BREAKDOWN: PED- (child) + -AGOG (leader) + -Y (act or state)

• pedagogue is a teacher or educator; a leader of children

• pedagogical means of or pertaining to teaching (also pedagogic)

See also: demagogue

“In all the works on pedagogy that ever I read — and they have been many, big, and heavy — I don’t remember that any one has advocated a system of teaching by practical jokes, mostly cruel. That, however, describes the method of our great teacher, Experience.” —Charles S. Peirce

BREAKDOWN: CO- (with) + MENS- (to measure) + -URE (state) + ATE (being)

• incommensurate means lacking a proportionate relationship; inadequate or out of proportion

• incommensurable means impossible to compare; having no common standard of measurement

“The gratitude of the nation... should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy.” —James K. Polk

WORD MATCH
Match each number of each word to the matching phrase. One word has no matching phrase.

1. edict | 2. clandestine | 3. deliquesce | 4. commiserate | 5. raucous | 6. intuit

_______ Covert or concealed

_______ To pity or sympathize

_______ To fathom or feel

_______ A decree or directive

_______ Rough or raspy

QUOTE MATCH
Complete each quote using the words from the word bank.

1. intuition | 2. raucous | 3. deliquescent | 4. commiseration | 5. edict

“Democracy itself has always been loud and _______, but when its rules are followed, it eventually creates consensus.” —Anne Applebaum

“It’s that same paradox again: the history that happens underneath our noses ought to be the clearest, and yet it’s the most _______.” —Julian Barnes

“Be brave enough to live creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your _______.” —Alan Alda

“It is my mind which thinks, and the judgement of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only _______ I must respect.” —Ayn Rand

“There are very few moments in a man’s existence when he experiences so much ludicrous distress or meets with so little charitable _______ as when he is in pursuit of his own hat.” —Charles Dickens

ROOT QUIZ
For each of the following words, fill in the meaning of each prefix, suffix, and base. For bonus points, define the word and list other words with the same roots.

E- (out) + DICT- (_______)

IN- (into) + TUIT- (_______)

CLAN- (hide or cover) + -ESTINE (_______)

CO- (with) + MISER- (_______) + -ATE (to make or do)

DE- (down) + LIQUI- (_______) + -ESCE (grow or become)

Scroll down for answers. But first, learn which tiresome words derive from the root TED-…

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BREAKDOWN: PART- (part, piece) + TAK- (to take)

• partook is the simple past tense

• partaken as the past participle

See also: painstaking, parse

“The root of all rebellion: It is because we are not near enough to thee to partake of thy liberty that we want a liberty of our own different from thine.” —George Macdonald

BREAKDOWN: DE- (down) + LIQUI- (to flow or melt) + -ESCE (grow or become)

• deliquescent means highly soluble or tending to dissolve; fleeting or ephemeral

• deliquescence is the process in which a solid substance absorbs moisture from the air until it dissolves and forms a liquid solution; the substance resulting from melting or liquifying

“It was a very very nice letter you wrote by the light of the stars at midnight. Always write then, for your heart requires moonlight to deliquesce it.” —Virginia Woolf

[Fun Word Friday introduces more advanced or technical words that are based on word roots. Yes, these words may still be tested on standardized exams. Try to use this word in a sentence today!]

BREAKDOWN: E- (out) + DICT- (speak)

• edictal means of, pertaining to, or announced by a formal decree

See also: benediction, interdict, jurisdiction, valedictory, vindictive

“I’ve always found that the quickest way to make someone relent in his foolish edicts is to take every command literally and to perform it with flagrant obedience.” —Courtney Milan

BREAKDOWN: The word raucous comes to English almost unchanged from the Latin raucus meaning hoarse or husky. That word appears to derive from a Proto Indo-European root REU- meaning to roar, though that root does not influence any other English words.

“It’s funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty, bun-balancing, bespectacled women. The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community. Libraries can never be shushed.” —Paula Poundstone

[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily derived from classical roots.]

