Search This Blog

Sunday, April 15, 2007

How words change!

What happens when your child is faced with a string of words in a verbal reasoning exercise and he or she is now sure of what the words mean?

If the words `bisect’ was used in a sentence then a good number of ten year old would know that the words means to cut in two,

The word `dissect’ means to cut open and examine. Your children may have seen pathologists on TV cutting corpses up to determine the cause of death.

The clue lies in the spelling of some of the letters within the word i.e. `sect’. In Latin this means to cut.

The `dis’ part of the word also comes from Latin – meaning apart.

So when we hear the word `dis’ thrown into the conversation we know the origin of the word means apart.

So if your child want to `dis’ someone you know that you now have a little more ammunition for serious talk on correct and proper English. Just remember to throw in those few extra words about the origin of `dis’. This may come in useful in the verbal reasoning examinations.

No comments: