One way to help students understand that words have histories is to ask them to delve into the origins of a word created from someone's name. I give the students a list of words that originally were someone's name: guillotine, bloomers, derrick, pasteurize, macadam, boycott, mesmerize, watt, maudlin—there are many possibilities. (See useful resources below.) Students are asked to research the person and then, adopting the persona of their character, create five artifacts that illustrate both the person's life and the word his or her name became. They can create business cards, advertisements, or catalogs—their imagination is the limit. Keeping in character, they can write letters to each other.
Funk, Charles. [1948] 1985. A Hog on Ice and Other Curious Expressions. New York: Harper and Row.
Funk, Charles. [1950] 1985. Thereby Hangs a Tale: Stories of Curious Word Origins. New York: Harper and Row.
Funk, Charles. [1955] 1986. Heavens to Betsy! and Other Curious Sayings. New York: Perennial Library.
Funk, Charles. [1958] 1986. Horsefeathers and Other Curious Words. New York: HarperPerennial.
Funk, Wilfred. [1950] 1978. Word Origins and Their Romantic Stories. New York: Bell Publishing Company.
Merriam-Webster Inc., ed. 1994. Webster's Word Histories. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc.
Onions, C. T. 1966. Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press.
| Enhanced vocabulary acquistion,
in-context usage, derivation, applications |
Specific
words and terms for this Notables's occupation, life, era and
career e.g., in technology, the arts, politics, science, business and
commerce. |
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| Language demands in genre,
voice, audience, style and modality |
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