Honors English I Vocabulary Lesson 1: Our changing vocabulary

Acronym (Noun) A word formed from the initial letters of a name or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words Example: Acronyms are frequently used in official and political circles to shorten long titles of organizations or systems.

Affix (noun) A word element, such as a prefix or suffix, that is attached to a base, stem, or root. Something that is attached, joined or added (verb) a. to secure (an object) to another; attach b. to place at the end Example: The word reappearance has two affixes: re- and -ance

Coinage (noun) The invention of new words An invented word or phrase The process of making coins Example: The word hobbit was a coinage of J. R. R. Tolkien

Colloquial (adjective) Used in or suitable to spoken language or to writing that imitates speech; conversational Informal in style of expression Example: Connie suggested to Joe that he substitute “narrow escape” for his colloquial expression “a close call.”

Malapropism (noun) The use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but humorously wrong in the context. Example: In Sheridan’s eighteenth-century play, The Rivals, Mrs. Malaprop makes such malapropisms as “the very pineapple of politeness” for “the very pinnacle of politeness.”

Onomatopoeia (noun) The formation or use of a word that imitates or resembles what it stands for. Example: Buzz and hiss are examples of onomatopoeia that the poet used to make the meadow come alive.

Palindrome (noun) A word, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward. Example: “A man, a plan, a canal, Panama” was the only palindrome that Richard could remember.

Portmanteau word ( compound noun) A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words; blend. Example: Arlin didn’t realize that the word slithy in Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” is a portmanteau word formed from slimy and lithe.

Simile (noun) A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as. Example: Some similes, such as “hungry as a bear” and “sly like a fox,” are considered to be overused.

Spoonerism (noun) An accidental but humorous distortion of words in a phrase formed by interchanging the initial sounds: the tons of soil rather than the sons of toil. Example: The word spoonerism comes from the name of William A. Spooner, an English clergyman who was noted for such verbal slips.