Word Origins
📋 What it is
Etymology is the study of where words come from; roots and prefixes reveal a word’s hidden meaning.
🗣️ Coach says
Words have family trees. “Tele” means far (telephone, television, telescope). “Bio” means life (biology, biography). Learn a few roots and you can guess the meaning of words you’ve never seen — like a decoder ring for English.
🧠 Memory hook
Learn the roots (tele = far, bio = life) and you can crack new words on sight.
😲 Whoa!
Over 60% of English words come from Latin and Greek roots — which is why learning a handful of roots unlocks thousands of words at once.
✅ Quick check: “Tele” means far and “port” means carry. What might “teleport” mean?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
To carry (something) far — literally “far-carry”; the roots predict the meaning before you look it up.
Combining known roots lets you decode an unfamiliar word.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Pick a word with “bio”, “tele”, or “graph” and explain its meaning FROM the roots. Then check a dictionary.