Illustrated Etymology
A friend just pointed me to this site, Illustrated Etymology, where creative types illustrate the histories of words, as researched by the incomparable Douglas Harper on The Online Etymology Dictionary.
What a great project to do with kids: choose a word to investigate, research its history and relatives, illustrate, and explain the development to present-day sense and meaning.
Go get lost here for a bit, maybe think up your own.
Iris:
Late 14c., flowering plant (Iris germanica), also “prismatic rock crystal,” from L. iris (pl. irides) “iris of the eye, iris plant, rainbow,” from Gk. iris (gen. iridos) “a rainbow; the lily; iris of the eye,” originally “messenger of the gods,” personified as the rainbow. The eye region was so called (early 15c. in English) for being the colored part; the Greek word was used of any brightly colored circle, “as that round the eyes of a peacock’s tail” [Liddell and Scott]. Illustration by Daniel Dickson
3 Comments
What a wonderful find is ‘Illustrated Etymology’! Well does it represent the orthographic denotation of ‘illustrate’ – “shed shining light on …”
Users of the incomparable Etymonline will find the Abbreviations section of this site an essential and authoritative resource for engaging with the Etymonline entries.
I simply say ‘Bravo!’ to Illustrated Etymology’s creator / creatrix.
Which brings me to another quality of this site that I particularly appreciate; there is no personally identifiable name paraded or, apparently, findable on it.
Hear this, o ye adepts of the ‘Big Name’ ideology of edubabble.
Orthography itself is All, not a tool for pushing personal prestige (whose orthographic denotation Etymonline rightly gives as “deceit, imposture, illusion”).
‘Prestige’ – now there’s a great word whose etymology someone might ‘illustrate’!
Gina,
This is an amazing website. It has inspired a great idea to have my first graders draw pictures to solidify meaning after they have solved word sums.
Thanks for sharing. Your work has tremendous value to my classroom!
Sent from my iPad
Glad to see that the site is appreciated! Thanks for the post!