Diary of a Word Nerd

Vocab from a Foodie: Sommelier

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 10 Comments

Do you like to learn new words? Then you’re in the right place! I’m going to share a new-to-me word, and you can join the nerdy fun by commenting here, writing your own post about a new-to-you word, and visiting Kathy at the Bermuda Onion blog.

My word this week comes from the hilarious novel The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. It’s the story of what happens when an extremely intellectual and organized genetics professor meets a care free young woman who is tending bar while she works on her PhD. An opposites attract story with a clever voice.

In the back of the book, Graeme Simsion admits to being a foodie, and my word today comes from the food world.

The sommelier appeared with the wine.

sommelier \sǝ-mǝl-‘yā\ noun from the French soumelier, an official charged with transportation of supplies, from old French, pack animal driver.

A waiter in a restaurant who has charge of wines and their service

Did you catch the etymology on that one? A pack animal driver? That’s a far cry from the distinguished waiter in a tux presenting a bottle of wine.

Aren’t words fun?

Word Nerd Note

This is one of those times when the dictionary didn’t do me justice. My friend Carol shared a more complete definition in her comments.

“…a sommelier is more than a the waiter in charge of wine. It is a big deal designation that is given after intense training. Just count this in the catalog of odd things I know. I know that you got the definition from the dictionary but those trained as a sommelier would protest. Also, while I would agree that you can’t trust Wikipedia, their definition might actually be better this time.’A sommelier (/ˈsɒməljeɪ/ or /sʌməlˈjeɪ/; French pronunciation: [sɔməlje]), or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. The role is much more specialized and informed than that of a wine waiter: In fine dining today the role is strategically on a par with that of the executive chef or chef de cuisine.[1]’”

Thanks Carol!

Word Nerd Workout

Share another obscure term from the foodie world. This is not my arena, so you’ll be sure to teach me something!

Thanks for playing along.

Julia

Improving grammar

When to Use Affect or Effect

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 5 Comments

There are word pairs in the English language that have troubled my writing for years. When should I use who or whom? What’s the difference between lay and lie? Do you share my woes? Today I’m going to tackle another tricky pair: affect and effect.

Thank you Scott Baldwin for this suggestion. 😉

Being a word nerd, I use wordy mnemonics to help me remember things. I would like to say that since effect is a verb, and verb has an “e‘ in it, that effect is usually used as a verb.

But that’s not true. The basic rule with these words is:

Effect is a noun. Affect is a verb.

However, some research in the Merriam Webster Dictionary and my handy Grammatically Correct reference book proved that this simple tenet doesn’t cover the whole picture. Leave it to English grammar to complicate things.

First, let’s look at the multiple meanings of affect.

Affect \ǝ-‘fect\ verb – to act upon, influence

Lack of sleep will poorly affect your performance at the meet.

Affect can also mean to fancy, to cultivate, or to feign.

Rosie affects a British accent when she discusses Harry Potter.

Affect can also be a noun; note the difference in pronunciation

Affect \’af-fect\ noun – psychology: the conscious subjective aspect of an emotion observed apart from bodily changes

The patient has a flat affect (shows no emotion).

Whew. Got all that?

Now, let’s review the meanings of effect

Effective cheering

Effect \i-‘fect\ noun; something that follows a cause; essence; an outward sign; influence; distinctive impression

The cheering had a positive effect on her race.

Effect verb- to bring about, accomplish

The principal tried to effect a change to the dress code.

You probably won’t be surprised to know that affect and effect both come from the same Latin root: ex + facere, meaning “to do”. No wonder their usage is so confusing!

Word Nerd Workout

Choose the right word for the following sentences.

The board will attempt to affect/effect a change to the fundraising requirement.
I’m afraid the wet weather will affect/effect the soccer game.
A side affect/effect of Benadryl is drowsiness.
The student’s affect/effect makes it hard to know what he enjoys.

Word Nerd Note

If you’re looking for an adjective that means producing the desired result or ready for action, you would spell it effective.

Scott uses effective training techniques with his swimmers.

I hope you learned something today. If you have a troubling word pair you’d like the Word Nerd to explore, share it in the comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Julia

Here are the answers to the quiz in the homonym/homophone/homograph post:

homograph
homonym
homophone
homograph
homophone

Thanks for playing!

Improving vocabulary

The Difference Between Homograph, Homophone, and Homonym

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 11 Comments

Do you know the difference between a homonym and a homophone? My son and I have practiced for the county spelling bee for weeks – it’s been cancelled twice because of snow – and we’ve had to distinguish between many homonyms/phones/graphs.

Cheers to Mr. Luke Phillips for helping my child, and consequently me, understand the distinction between these words. In honor of Wondrous Words Wednesday, I will share this knowledge with you.

Please remember to join the fun of the Wondrous Words Wednesday meme by visiting Kathy at Bermuda Onion and writing your own post with interesting words.

Here’s the difference…

Homonym, homophone and homograph share the same Greek root, homos, which means same, similar, or alike. It’s the second part of each word that gives unique meaning.

Photo credit: Tambako the Jaguar via flickr CC-BY-ND

homonym

-nym comes from the Greek onyma meaning name
a word that is spelled and pronounced like another word but is different in meaning
Examples:
- bear (noun- animal) and bear (verb – to endure)
- quail (noun – animal) and quail (verb – to recoil in terror);
- fair (noun – as in County Fair) and fair (adj – marked by honesty)

homophone

-phone comes from the Greek phonos meaning sounding
a word that is pronounced like another word but is different in meaning, origin, or spelling
Examples:
- sow (verb – to plant seeds) and sew (verb – a needle pulling thread)
- tea (noun – a drink with jam and bread) and tee (noun – a peg to put a golf ball on)
- flower (noun – the pretty part of a plant) and flour (noun – ground wheat for baking)

homograph

-graph comes from the Greek graphos meaning written
a word that is spelled like another word but is different in origin, meaning, or pronunciation
Examples:
- bow (noun – ribbon in a girl’s hair) and bow (noun – part of a ship)
- bass (noun – musical instrument) and bass (noun – a fish)
- close (adj – nearby) and close (verb – to shut)

If you’d like more detailed explanation, visit SpellingCity.com.

Word Nerd Workout

Tell me if the following word pairs are homonyms, homophones, or homographs.

desert (noun- hot, dry place) and desert (verb- to abandon)
scale (noun – measure weight) and scale (noun a small thin plate on the outside of a fish)
bear (noun- animal) and bare (adj- without covering)
wind (verb- to cause to move in a curving path) and wind (noun- moving air)
plane (noun- flying mode transportation) and plain (adj – without adornment)

You can find the answers at the end of my Affect vs. Effect post.

Word Nerd Note

The Spelling City site also taught me about Capitonyms, words that are spelled the same except for capitalization. Sometimes pronunciation differs.

Turkey, turkey
Mobile (Alabama), mobile
May (month), may

I hope you learned something today!

Julia

Book reviews

A Book to Make Math Fun

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 6 Comments

$Family Math$ This may seem like an odd question on a Word Nerd blog, but…

Do you like math?

In school, math always made me nervous. I preferred classes like English, history, and foreign languages. Words made me happy.

It wasn’t until I taught math to middle school students with learning disabilities that I appreciated math’s beauty. It’s black and white. It’s logical and predictable. I could explain mathematical concepts to my students easier than I could explain a novel or the inconsistencies of English grammar.

Math didn’t make my stomach hurt anymore. In fact, I kinda liked it.

Years later, as a parent, I wanted my kids to feel confident in math. I knew how to encourage reading, but I needed help finding a way to make arithmetic and problem solving fun. Luckily, I found a great book: Family Math by Jean Kerr Stenmark, Virginia Thompson, and Ruth Cossy.

The creators of Family Math used research and experience to develop activities to help “parents and children spend time together doing something that’s fun, challenging, and important.” Most of the activities use a hands-on approach and a game-like format. Topics include logical reasoning, numbers and operations, patterns, geometry and spatial reasoning, and estimation.

The cool thing about this book is I can sit down with all my kids at the kitchen table and do the activities together, even though my youngest is in second grade and my oldest takes Algebra II. That’s because Family Math focuses on concepts, basic math skills, and problem solving. Today we did an activity on palindromes, numbers that look the same forwards and backwards. (just like palindrome words!) We found patterns as well as practiced basic arithmetic.

My daughter wants you to know that she is responsible for the lovely coloring here.

Every lesson in Family Math explains why the activity is important, how to do it, and offers suggestions for extension or adaptation. Here are a few of our favorites:

Pico, Fermi, Bagel

Why: To practice making deductions by the process of elimination and to reinforce the concept of place value.
How: The leader picks a three digit number with no repeating numbers, and players take turns guessing the number. After each guess, the leader gives clues. Bagel means no digits are correct, Pico means a digit is correct but in the wrong place, and Fermi means a digit is correct and in the right place.

The Sum What Dice Game

Why: To practice addition and mental arithmetic
How: Each player gets a strip with the digits 1-9 on it. Players take turns rolling two dice. With each roll, a players may either cover the sum rolled or two numbers that add up to the sum. When a player can’t cover any appropriate numbers, because they’ve already been used, he’s out and adds up the numbers uncovered. The goal is to be the player with the fewest numbers (points) uncovered.

My kids have been home from school all week (again.) With Family Math, we’ve had some fun together while using our brains. I highly recommend it.

Can you suggest any other books to encourage confidence with math?

Thanks!

Julia

Improving vocabulary/Words and Technology

What Is a Megabyte Anyway?

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 9 Comments

Welcome to Wondrous Words Wednesday! Do you know your computer data terms? My words this week will take an unusual dive into the world of math, but issues with our satellite internet have forced me to take a close look at data usage and terms relevant to it.

Please visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion for more cool words to learn, “mathy” or otherwise.

We moved out to the country for the peaceful lifestyle and bucolic views. But sometimes, we pay the price. For example, last week’s “Snowmaggendon” wrecked our long gravel driveway. Take a look:

the hill — Our slippery, slushy driveway

To play it safe, we keep the cars parked out by the road. Since our driveway is a third of a mile, I get to take 10 minute walk in 20 degree temperatures before I leave or return to the house. Nothing like a brisk hike to wake you up and clear your head.

Another joy of country living: Internet service. The cable company and high-speed phone lines don’t come out to us, so we pay a high premium for satellite service. Lately, the satellite company says we are burning through 15 GB halfway through our billing cycle. I think they are scamming me so I’ll buy more GB, but I have can’t prove it. Anyone, if you have tech geeks for friends who know how to monitor how much data one uploads and downloads, PLEASE refer them to me.

How can we use so much data when we don’t stream movies?! I’ve shut off Gmail chat and other program options that constantly update and use data, and now I’m watching the size of downloads closely. My big question last week was:

What’s bigger? A MB or a KB?

So here it is, the data vocab breakdown. I got lots of great info from the Whats a Byte website.

Bit = the smallest unit of information a computer uses.
Byte = 8 bits. One byte could = one character; 10 bytes could = one word.
Kilobyte (KB) a unit of computer information equal to 1024 bytes; it comes from the fact that 1024 (2¹⁰) is the power of 2 closest to 1000 (kilo = 1000)
Megabyte (MB) 1,048, 576 bytes, and it comes from 1,048,576 = 2²⁰, the power of 2 closest to one million (mega = multiplied by one million)
Gigabyte (GB) 1,073,741,824 bytes or one billion bytes (giga = billion and comes from the Greek word gigas, giant)
Terabyte (TB) equals 1024 gigabytes or 1,099,511,627,776 bytes, or one trillion bytes (tera = trillion or 10¹²)

Apparently, there’s some controversy with the variation in definitions. See how a gigabyte can be one billion bytes OR 1,073,741,824 (a little over one million)? A hard drive might be advertised with a capacity of 250 GB, but since Windows programs stick to the 1,073,741,824 definition, that leaves only 232 gigabytes of available storage to use.

If you want to delve further into the world of computer speak, visit the What’s a Byte site. My head is starting to hurt.

Word Nerd Workout

Do you have any other computer tech terms you’d like to share? Enlighten us, please!

Thanks for getting nerdy with me.

Julia

Awesome Young Adult Books/Favorite Authors/How to encourage reading/Recommended kid lit

What to Read When You’re Snowed In

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Julia Tomiak / 6 Comments

A week of snow days = less writing time for mom. Winters like this used to frustrate me, however, as my oldest rapidly approaches 15 and the day when he will leave for college, I’m learning to appreciate extra time with my children. Even if the teens lock themselves in their bedrooms to hide behind loud music.

Virginia schools aren’t made to handle six inches of snow and single digit temps, so I expect my precious ones will spend several more days at home. Hopefully, it will warm up enough so they can play outside again. Check out our sledding hill:

Do your kids need something to read? You might try…

My kids have indulged in excess screen time lately, but I’m proud to say they are still reading too. Thank goodness for Kindles and digital downloads; even if the road off of our farm is too treacherous for a trip to the library, I can obtain books to put in front of their faces as a diversion from Minecraft and Xbox.

Currently, the Middle Grade readers in my house are enjoying

The Harry Potter series (and we’re rewatching all the movies in the evening… and staying up too late!)
The newest books from The Brotherband Chronicles by John Flanagan (author of The Rangers Apprentice series)
The Wright 3 and Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliet
The Warriors series by Erin Hunter
The Inquisitor’s Mark by Dianne Salerni

The Young Adult reader liked:

Firefight, Reckoners Book 2 by Brandon Sanderson

And for the adults…

Here’s my book club reading list for 2015. I’ve been staying up too late (see the comment re: Harry Potter above), but I hope to dig into these books soon. I’m laughing out loud at The Rosie Project so far.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (non-fiction) by Rebecca Skloot
Glitter and Glue by Kelly Corrigan (memoir)
Me Before You by Jo Jo Moyes
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morten (historical fiction)
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (WWII historical fiction)
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA on sexual assault)
The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr (non-fiction on the relationship between humans and technology)

Surely, you can find something here to enjoy on your snow day.

Have any other recommendations to add to the list?

Thanks and happy reading!

Julia