WHAT IS A WORD A word can't be held the way a stone can be held It is a sound shaped by our teeth and tongues and throats It can also be shaped with our hands using sign language Or drawn in ink Or pecked out on a keyboard It can be thought It can be shouted or whispered It can be written and erased remembered and forgotten Etymologists study how words came to be This book will show you how to be a detective like them Once you become interested in words you will never be bored
An astronaut is a star sailor WHAT'S A STAR SAILOR When scientists need an English word to talk about a new invention they often mash together words from an ancient language no one speaks anymore They added the Latin word micro meaning small to scope observe to get the word microscope And they added the ancient Greek aster star to naut sailor to make astronaut
A WORD IS BORN Every day at least ten English words are spoken for the first time Some will stick around for centuries some for only a short while Where do they come from Ancient words These words were first spoken over 1,000 years ago LOVE WORM HAND GIVE FIRE MOTHER SPIT
DECLUTTER BLING froyo New words These words have been around for only a few years PHOTOBOMB E-BIKE COVID-19 WEBSITE
