What a great variety of words you guys came up with to-day. I was really pleased at the variety: informal words, common words, descriptive words and funny words. All of them useful and every one of them words you should all add to your vocabularies.
The words "lollipop" seemed to interest you all so I looked up the history of the words - and the lollipop itself:
Most Etymology dictionaries on-line are American and I got a little frustrated because many gave the information that the word "lolly" perhaps comes from an English dialect word meaning the tongue. But then they just said "+ pop". Now the word pop originally meant to smack or hit so I wasn't satisfied. You don't hit or smack people with either your tongue or with a lollipop itself so I just couldn't see why the word pop would be added.
Finally I found an entry by Thackery - a great English writer and expert on words - and, to me, his explanation seemed most likely. The word "lally" comes from a word to mean "to soothe"...and sweet lollipops surely soothe your taste buds and make one happy, so that seemed likely. And the word "pope" referred to a kind of mixed liquors, stirred in a big pot - the way that lollipops are made (by mixing and stirring sugar and water and flavourings).
Now, in England, in the Eighteenth century a strange thing occurred called The Great Vowel Change. For no reason that we have ever been able to discover the way we pronounce all the vowels, A,E,I,O,U, changed! So changing the pronunciation of the word "lally" to "lolly" could have happened then - or just something that happened over years. And, because there was no "correct" way to spell until the nineteenth century, the word "pope" here might always have been pronounced "pop". Or the word "lallypope" might just have been pronounced differently in America (like tom-are-toe and tom-aye-toe - tomato - is today) which is where the first lollipops as we know them, were produced at the beginning of the 20th century.
To me, therefore, Thackery's explanation seems the most likely.
Now, just an interesting little note about lollipops: did you know that even Cavemen had lollipops? They would go and find bees nests and use a stick to get out the sweet honey. So they would walk around afterwards sucking the sweet stick just as we do to-day!
When sugar started to be used in Europe and UK in the Middle Ages (around 1200C.E. to 1400C.E.) people loved to eat it or suck lumps of it. But it made the hands very messy so sticks or handles were inserted into lumps of it to make it easier. Of course, this related only to the very rich who were the only ones who could afford the luxury of sugar.
However, those perfectly round sweets on a white stick that we know to-day date back to around the first decade of the twentieth century in America. There is a story that the owner of a Sweets (remember candy is the American word, Sweet the Standard English word) Factory where the boiled sugar and mixture was prepared in big pots, used to find a little sticking to the side of the pots after a batch had been made. So, before they were washed out, he would run a stick round the insides of the pots to take home for his children. By the time he got them home the mixture had hardened and became his children's favourite treat! Whether this is true or not one of the big Sweets companies - his or a rival's -in America at around this time certainly invented the modern version.
AAh - I love researching the history of English words (this is called Etymology). It's something I've done all my life as a kind of hobby. You find out a lot of things this way!
Right, so the words you provided today:
Vocabulary:
Option...choice
disorder...mess; things out of order; mixed up
albino...an organism which is born with no skin pigment and so is white
spy...someone who steal secrets, plans etc. from a rival Government, Company or Organisation
malarkey...nonsense; fun
indignant...righteously angered; to be cross for good reason
earnest...serious, truthful - but often lacking a sense of humour
malnutrition...badly nourished, suffered by people whose diet is incorrect or deficient
phoenix...a legendary bird (from Egypt, not China!) who died by fire every 500 years, but then grew up again from its own ashes
garrulous... to talk too much; to talk unceasingly, often nonsense
umpire...a person who enforces the rules in sports
drama...(formal)play or movie; acting. (informal) a fuss, excitement,
drama queen...someone who reacts in an exaggerated way to things - even ordinary things.
dilemma...the need to make a decision between two unfavourable choice, or two choices which will have an unfavourable result
dignity...self-respect, formality of manner or appearance. But understood like Chinese "face"
prohibit...to forbid; not allow
defy...to refuse to obey or co-operate with
persevere...to refuse to give up; to continue no matter what obstacles occur
abate...to lose strength, force and/or intensity; become less violent; die down.
in a stew...(informal)to be in trouble or confused
to stew...(informal) to be very, very hot
stew...(formal) a dish of meat and vegetables (like Hotpot) cooked long and slowly
Pandora's Box...Mythical box containing illness, death, all bad things which were released into the world by a girl called Pandora; used to talk about a situation or thing which will have bad results or effects
nighty-night...informal way of saying good-night - especially to children. Often accompanied by the Rhyme: Night night,
Sleep tight, (soundly)
Don't let the bed-bugs bite. (bed-bugs are nasty little insects which live inside mattresses and come out at night to suck ones blood. Now usually only found in third-world or very dirty places, but once common everywhere)
ga-ga...crazy, lose one's memory or abilities - often used of old, senile people
to lose your marbles...means the same thing.(No-one said it, but its as common as ga-ga)
O.k. that was it for our last class. But don't forget your homework which was to think about, and explain, which you think is more important when increasing your vocabulary in a foreign language: nouns, verbs or adjectives. Also you had to think of one of these and be ready to show us, WITHOUT WORDS what that word is!
