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.
b.
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)
a.
b.
c.
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)
a.
b.
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.