American Heritage - 100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know

EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE

American Heritage Dictionaries

BRUCE NICHOLS , Senior Vice President, Publisher, Adult Trade and Reference

JOSEPH P. PICKETT , Vice President, Executive Editor

STEVEN R. KLEINEDLER , Supervising Editor

PATRICK TAYLOR , Senior Lexicographer

LOUISE E. ROBBINS , Senior Editor

SUSAN I. SPITZ , Editor

CATHERINE T. PRATT , Editor

PETER CHIPMAN , Associate Editor

KATHERINE M. ISAACS , Associate Editor

Reading assistance provided by Adam Isaacs-Falbel and Rachel Isaacs-Falbel.

THE 100 WORDS is a registered trademark of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Copyright 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law. Address inquiries to Reference Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 222 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02116.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

100 words every middle schooler should know / from the editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries.

p. cm. -- (100 words series)

ISBN -13: 978-0-547-33322-9
ISBN -10: 0-547-33322-6

1. Vocabulary. I. Title: One hundred words every middle schooler should know.

PE1449.A1456 2010
428.1--dc22

2009050644

Cover design by Christopher Moisan Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

e ISBN 978-0-547-48768-7
v1.1215

100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know has a simple purpose: to help you get to know 100 words that you are likely to come across in middle school. The words are useful and expressive ones, and you are sure to see them again and again as time goes on. Knowing these words will make it easier for you to understand what you read and will help you write more convincingly.

For each of the 100 words, we (the people who make The American Heritage Student Dictionary) tell you how the word is pronounced, what it means, and where it comes from. We also explain what the different parts of the word mean, so you can see how these parts fit together. And we show you other words in English that are also made of these parts. For example, you will learn that the -sist- part of the word persistent goes back to Latin and means stand. People who are persistent keep standing, so to speak. They dont get knocked away from where they want to be. The word part -sist- also shows up in the verb insist, whose parts mean stand on, that is, not get away from something you are speaking about.

The 100 words themselves are taken from some of the books most often read in middle school English classes and from lists of favorites made by readers in grades 6 through 8. These books are part of a large body of literature and nonfiction titles written expressly for young people, but they are enjoyed by many adults (including us). Youve probably read books by some of these authors: Madeleine LEngle, Russell Freedman, Neil Gaiman, Lois Lowry, Katherine Paterson, Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling. They choose their words carefully, using them to imagine stories, to tell what happened in the past, and to explain how the world around us works.

Now you can start choosing your words carefully as well, following their lead.

Once you have gotten to know the words in 100 Words Every Middle Schooler Should Know, you can challenge yourself further and learn more words by reading 100 Words Every High School Freshman Should Know, and then after that 100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know.

You wont be sorry you learned all these words, and neither will your parents and teachers. Why not try it and see?

Joseph P. Pickett

Executive Editor

ENTRY WORDS The 100 words in this book are listed alphabetically. Each boldface entry word is followed by its pronunciation (see for a pronunciation key) and at least one part of speech. One or more definitions are given for each part of speech with the central and most commonly sought sense first.

QUOTATIONS Each definition is followed by quotations from fiction and nonfiction to show the word in context. The order of the quotations corresponds to the order of senses presented.

WORD ORIGINS Every word in this book is accompanied by a paragraph explaining the origin of the word. The paragraphs usually trace the word back to Latin, Greek, or other ancient languages. The Word Origins also discuss how words in English and other languages can be broken down into their constituent parts, in order to help middle schoolers remember the meanings of new words easily and make these words part of their active vocabulary. Most of the words in this book are from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire, and many of these Latin words are compounds that can be broken down into simpler elements that can be remembered easily. Other words discussed in this book are from ancient Greek (as opposed to its modern-day descendant, the spoken language of modern Greece). The Word Origin notes also refer to a few other languages and linguistic terms that may not be familiar to the average reader but are essential for understanding the history of English.

Old French refers to the French language as it was spoken and written from about 800 (the time of the first documents written in French) to about 1500.

The term Germanic refers to languages belonging to the family of languages that includes English and its close relatives Dutch, German, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish.

The term Old English refers to the English language as spoken from about the middle of the 400s to around 1150. (The Anglo-Saxons began to settle in England and establish their Germanic language, the ancestor of Modern English, in the middle of the 400s.)

Middle English refers to the English language as spoken from about 1150 to 1500, between the Old English and Modern English periods.

Modern English refers to English as it was spoken and written since about 1500.

Old Norse refers to the Germanic language of Iceland and Scandinavia until about 1350. The different regional varieties of Old Norse evolved into Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Old Norse was also spoken by the Vikings who settled in Scotland and the northern part of England in the Middle Ages. During the Old English period, English borrowed many words from Old Norse spoken by these Viking settlers.

Pronunciations appear in parentheses after boldface entry words. If a word has more than one pronunciation, the first pronunciation is usually more common than the other, but often they are equally common. Pronunciations are shown after inflections and related words where necessary.

Stress is the relative degree of emphasis that a words syllables are spoken with. An unmarked syllable has the weakest stress in the word. The strongest, or primary, stress is indicated with a bold mark ('). A lighter mark (') indicates a secondary level of stress. The stress mark follows the syllable it applies to. Words of one syllable have no stress mark because there is no other stress level that the syllable can be compared to.

The key on shows the pronunciation symbols used in this book. To the right of the symbols are words that show how the symbols are pronounced. The letters whose sound corresponds to the symbols are shown in boldface.