Period 7 Word of the Week: Impute

On December 5, period 7 selected the word impute as our word of the week.  The student who posted saw this word on the internet and thought that it relates well to The Crucible.  Impute means to "represent something as being done, caused, or possessed by someone; to attribute."  It is usually used to attribute bad or unpleasant things, but not always.


The sentence we devised to show our understanding of the word impute is:


Through investigation, the mass graves in Syria were imputed to ISIS.

Periods 1 & 4 Word of the Week: Entropy

On December 5, periods 1 and 4 selected entropy as our word of the week.  Many students are familiar with this word from science classes, but none had studied any alternate definitions.  When we looked it up, we discovered that entropy is a "lack of order or predictability; a gradual decline into disorder."


The sentences we constructed to show our understanding of the word are:


1) Teenagers' bedrooms decline from sparkling gems into entropy over the course of a week.
2) Timmy's bedroom was clean until his friends came over, and it degraded into entropy.

Period 1 Word of the Week: parochial

On November 21, first period selected parochial as our word of the week.  This word was found in our current class text, in The Crucible.  Parochial has two meanings:

1) of or relating to a church parish, or
2) having a limited or narrow scope.

The sentence we created to show our understanding of the word is:
The Nazis' discrimination against non-Germanic people revealed their parochial views.

Periods 4 & 7 Word of the Week: Akin

On November 14, period 4 chose akin as our word of the week, and on November 21, period 7 selected the same word!  Akin means similar to or alike.  The sentences we created to express our understanding of akin are:

1) Samsung was sued by Apple for creating a tablet that was akin to the iPad.
2) Dolphins are akin to whales because they are both mammals who live in the ocean.

All Classes Word of the Week: Absquatulate

On November 14, periods 1 and 7 selected absquatulate as our word of the week.  The following week, November 21, period 4 selected the same word!

To absquatulate is to run away, usually taking something or someone along.  Here are the sentences we devised to show our understanding of the word:

1) The stupid bank robbers failed to absquatulate with their loot; they got in the wrong car!
2) As the house burned down, I absquatulated with my cat and my baby - my two most precious possessions.
3) The robbers absquatulated with abundant amounts of money from the bank.

Word of the Week: Miasma

During Homecoming week, all three English classes selected miasma as our word of the week.  The student who posted the word miasma read it in a book.  When we looked it up, we discovered that a miasma is "a highly unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor."  The sentences our classes created to demonstrate our understanding of the word are:

1) No one could enter the locker room without crying because of the miasma created by a skunk nesting in a pile of sweaty shinguards.

2) There was a catastrophic miasma in the locker room after football practice; the coach and trainers passed out due to the smell of wet, stinky gear.

3) After the pep rally in the gym the rank breath of the underclassmen left a miasma.

Word of the Week: Winnow

This week's word, winnow, was found by a student in SAT prep materials.  The definition of winnow is to blow through, or, in farming terms, to blow a current of air through grain in order to remove the chaff.  This word is most commonly used figuratively, meaning to scan or sort through many items to find a desired item.  The sentences we wrote to demonstrate our understanding of winnow are:

1) The homeless man winnowed through the McDonald's dumpster to find something to eat.
2) Timmy winnowed through his messy backpack, trying to find a pencil for warmup.
3) At Lord & Taylor, Matt was winnowing through suits to find a wedding tux in his size.

Word of the Week: Promontory

This week, our classes only had one choice available for the word of the week: promontory.  A promontory is a point of high land that juts out into a large body of water.  Our sentences that demonstrate our understanding of the meaning of promontory are:


1. Juan dove off the promontory into the ocean, just for kicks.
2. The earthquake caused a dangerous landslide; boulders fell from the promontory into the ocean.
3. During the rainy season the promontory is very unsafe because landslides are likely.

Word of the Week: effervescent

This week, all of our English classes selected effervescent as our word of the week. 


Effervescent means:
1. giving off bubbles, fizzy
2. vivacious and enthusiastic


Here are some sentences the classes devised to show their understanding of effervescent:


1. Ms. B is a very effervescent person, even at 7:30 AM.
2. The fans at the Kanye concert were so effervescent that they got Kanye to play an encore.
3. Dre Money is effervescent every day, even on Monday morning when most people are sleepy.

Period 1 Word of the Week: esurient

This week, period 1 selected esurient as our word of the week.  Neither the students nor the teacher knew this word, so we looked it up and found that it means: "greedy or hungry."

The sentence we created to demonstrate our understanding of the word is, "Kanye West was very esurient; he stole all the attention when he stole the mic from Taylor Swift at the VMAs."

