Lesson 1: Our Changing Vocabulary

Acronym

A word formed from the initial letters of a name or by combining intiial letters or parts of a series of words.

Coinage

The invention of new words. An invented word or phrase. The process of making coins.

Affix

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. To secure to another, attach. To place at the end.

Colloquial

Used in a suitable or spoken language or to writing that imitates speech; conversational.

Malapropism

The use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but humorously wrong in the context.

Onomatopeia

The formation of use of a word that imitates or resembles what it stands for.

Palindrome

A word phrase or sentence that reads the same backwards and forwards.

Portmanteau Word

A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words; blend

Simile

A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared. Often in a phrase introduced with LIKE or AS

Spoonerism

An accidental but humorous distortion of words in a phrase formed by interchanging the initial sounds.