The words "lollipop" seemed to interest you all so I looked up the history of the words - and the lollipop itself:
Most Etymology dictionaries on-line are American and I got a little frustrated because many gave the information that the word "lolly" perhaps comes from an English dialect word meaning the tongue. But then they just said "+ pop". Now the word pop originally meant to smack or hit so I wasn't satisfied. You don't hit or smack people with either your tongue or with a lollipop itself so I just couldn't see why the word pop would be added.
Finally I found an entry by Thackery - a great English writer and expert on words - and, to me, his explanation seemed most likely. The word "lally" comes from a word to mean "to soothe"...and sweet lollipops surely soothe your taste buds and make one happy, so that seemed likely. And the word "pope" referred to a kind of mixed liquors, stirred in a big pot - the way that lollipops are made (by mixing and stirring sugar and water and flavourings).
Now, in England, in the Eighteenth century a strange thing occurred called The Great Vowel Change. For no reason that we have ever been able to discover the way we pronounce all the vowels, A,E,I,O,U, changed! So changing the pronunciation of the word "lally" to "lolly" could have happened then - or just something that happened over years. And, because there was no "correct" way to spell until the nineteenth century, the word "pope" here might always have been pronounced "pop". Or the word "lallypope" might just have been pronounced differently in America (like tom-are-toe and tom-aye-toe - tomato - is today) which is where the first lollipops as we know them, were produced at the beginning of the 20th century.
To me, therefore, Thackery's explanation seems the most likely.
Now, just an interesting little note about lollipops: did you know that even Cavemen had lollipops? They would go and find bees nests and use a stick to get out the sweet honey. So they would walk around afterwards sucking the sweet stick just as we do to-day!
When sugar started to be used in Europe and UK in the Middle Ages (around 1200C.E. to 1400C.E.) people loved to eat it or suck lumps of it. But it made the hands very messy so sticks or handles were inserted into lumps of it to make it easier. Of course, this related only to the very rich who were the only ones who could afford the luxury of sugar.
However, those perfectly round sweets on a white stick that we know to-day date back to around the first decade of the twentieth century in America. There is a story that the owner of a Sweets (remember candy is the American word, Sweet the Standard English word) Factory where the boiled sugar and mixture was prepared in big pots, used to find a little sticking to the side of the pots after a batch had been made. So, before they were washed out, he would run a stick round the insides of the pots to take home for his children. By the time he got them home the mixture had hardened and became his children's favourite treat! Whether this is true or not one of the big Sweets companies - his or a rival's -in America at around this time certainly invented the modern version.
AAh - I love researching the history of English words (this is called Etymology). It's something I've done all my life as a kind of hobby. You find out a lot of things this way!
Right, so the words you provided today:
Vocabulary:
Option...choice
disorder...mess; things out of order; mixed up
albino...an organism which is born with no skin pigment and so is white
spy...someone who steal secrets, plans etc. from a rival Government, Company or Organisation
malarkey...nonsense; fun
indignant...righteously angered; to be cross for good reason
earnest...serious, truthful - but often lacking a sense of humour
malnutrition...badly nourished, suffered by people whose diet is incorrect or deficient
phoenix...a legendary bird (from Egypt, not China!) who died by fire every 500 years, but then grew up again from its own ashes
garrulous... to talk too much; to talk unceasingly, often nonsense
umpire...a person who enforces the rules in sports
drama...(formal)play or movie; acting. (informal) a fuss, excitement,
drama queen...someone who reacts in an exaggerated way to things - even ordinary things.
dilemma...the need to make a decision between two unfavourable choice, or two choices which will have an unfavourable result
dignity...self-respect, formality of manner or appearance. But understood like Chinese "face"
prohibit...to forbid; not allow
defy...to refuse to obey or co-operate with
persevere...to refuse to give up; to continue no matter what obstacles occur
abate...to lose strength, force and/or intensity; become less violent; die down.
in a stew...(informal)to be in trouble or confused
to stew...(informal) to be very, very hot
stew...(formal) a dish of meat and vegetables (like Hotpot) cooked long and slowly
Pandora's Box...Mythical box containing illness, death, all bad things which were released into the world by a girl called Pandora; used to talk about a situation or thing which will have bad results or effects
nighty-night...informal way of saying good-night - especially to children. Often accompanied by the Rhyme: Night night,
Sleep tight, (soundly)
Don't let the bed-bugs bite. (bed-bugs are nasty little insects which live inside mattresses and come out at night to suck ones blood. Now usually only found in third-world or very dirty places, but once common everywhere)
ga-ga...crazy, lose one's memory or abilities - often used of old, senile people
to lose your marbles...means the same thing.(No-one said it, but its as common as ga-ga)
O.k. that was it for our last class. But don't forget your homework which was to think about, and explain, which you think is more important when increasing your vocabulary in a foreign language: nouns, verbs or adjectives. Also you had to think of one of these and be ready to show us, WITHOUT WORDS what that word is!
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