For the month of May, we have chosen musical instruments as the theme for our Word for Wednesday posts. The word music entered English in the thirteenth century as ‘musike’ via the Old French ‘musique’ and the Latin ‘musica’ meaning ‘music or poetry’. ‘Musica’ is from the Greek ‘mousikē’ which means ‘art of the muses’. So far in our exploration into where musical instruments get their names from, we’ve looked at the words piano, guitar, and drum. The final musical instrument in our series is the saxophone. A saxophone is a met...
For the month of May, we have chosen musical instruments as the theme for our Word for Wednesday posts. The word music entered English in the thirteenth century as ‘musike’ via the Old French ‘musique’ and the Latin ‘musica’ meaning ‘music or poetry’. ‘Musica’ is from the Greek ‘mousikē’ which means ‘art of the muses’. So far in our exploration into where musical instruments get their names from, we’ve looked at the words piano and guitar. Today’s word is drum. A drum is a percussion instrument which usually consists of a hollow cy...
For the month of May, we have chosen musical instruments as the theme for our Word for Wednesday posts. The word music entered English in the thirteenth century as ‘musike’ via the Old French ‘musique’ and the Latin ‘musica’ meaning ‘music or poetry’. ‘Musica’ is from the Greek ‘mousikē’ which means ‘art of the muses’. Last week we looked at the word piano and today we will be looking at the word guitar. A guitar is a stringed instrument with curved sides and a fretted fingerboard. It usually has six or twelve strings which are plucked or strummed (...
For the month of May, we have chosen musical instruments as the theme for our Word for Wednesday posts. The word music entered English in the thirteenth century as ‘musike’ via the Old French ‘musique’ and the Latin ‘musica’ meaning ‘music or poetry’. ‘Musica’ is from the Greek ‘mousikē’ which means ‘art of the muses’. The first instrument we’ve chosen to look at is piano. A piano is the keyboard instrument which is played by depressing keys that cause hammers to strike tuned strings in order to make sounds. In music, the word also means soft or quiet. The w...
What does each word mean? Peace is the absence of stress or freedom from dispute. Click here for the full Spellzone dictionary definition of the word. Here is peace used in some example sentences: Mum wanted was to drink her tea in peace. A short period of peace was followed by further battle. The world leaders tried to negotiate peace. A piece a segment or part of an object. The word might also be used to describe an artistic creation, a coin of a specific value, a firearm, or a counter in a boardgame. Click here for the full Spellzone dictionary definition of the word. Here is piece used in some example sentences: Would you like a piece of pie?...
This week is all about freedom. On Tuesday we had International Jazz Day, a celebration of music breaking racial boundaries through music. Angelique Kidjo describes music as having ‘no nationality, no boundary no colour; jazz belongs as much to you as it belongs to me’. On Wednesday, we have International Worker’s day, which represents the right to fair employment. Finally, on Friday, it is Press Freedom Day. A day to celebrate, promote and encourage freedom of the media. It’s always nice to have a word for Wednesday choose itself and I couldn’t think of a more fitting one for this week! Freedom is a word that has strong emotional connotations for...
In the limelight this week for various reasons is a word that encompasses almost all human achievements; a word that has come to represent our creativity and our desire to explore and progress. Art. Today we are in a social climate where art completely surrounds us, whether we like it or not. The paintings of masters, the music of the greats, the work of our finest writers and the world’s most incredible buildings can all be accessed with the click of a mouse and, finance permitting, in ‘the flesh’ by travelling abroad. But what is art? Unfortunately, to many, the word art conjures up an image of pretentiousness, luxury and controversy. A quick look in to the me...
Does it sometimes feel like just as you’ve got to grips with a spelling rule, you are faced with a number of situations where that rule doesn’t apply? You’re not alone. Here are five reasons why English is such a hard language to learn… English words are from all over the place The English language has been heavily influenced by European invaders; art, music and literature; the colonisation of other countries; and immigration. Even common-sounding words can originate from far-away places, such as: ‘rucksack’ (borrowed from German) or ‘pyjamas’ (borrowed from Hindi). There are different ways of spelling the same sound Bec...
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