yellow so they were named “gold flowers”.

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campanula (kam-pan-yə-lə)

This picture shows the little bell shaped flowers of the campanula. (Photo credit to Wikipedia)

This week we will be exploring the word campanula, commonly known as the bellflower. Varieties of this plant include biennials, annuals and perennials. For those of you who may not know, a biennial plant is a plant that grows leaves, roots, and stems in its first year of development and flowers during the second year. The flowers of the plant come in many different colors, including white, lavender, pink and blue. Campanula comes from the Latin root campan, which means bell and includes the suffix -ula meaning little. As you can see in the picture, the flowers really do look like little bells.

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