BREAKDOWN: IN- (into) + TUIT- (to look at)

• intuition is knowledge or understanding acquired without conscious reasoning; a gut feeling or instinct

“Thoughts without content are empty. Intuitions without concepts are blind... The understanding can intuit nothing; the senses can think nothing. Only through their union can knowledge arise.” —Immanuel Kant

BREAKDOWN: CLAN- (hide or cover) + -ESTINE (inside)

• clandestinity is secrecy, stealth, or concealment

“If knowledge is power, clandestine knowledge is power squared; it can be withheld, exchanged, and leveraged.” —Letty Cottin Pogrebin

WORD MATCH
Match each number of each word to the matching phrase. One word has no matching phrase.

1. fallow | 2. civility | 3. elicit | 4. immaculate | 5. semiquincentennial | 6. magnanimous

_______ To evoke or educe

_______ Politeness or propriety

_______ Without spot or stain

_______ Uncultivated or inert

_______ Benevolent or bighearted

QUOTE MATCH
Complete each quote using the words from the word bank.

1. elicit | 2. magnanimity | 3. immaculate | 4. fallow | 5. civil

“It is well to lie _______ for a while.” —Martin Farquhar Tupper

“Kind words _______ trust. Kind thoughts create depth. Kind deeds bring love.” —Lao Tzu

“Be _______ to all; serviceable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.” —Benjamin Franklin

“To wrong those we hate is to add fuel to our hatred. Conversely, to treat an enemy with _______ is to blunt our hatred for him.” —Eric Hoffer

“Almost anything that can be praised or advocated has been put to some disgusting use. There is no principle, however _______, that has not had its compromising manipulator.” —Percy Wyndham Lewis

ROOT QUIZ
For each of the following words, fill in the meaning of each prefix, suffix, and base. For bonus points, define the word and list other words with the same roots.

MAGN- (_______) + ANIM- (_______) + -OUS (full of)

E- (out) + LAC- (_______) + -IT (to make or do)

IM- (not) + MACULA- (_______) + -ATE (having or being)

CIV- (_______) + -IL (designating) + -ITY (quality)

SEMI- (half) + QUIN- (_______) + CENTEN- (_______) + -IAL (pertaining to)

Scroll down for answers. But first, learn the twisted origins of the word TANTALIZING…

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BREAKDOWN: CO- (with) + MISER- (wretched) + -ATE (to make or do)

• commiseration is the act, state, or expression of sympathy or sorrow for someone

• commiserative means feeling or showing sorrow for another’s distress

• commiserable means deserving of pity or sympathy

See also: measly

“We need to see people other than ourselves in order to empathize. It’s easy to demonize, or simply dismiss, people you don’t know or see... It’s nearly impossible to commiserate with the unseen and unknown.” —Charles Blow

BREAKDOWN: SEMI- (half) + QUIN- (five) + CENTEN- (containing one hundred) + -IAL (pertaining to)

• semiquincentennial as an adjective means of or pertaining to a 250th anniversary

“The American semiquincentennial begins now... Like the bicentennial five decades ago, it’s an opportunity for both celebration and reflection on who we are, where we came from, what our forebears believed and — perhaps the most fearsome question any people can ask themselves — what they were willing to die for.” —Rick Atkinson

BREAKDOWN: MAGN- (great) + ANIM- (spirit) + -OUS (full of)

• magnanimity is a state or show of kindness, forgiveness, and benevolence, particularly toward an adversary

See also: equanimity, pusillanimous, unanimity

“I am not magnanimous enough to like people who speak to me without seeming to see me.” —George Eliot

✨ If you’re prepping for the ACT, make sure you have the latest edition of the Official ACT Prep Guide! ✨

• fallow as a verb means to deliberately leave a field out of crop production for a defined period

• fallow as a noun refers to cultivated land that is left unseeded for one or more growing seasons; a pale, muted yellowish-brown color

BREAKDOWN: The agricultural origins of the word fallow can be traced to the Old English fealh or felg meaning plowed land left unseeded. The thread winds through Proto-Germanic and East Frisian to a possible connection to the root PL- meaning to fold in words like quadruple. Fallow as a color derives from Old English adjective fealu meaning yellowish brown, which itself connects to the root PALL- meaning pale in words like appall and pallor.

