1. Don L. F. Nilsen Alleen Pace Nilsen
Vocabulary Plus
Don L. F. Nilsen
Alleen Pace Nilsen

2. Drawing Connections
To train your mind in a new way of thinking about language, try answering the following questions for each box.
What do the items in each box have in common?
How has this affected their names?
Which item probably had the name first?
Which names are the most metaphorical?
Can you think of other items that have related names?

3. FORKS
FORKS: The FORK in the road shown on the map might have been inspired by a river that FORKED or by mountains that made it necessary to go one way or the other. For example, the towns of SPANISH FORK and AMERICAN FORK in Utah were named because these were the points at which different explorers made a FORK in their trails as they tried to figure out the best way to go around the Wasatch range of mountains. The shape of the FORKS that people eat with were probably inspired by FORKED sticks or FORKED bones. Old-fashioned forks, or the big FORKS that people use when barbecuing have only two prongs. A FORK-LIFT is a piece of machinery that lifts heavy things. It has two prongs that stick out sort of like a person’s arms. Other uses of FORK that students thought of included PITCH FORK, A FORKED TONGUE, and TO FORK something over.

4. EYES
1.      EYES: EYEGLASSES are what we call lexical extensions because they simply name something that is associated with people’s eyes. The EYE of a needle and the EYELETS on shoes are more metaphorical. They are like a person’s or an animal’s eye-socket, that is a hole. The necklace shown here is more symbolic in representing the idea of an ALL-SEEING EYE, such as the one that is on the top of the pyramid on U. S. dollar bills. Another EYE metaphor is the word WINDOW, which began as “an eye for the wind.”

5. TAPES
1.      TAPES: The long narrow shape is the common feature for the ADHESIVE TAPE, the TAPE MEASURE, the CASH REGISTER TAPE, and the CASSETTE TAPE shown here. People use a different kind of tape when TAPING A SPRAINED ANKLE and when TAPE RECORDING a speech. TAPE WORMS bear an uncanny resemblance to tape measures.

6. LACES
1.      LACES: The first LACES were probably leather thongs used to tie clothing or leather baskets together. These are like today’s SHOELACES. Decorative LACE for women’s clothing or for curtains and tablecloths may have been inspired by seeing the way sails were LACED to the poles on ships. Using this kind of LACE to set off both men’s and women’s faces, probably inspired the name NECKLACE for anything worn around the neck whether or not it was made from thread or string. More metaphorically, we might describe food at a Tex-Mex restaurant as being LACED with smoke flavoring or in a detective story, food might be LACED with poison.

7. GRAIN

8. TAILS

9. EGGS

10. STICKS

11. LETTER SHAPES

12. CLOTH RELATED METAPHORS

13. SCISSORS

14. PED