Periods 4 & 7 Word of the Week: motley

Both period 4 and period 7 voted for motley to be our word of the week.  Motley means "incongruously varied in appearance or character; disparate."  Many students were concerned that the definition contained some large and unfamiliar words, so our classes also discussed the definition of incongruously, making a connection to geometry class (congruent and incongruent shapes).

The sentences that we came up with to demonstrate our understanding of motley are:

Period 4: GHS's student demographic is motley; we have scholars of every background, culture, race, religion, and age.

Period 7: The many colors of the leaves make the forest look motley in the fall.

Period 4 Word of the Week: celerity

For our first word of the week, period 4 selected celerity.  Celerity means "rapidity of motion or action."  Before we made our sentence, we enjoyed joking about "celery" and "celebrity" being our word of the week.

The sentence we created to demonstrate our understanding of this word was:

With his incredible celerity, Ussain Bolt broke the world record for the 100 meter dash.

Periods 1 & 7 Word of the Week: idiosyncrasy

Periods 1 and 7 both selected idiosyncrasy as our first word of the week.  We looked up the definition in two different online dictionaries, and the definition found in period 7 was more concise, so I will use it here:

Idiosyncrasy: "1) an unusual way in which a particular person behaves or thinks, or 2) an unusual part or feature of something."

The sentences we created to demonstrate our understanding of the word are:

Period 1: Addiction to fame is an idiosyncrasy shared by many celebrities.
Period 7: Harry Potter's idiosyncrasy is that he can talk to snakes.

Welcome, class of 2016!

I am so excited to learn along with you by starting to use our vocabulary blog this school year.

As you read, watch TV, listen to music, travel, work, and use the internet, I hope you will keep track of unfamiliar words and post them here on our blog.  Each week our class will vote on a "word of the week" that we will study and practice.  That will help us all incorporate the new word into our vocabulary.

Periodically, you will be quizzed on the words we've studied in class to see how well you're paying attention.  Our quizzes will help you figure out how many new words you've learned.  You might just impress yourself...
 
Oh, and by the way, GO TROJANS!

Period 3 Word of the Week: subvert

On the 9th, period 3 chose subvert as the word of the week.  The following week, periods 2, 4, and 7 selected the same word!  Subvert means "to undermine the power and authority of" someone or something.

To demonstrate our understanding of the word, we all created sentences:

1. Macbeth subverted the royal line of succession by killing King Duncan.
2. The notorious hacker group, Anonymous, subverted the authority of the U.S. government by helping Edward Snowden.
3. Teenagers who talk while the teacher is talking are subverting the teacher's authority.
4. Harriet Tubman used the underground railroad to subvert the system of slavery.

In my opinion, these are the best sentences we've devised all year.  Hooray for the English 11 Honors students!

Periods 2, 4, & 7 Word of the Week: satiate

This week, periods 2, 4, and 7 chose satiate as our word of the week.  Since I posted this late, I am also able to include period 3 in this posting, because satiate was the period 3 word of the week from 5/16-5/23.

Satiate means "to satisfy to the full."

Here are the sentences our classes created to help demonstrate the meaning of our word of the week:


1. David's hunger for Ritz crackers can never be satiated.
2. Before dinner, Macbeth spoiled his appetite; he ate until he was satiated.
3. Little Johnny's curiosity about where babies come from was satiated, for the moment, by his parents' lies.
4. After eating all the balls on the game board, the hungry hungry hippos felt satiated.

Word of the Week for all Classes: posthumously

This week, all of Ms. B's English classes selected posthumously as the word of the week.  Posthumous (and thus, posthumously, the adverb form of the word) means:

1) published after the death of the author,
2) born after the death of the father, or
3) occurring after death.

The sentences we created to show our understanding of the word were:

1) Whitney Houston was acting in Sparkle before she died; the movie was released posthumously.
2) John Harvill was posthumously venerated by Dr. Starr with a school named after him.
3) This Is It, the Michael Jackson movie, was released posthumously as a tribute to Jackson.
4) This Is It, the movie about Michael Jackson, was released posthumously.

extinguish

Period 3 Word of the Week: reticent

Period 3 selected reticent as our word of the week.  Reticent means "not revealing one's thoughts or feelings readily."  We created an imaginary student named Blake to demonstrate our understanding of the word:

Blake's reticent behavior was meant to disguise his true age - 21 - from his 14-year-old classmates.

Period 2 Word of the Week: lethargic

Since 2nd period is still sleepytime for most students, this week's word of the week makes perfect sense.  Students selected lethargic for this week's study.  Lethargic means "affected by lethargy, sluggish and apathetic."

The sentence we created to show our understanding of the word is:

Students in European History class tend to be lethargic because the teacher speaks in a monotone.