April 22nd has been recognized as Earth Day ever since 1970, the same year that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established. On a day where many people are focused on preserving green space and maintaining clean drinking water, we will look at the relationship between the Big Blue Marble and our language.
Let's begin by looking at some 'roots.'
The Latin root for earth is terra, as in terra firma = "firm ground." It's the root found in words like subterranean, terrestrial, extraterrestrial, and terrarium.
The Greek root for earth is geo, as in geography, geology, and geopolitics.
On Earth Day, each of us becomes an Antaeus. Do you remember him from Greek mythology? He was the son of Gaia (mother earth) and Poseidon (god of the sea). Antaeus was an undefeated wrestler until he met up with Hercules, who was able to figure out his weakness. Even Hercules had trouble defeating the great wrestler until he lifted Antaeus' legs from the earth. When he did this, Antaeus became powerless. As a result, Antaeus is a powerful metaphor for those who realize that their strength and very survival depends on Mother Earth.
Our daily conversations are well 'grounded' in earth metaphors. A number of idioms (expressions of two or more words that mean something different from the literal meaning of the individual words) use the earth as a metaphor. Below are a few examples using the words "earth" and "ground" from The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (1).
EARTH
down to earth
four corners of the earth
move heaven and
earth
not have an earthly chance
salt of the earth
GROUND
both feet on the ground
break ground
common ground
ear to the ground
from the ground up
gain ground
hit the ground running
happy hunting ground
run into the ground
stand one's ground
worship the ground
someone walks on
Today's Challenge: Clear as Mud
Celebrate Earth Day by mining the language for expressions (idioms) containing the words listed below. Try to come up with as many as you can for each word:
mud
grass
dust
dirt
trees
water
Quote of the Day: Imperious Caesar. dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expell the winter's flaw!
William Shakespeare in Hamlet: Act V, scene 1
1 - Ammer, Christine. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.
Showing posts with label roots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roots. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
July 31: Harry Potter Day
Today is the birthday of the literary character Harry Potter and Harry's creator: J.K. (Joanne Kathleen) Rowling. The British author was born on July 31, 1965.
The idea of a story about boy wizard came to Rowling one day on a long train ride from Manchester to London in the Summer of 1990. It took seven years, however, to bring Harry Potter to life in a published book. After rejections from several publishers, Bloomsbury Children's Books published Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in June 1997.
After the publication of Philospher's Stone, success and awards came fast for Rowling. She sold the American rights to her books to Scholastic Books, and quit her job teaching French to write full time.
Sales of the seven books in Harry Potter saga have reached unprecedented numbers. Unbelievably, Harry Potter titles are number one, two, and three on the Amazon.com bestseller list for the decade (2000-2005). Potter books have sold more than 300 million copies and have been translated into more than 30 languages (1).
In 2003, Rowling achieved the rare distinction of having one of her coined words added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) -- a very rare achievement for a living author.
The word is muggle, defined as:
a person who possesses no magical powers. Hence in allusive and extended uses: a person who lacks a particular skill or skills, or who is regarded as inferior in some way.
The editors of the OED had little choice but to include the word in the dictionary after considering the seemingly universal popularity of Rowling's books and the fact that the word was being used everyday by people all over the world. A similar feat was accomplished by JRR Tolkien when the OED included his word "hobbit" in the 1976 edition of the OED. Tolkien, however, had died before seeing his word in the dictionary.
Today's Challenge: I Put a Spell on You
The made-up language of spells in J. K. Rowling's books is not a totally random creation. Hidden in the spells are word parts that resemble Latin and Greek roots. Given 7 roots below, along with the Potter spell, and common English words with the same root, see if you can identify the English translation of each root.
1. Root: LEV Wingardium Leviosa! Common Words: lever, elevator, levee, elevate
2. Root: LOCO Locomotor Mortis! Common Words: locomotive, locate, dislocate, allocate
3. Root: PEL Expelliarmus! Common Words: propel, expel, repel, compel
4. Root: LUM Lumos! Common Words: illuminate, lucid, bioluminescence, elucidate
5. Root: FID Fidelus! Common Words: confide, confidence, fidelity, infidel
6. Root: PATR Expecto Patronus! Common Words: paternal, patron, patronize, patriot
7. Root: FIN Finite incantatem! Common Words: infinite, define, affinity, infinitesimal
A. To Push
B. To Raise Up, Make Lighter
C. Trust
D. Father
E. Place
F. End or Limit
G. Light (3)
Quote of the Day: The book is really about the power of the imagination. What Harry is learning to do is to develop his full potential. Wizardry is just the analogy I use. --J. K. Rowling
Answers: 1. B. To Raise Up, Make Lighter 2. E Place 3. A To Push 4. G Light 5. C Trust 6. D Father 7. F End or Limit
2 - 'Muggle' Goes Into Oxford English Dictionary. BBC Newsround 24 March 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/uk/newsid_2882000/2882895.stm
3 - Resource Room: Free-spirited Structured Multisensory Learning. Reading Comprehension. Vocabulary words parts index (Greek and Latin Roots) http://www.resourceroom.net/comprehension/wordparts/index.asp
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