Academic Vocabulary: Academic Words - Olsen Amy E. 2012

Chapter 5. Word Parts I

Look for words with these prefixes, roots, and/or suffixes as you work through this book. You may have already seen some of them, and you will see others in later chapters. Learning basic word parts can help you figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words.

prefix: a word part added to the beginning of a word that changes the meaning of the root

root: a word's basic part with its essential meaning

suffix: a word part added to the end of a word; indicates the part of speech

Self-Tests

1 Read each definition, and choose the appropriate word. Use each word once. The meaning of the word part is underlined to help you make the connection. Refer to the Word Parts list if you need help.

Vocabulary list

survive

wisdom

attitude

conductor

ambidextrous

deposit

levitate

denote

postbellum

magnum

1. capable of using both hands ...

2. occurring after a war ...

3. the person who leads the orchestra ...

4. to put money in the bank ...

5. to be a mark or sign of ...

6. to continue to live ...

7. a large wine bottle ...

8. a state of mind about something ...

9. the quality of having good judgment ...

10. to float or lift a person or thing ...

2 Finish the sentences with the meaning of each word part. Use each meaning once. The word part is underlined to help you make the connection.

Vocabulary list

after

condition

great

put

lead

mark

life

state of

rise

around

1. She received a posthumous award: it was given to her the year ... she died.

2. My freedom is important to me. It is a(n) ... that I don't take for granted.

3. I moved the lever to make the door ... .

4. I use a pen when I annotate a book so I can easily see every ... I make.

5. My friends tried to seduce me into going to the movies, but they couldn't ... me astray; I stayed home and studied.

6. His answers were ambiguous: he kept dancing ... my questions.

7. I transposed the numbers on my check: I ... the "1" before the "2" and ended up being nine dollars short.

8. Their house is magnificent; everything about it is ... .

9. Katy is a convivial person; she is so sociable and full of ... .

10. In ancient Rome, captives often lived a life of servitude; they spent the rest of their lives in a(n) ... slavery.

3 Finish the story using the word parts below. Use each word part once. Your knowledge of word parts, as well as the context clues, will help you create the correct words. If you do not understand the meaning of a word you have made, check the dictionary for the definition or to see whether the word exists.

Word parts

lev

tude

ambi

post

viv

pos

mag

not

due

dom

A Revealing Walk

After three days of snow and a six-hour power out­age, the (1) ... ance in the apartment was rather unpleasant. We had been cooped up for too long. One roommate was beginning to make rude remarks about my hair, while I was insult­ing his taste in clothing. Our other roommate was curled up in the comer with a book in front of his face trying to ignore us. We were all suffering from bore (2) ... and needed something to amuse ourselves.

I decided it was best to ex(3)...e myself to the elements as the snow was be­ginning to melt. When I first ventured out, I wondered what could have in(4) ...ed me to come out in the cold, but then I remembered our bickering, and I thought the walk was still a good idea. Little did I realize that the walk would be a(n) (5)... able one. The air was fresh, and it felt good to be moving. As I looked at the splendor of the snow-covered trees, the (6)... nitude of the problems in the apartment began to seem so small. Then I saw the flowers poking out of the snow. Their beauty re(7)...ed my spirits. To see life blooming again made me happy. Maybe the long winter we had been having would soon be over. I felt such grati(8)... to the lovely flowers. The return of life made me think about (9)...erity and what I most wanted to leave for future generations. Maybe the re(10)...ance of a few flowers in the snow to the big issues of life and death wouldn't hit most people, but for some reason those flowers made me look at the world in a whole new way.

4 Pick the best definition for each underlined word using your knowledge of word parts. Circle the word part in each of the underlined words.

a. the state of having enough

b. a person who puts one's point forward

c. liveliness

d. the condition of being famous

e. surrounding

f. showing a great spirit

g. a raised area of earth along a river

h. to lead or bring in

i. marks or symbols used in a particular field

j. examination of a body after death

1. Diana's vivacity kept the party alive: she danced and laughed all night.

2. The levee wasn't high enough to keep the water from flooding the houses.

3. The postmortem revealed that the man had been poisoned.

4. The musical notations confused me at the beginning of my piano class, but after a few weeks, I could easily read them.

5. The magnanimous donation helped us build the hospital sooner than we expected.

6. Keri didn't let stardom go to her head. Even after appearing in three blockbuster movies, she was still the same sweet girl when she came home for the holidays.

7. I found the ambient music in the restaurant annoying instead of relaxing.

8. Four years after his retirement, the community decided it was time to induct Phillips into the local Sports Hall of Fame.

9. We have a plentitude of food with the pizza I got and the chicken you brought.

10. She was a proponent of the new park from the beginning; she continually let people know that the neighborhood kids needed a safe place to play.

5 A good way to remember word parts is to pick one word that uses a word part and understand how that word part functions in the word. Then you can apply that meaning to other words that have the same word part. Use the words to help you match the word part to its meaning.

Set One

1. ambi-: ambiguous, ambivalent, ambiance

2. mag-: magnificent, magnify, magnitude

3. -dom: martyrdom, freedom, wisdom

4. -due-: induce, conductor, seduce

5. -vi-, -viv-: viable, vivid, revive

a. life, to live

b. to lead.

c. state, condition, or quality of

d. both, around

e. great, large

Set Two

6. -pon-, -pos-: proponent, juxtaposition, deposit

7. -lev-: levity, levitate, elevator

8. post-: posterity, postdoctoral, posthumously

9. -not-: annotate, denote, notation

10. -tude: magnitude, gratitude, multitude

f. lift, light, rise

g. state or quality of

h. after, behind

i. to put, to place

j. mark

Interactive Exercise

Use the dictionary to find a word you don't know that uses the word part listed below. Write the mean­ing of the word part, the word, and the definition. If your dictionary has the etymology (history) of the word, see how the word part relates to the meaning, and write the etymology after the definition.

Match each photograph to one of the word parts below, and write the meaning of the word part.

mag-

post-

-lev-

-vi-/-viv-

-dom

Context Clue Mini-Lesson 2

This lesson uses antonyms—words that mean the opposite of the unknown word—as the clues. Circle the antonyms you find for the underlined words and then write a word that is the opposite of the antonym as your definition of the word.

When I went to visit, Marsha's greeting was cordial. A few people had told me that she was often cold and unfriendly, but I did not find her so. We merrily chatted for an hour, when suddenly she cast an aspersion on my blouse. I thought she was going to compliment it when she mentioned the unusual color, but I was wrong. I was dejected. I had been so excited about making a new friend. What I had hoped to be the beginning of a new friendship turned out to be its demise.

Your Definition

1. Cordial ...

2. Aspersion ...

3. Dejected ...

4. Demise ...

Etymologies

An etymology is the history of a word. Some dictionaries will explain in an entry how the word came into existence. Words can be developed in several ways such as being made up, com­ing from a person's name, or evolving from foreign languages. Reading a word's etymology can sometimes help you remember the meaning. For example, the word dismal comes from the Latin dies mali. Dies is the plural of day and mali the plural of evil. In Middle English the word meant "unlucky days." There were two days in each month that were thought to be unfa­vorable, and it was believed a person shouldn't start anything important on those days. These days were even marked on calendars during the Middle Ages. For example, in March, the two days were the 1^st and 28^th, and in June. the days were the 10^th and 16^th. The word now means "causing depression or dread." It is easy to see how this definition came from the idea of un­lucky days.

Not all words have interesting histories, but taking the time to read an etymology can be useful. If you get excited about word origins, there are books available on the subject that show how fascinating language can be.