THE AMERICAN ENGLISH EXPRESS Chapter 1 page 7
4. Derivation: this is where the word comes from or the history of the word. English is composed of words from many languages, chiefly Latin and German. Many English words also derive from Greek. Some words are built on ‘roots’ from Latin, German or Greek.
When learning English words, it is sometimes very useful to be able to recognize the root of a word, such as Philosophy
‘philo’ is translated as ‘love of’ from the Greek language
‘sophy’ is translated as ‘wisdom’ from the Greek word ‘sophia’
Thus, the word philosophy derives from (comes from, originates from) a Greek root meaning ‘love of wisdom’. This word was first used by the ancient Greek mathematician, Pythagoras.
5. Part of speech: the dictionary will indicate the part or parts of speech or how the word is used. (There will be some more discussion about parts of speech in the next chapter.) This is important because some words can be used differently, for example, the same word may be used as either a noun or a verb, and you will need to be able to distinguish its usage.
For
example, in the sentence:
“I express myself well in writing.” The word ‘express’ is used as a verb indicating action.
Compare this with the sentence:
“The Canadian express train leaves at midnight tonight.” The word ‘express’ is used as adjective to indicate a train that doesn’t make local stops.
3.
Usage example:
dictionaries also provide an example of proper usage. This is usually a
sentence illustrating the correct way to use a word in a sentence.
Such examples are useful when you want to own the words: you can try to remember the usage example sentence provided by the dictionary. Remembering the entire sentence can help you to recall the proper meaning of the word whether you are writing, reading or speaking.
Copyright: 2004 English 4 All, Inc.