Three cheers to Vocabulary

Vocabulary

This term is synonymous with the casual expression - word bank. This includes the number of words we know and use during the casual or formal interactions determine our fluency related to a foreign language such as English. 

In general the learning capacity of words or adding new words to our word bank would be higher in our childhood. It decreases as we move on to teens and falls by the time we reach our twenties. By twenty five we would stop adding new words. Thus it shows a falling trend in words for interesting communication

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This leads to some personality flaws. Firstly, it limits our methods of expression. Secondly, repetitive use of words make us sound boring. Thirdly, this stands as a flaw for our fluency of the language.
Finally, language wise, the person suffers inferiority complex.

Here to root words make their presence felt strongly. Knowing the root of a word helps us to retain the memory of words and establish higher levels of vocabulary. Most words in English are based on the root words taken from Greek and Latin. If we take the word 'Vocabulary' - it has the root word 'voc' - means word or name. This Latin root word is present even in words such as 'advocacy' or 'vocal'. This makes things easy for us to learn new words. Keep a note of the root word and its meaning so that the vocabulary grows in spite of the count of the numbers added to our age.

So, why not opt for some methods to add some words to the existing ones and feel the new energy of speaking better, and expressing better.

-- Jayashree Naidu

BACK TO THE ROOTS - spect

Back to the roots again.  This time let's go with the verb "to see"
Spect - which means to see -  is a latin word that acts both as a prefix and a suffix.

Many of its words are commonly used. There are around three hundred words in English that has spect as their suffix or prefix. To name a few...

Spectator - a person who is watching (a performance or sports)
Spectacle - a sight that has such beauty that is beyond description
Spectacular - a wonderful sight (adjective form)
Spectacles - the mirrors that are framed and mechanised as lenses to enable our eye sight normal

We have two psychology oriented words here
Introspect -this refers to the thoght flow that enables us to exam one's own feelings and thoughts.
This is the verb form.
Introspection is the noun form.


Another verb form is to inspect. To look inside of the issue or a place or a thing
The educational officials inspect the schools annually once. And the person who inspects is called an inspector :) School inspection time used to be the most well remembered period even to this day :) CHildren are dressed in the neat sparkling uniforms and footware. They are sent to the school with great care and preparation for each subject. The students' answers measure the teachers' performance. Hence the tension is shared by the teachers as well.
Finally it is clear that we inspect because we suspect :)

We have around 354 words containing this root word Spect

--noenglish

Greek and Latin

Let's have some practice time:
Words making includes Root words is known to us. Let us gather some more roots of the words.

1. a - in Greek means without - the word "abyss" means without bottom
Check with James Cameron's film with the same word as its title. An interesting film.

2. a- in Latin means on
Example words are: ashore means on the shore
afire - on fire; aside (means on the side)

3. aer- in Greek means air
eg: aerospace (means the air space), aerial (means related to air)

4. acro means top or height in Greek
acrobat means a high walker
acronym means a word formed from the first letters of a word
eg:AIDS is an acronym for "Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome".
Fear of heights is mentioned as "acrophobia"

5. act means to do in Latin
activity, react, interact

Let's meet with some more words in my next post.