“Treating ourselves like appliances that can be unplugged and plugged in again at will or cars that stop and start with the twist of a key, we have forgotten the importance of fallow time and winter and rests in music.” —William Bridges

[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily derived from classical roots.]

BREAKDOWN: CIV- (citizen, community) + -IL (designating) + -ITY (quality)

• incivility is impolite or unsociable speech, behavior, or treatment of others

• civil means of or relating to citizens, civil institutions, or communities; polite, courteous

“Civility costs nothing and buys everything.” —Mary Wortley Montagu

BREAKDOWN: E- (out) + LAC- (lure or snare) + -IT (to make or do)

• elicitation is the act of drawing out information, insights, or reactions

• COMMONLY CONFUSED: illicit means illegal; not in accordance with law or custom

“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant.” —Horace

WORD MATCH

Match each number of each word to the matching phrase. One word has no matching phrase.

1. incorrigible | 2. fidelity | 3. elastic | 4. vestibule | 5. redound | 6. malinger

_______ To return or reverberate

_______ To shirk or sham

_______ Intractable or irredeemable

_______ Antechamber or entryway

_______ Supple or springy

QUOTE MATCH

Complete each quote using the words from the word bank.

1. redound | 2. vestibule | 3. elasticity | 4. incorrigible | 5. fidelity

“The idealist is _______: if he is thrown out of his heaven he makes an ideal of his hell.” —Friedrich Nietzsche

“Death is but a passage. It is not a house, it is only a _______. The grave has a door on its inner side.” —Alexander Maclaren

“The _______ of a dog is a precious gift demanding no less binding moral responsibilities than the friendship of a human being.” —Konrad Lorenz

“There’s something magical about getting the reputation as someone who cares about others more than yourself. It _______(s) to your benefit in countless ways.” —Adam M. Grant

“The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give _______ to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation.” —Thomas A. Edison

ROOT QUIZ

For each of the following words, fill in the meaning of each prefix, suffix, and base. For bonus points, define the word and list other words with the same roots.

FID- (_______) + -ELITY (state of)

VEST- (_______) + -BULUM (place)

RE- (again) + OUND- (_______)

ELAST- (flexible, ductile) + -IC (_______)

IN- (not) + CO- (altogether) + REG- (_______) + -IBLE (able to be)

Scroll down for answers. But first, learn the etymology of TOFURKEY and what goes in a vegducken…

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BREAKDOWN: IM- (not) + MACULA- (spot) + -ATE (having or being)

• immaculacy is the state of being completely flawless, spotless, or pure

“In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must above all be a sheep oneself.” —Albert Einstein

BREAKDOWN: VEST- (to dress) + -BULUM (place)

• vestibular means of or pertaining to the sensory system in the inner ear that controls balance, spatial orientation, and eye movement

See also: travesty, divest

“Our lives are like a house. Some people are allowed on the lawn, some onto the porch, some get into the vestibule or kitchen. The better friends are invited deeper into our home, into our living room.” —Louise Penny

[Fun Word Friday introduces more advanced or technical words that are based on word roots. Yes, these words may still be tested on standardized exams. Try to use this word in a sentence today!]

BREAKDOWN: ELAST- (flexible, ductile) + -IC (characterized by)

• elastic as a noun is rubber or fabric with the ability to stretch and return to its original shape

• elasticity is the physical ability of a material to stretch and return to its original shape or resist deformation; the capacity of a system to adapt or change

“See how elastic our prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them.” —Herman Melville

🌞📖 What will you be reading this summer? Here are some ideas to get you started…