Words are an important
part of our advanced human civilization and we could not have gotten so far
without them. Words are needed for us to communicate, get ideas across,
keep records, and many other things. Without
words, we would not be able to have
working governments, put people into space,
have books, have a working economy, be able to look inside our body’s,
understand the complex theory of the elements, and many other feats. Without words, the wisdom that was needed to
be passed on would have never came out and would have died with it`s finder.
Words have an amazing, wonderful and complex history. Within the time worn
paragraphs and on the fluttering words on this paper I shall, in detail, describe
the history of words. A few major points in the history of words, are the
arising of Greek and Roman roots, the invention of prefixes and suffixes, and
the making of multiple meaning words.
Our
first stop on the tour of words is to
lower Europe, to the lands of the intelligent Greeks and the powerful Romans. Two very influential and powerful
societies ,out of both their cultures as well as a few others came root
words. Before root words, before Rome,
Greece, and even before we were an advanced civilization, there was prehistoric
men. Prehistoric men, made grunts and gestures, and the other cave men had to
figure out what he or she as the case may be meant. Over time, some smart chap decided to use one
special grunt and gesture to mean one certain thing, or so it is perceived, with
time, more complex things were coming about and more complex words were needed.
People started making words out of two or more different words., these are
called compounds. Now, out of this theory of complex words and compounds came,
you guessed it, roots, our American roots come from ether Greece or Rome with a
few more coming from other sources.
The
next crucial, turning point involves the second and third part of a word, the
prefix, and suffix. At this period in time,
words were used for many things,
as they are today. They were used for keeping records, stories, arranging
meetings, passing information along and many other tasks that words still
perform to this very date! At this time
you had your normal words, your compound words, and you’re roots. Words needed more complexity in order to
strengthen their abilities to perform their needed tasks. A way to change the meanings of words without
changing the whole word itself was needed. Thus from this need prefixes and suffixes
sprang into being. Now, you may be
wondering what prefixes and suffixes, do. Beside making games like scrabble a
whole lot easier, a prefix is something like un-, or bene- that goes at the
start of a word to change the words meaning, for example let’s say I have the
word joyous that means to be happy and full of joy, if I added the prefix un- and
made it unjoyous it would mean unhappy, and
not full of joy. A suffix goes on the end of a word and, like a prefix, changes
the words meaning. What would we do without suffixes and prefixes?
Our
next stop on the tour is to visit our friend the multiple meaning words, a very
crucial yet tricky part of the English language. Now if every little aroma,
atom, or piece of matter had a word all of its own we`d have more words then
we`d know what to do with. To save time, breath, and dictionary space us humans
being the wise creatures we came up with
multiple meaning words. A multiple meaning word is a word that has two meanings
and it is spelled the same in both usages.
An example of a multiple meaning word is bank. Bank could be a place where
you store you’re money, or it could be, a piece of slopping land by a river. Bank
could also be used as a verb. The verb, banked means to have deposited cash in
a bank. Banked, is not only a multiple
meaning word, it also has a little friend
at the end. That`s, right a suffix.
You
don`t have to agree to the wonder of words. Though you must agree that they are
important and complex little beasts.
Words have a amazing history as I hope I have shown. The Greek and
Romans gave us roots. We have prefixes,
suffixes, and multiple meaning. I hope
this essay explained the nature of words to you, and remember words are you’re
never dying friend. A man without words, is nothing but a poor, weak man. May the words be with you always.
