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Spellzone July Round-Up

  The English language is constantly evolving in creative ways and this has always been the case. This month we started a new blog feature on slang words and their plain English meanings. Our first post in this new series looks at Cockney rhyming slang.    We returned to our Commonly Confused Words series with a very similar-sounding pair of words—allusion and illusion. Do you know when to use which word? Visit the blog for memory devices to help you tell them apart.   For our Idioms article we looked at figurative expressions about fruit.   We continued with the fruit theme in July’s Word for Wednesday posts. Did you know the word ...

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Word for Wednesday: Cherry

Our Word for Wednesday theme for July is fruit.  The word fruit dates back to the late-twelfth century when it was used to mean ‘any vegetable product useful to humans or animals’. It entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘fructus’ meaning ‘an enjoyment, delight, or satisfaction’ as well as ‘proceeds, produce, fruit, and crops’.  The word took on its modern meaning in the early thirteenth century. So far we’ve looked at the words banana, pineapple, plum, and pomegranate —today’s word is cherry.  A cherry is a small round fruit with a si...

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Word for Wednesday: Pomegranate

Our Word for Wednesday theme for July is fruit.  The word fruit dates back to the late-twelfth century when it was used to mean ‘any vegetable product useful to humans or animals’. It entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘fructus’ meaning ‘an enjoyment, delight, or satisfaction’ as well as ‘proceeds, produce, fruit, and crops’.  The word took on its modern meaning in the early thirteenth century. So far we’ve looked at the words banana, pineapple, and plum. Today’s word is pomegranate. A pomegranate is a type of fruit known for its juicy red pulp and many tiny ...

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Word for Wednesday: Plum

Our Word for Wednesday theme for July is fruit.  The word fruit dates back to the late-twelfth century when it was used to mean ‘any vegetable product useful to humans or animals’. It entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘fructus’ meaning ‘an enjoyment, delight, or satisfaction’ as well as ‘proceeds, produce, fruit, and crops’.  The word took on its modern meaning in the early thirteenth century.   So far we’ve looked at the words  banana and pineapple, —today’s word is plum.  A plum is an oval fruit with smooth skin and a single hard s...

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Word for Wednesday: Pineapple

Our Word for Wednesday theme for July is fruit.  The word fruit dates back to the late-twelfth century when it was used to mean ‘any vegetable product useful to humans or animals’. It entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘fructus’ meaning ‘an enjoyment, delight, or satisfaction’ as well as ‘proceeds, produce, fruit, and crops’.  The word took on its modern meaning in the early thirteenth century. So far we’ve looked at the word banana, and today’s word is pineapple. A pineapple is a large sweet fleshy tropical fruit with a tuft of stiff pointed leaves.  What&rsqu...

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Word for Wednesday: Banana

Our Word for Wednesday theme for July is fruit.  The word fruit dates back to the late-twelfth century when it was used to mean ‘any vegetable product useful to humans or animals’. It entered English via Old French and comes from the Latin ‘fructus’ meaning ‘an enjoyment, delight, or satisfaction’ as well as ‘proceeds, produce, fruit, and crops’.  The word took on its modern meaning in the early thirteenth century. Our first fruit-themed word is banana.  A banana is a long curved fruit which grows in clusters. It is green when growing and turns yellow as it ripens. The fruit is known for its soft sweet flesh.  Ba...

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