Our Word for Wednesday theme for September is stationery. Stationery comes from the Latin ‘stationarius’ which means ‘tradesman who sells from a station or shop’. The word was first used to describe ‘the articles sold by a stationer’ in 1727. So far we have looked at the words pencil, pen, ruler, and sharpener, and today's stationery-themed word is stapler. A stapler is a machine that inserts staples into sheets of paper in order to fasten them together. The word dates to 1949 and comes from ‘staple’ which as a verb dates to the late fourteenth century and as a noun d...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for September is stationery. Stationery comes from the Latin ‘stationarius’ which means ‘tradesman who sells from a station or shop’. The word was first used to describe ‘the articles sold by a stationer’ in 1727. So far we have looked at the words pencil, pen, and ruler, and today's stationery-themed word is sharpener. The word sharpener refers to any implement that is used to make something sharper. While the term sharpener dates to the 1630s, the term pencil sharpener is from 1854. Both words come from word ‘sharpen’ which dates to the 1520s...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for September is stationery. Stationery comes from the Latin ‘stationarius’ which means ‘tradesman who sells from a station or shop’. The word was first used to describe ‘the articles sold by a stationer’ in 1727. So far we have looked at the words pencil and pen, and today's stationery-themed word is ruler. A ruler is a strip, usually made of wood, metal, or plastic, which is used for drawing straight lines and measuring lengths. Rulers are marked at varying intervals to indicate units of measurement like inches or centimetres. The word dates to around 1400 and com...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for September is stationery. Stationery comes from the Latin ‘stationarius’ which means ‘tradesman who sells from a station or shop’. The word was first used to describe ‘the articles sold by a stationer’ in 1727. Last week we looked at the word pencil, and today's stationery-themed word is pen. A pen is writing implement with a point from which ink flows, Although you might expect pen to have the same word root as pencil, it actually comes from the Old French ‘pene’ meaning ‘quill pen’ or ‘feather’, which in turn comes from the L...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for September is stationery. Stationery comes from the Latin ‘stationarius’ which means ‘tradesman who sells from a station or shop’. The word was first used to describe ‘the articles sold by a stationer’ in 1727. Our first stationery-themed word is pencil. A pencil is a thin cylindrical pointed writing implement. The word entered English in the mid-fourteenth century as ‘pencel’ and was used to describe a type of fine brush made of camel hair which was used by artists. ‘Pencel’ comes from the Old French ‘pincel’ which comes from the Latin ‘pencillus&r...
Accept vs. Except If you accept something you agree to receive or do it. If you except something you exclude it. Bought vs. Brought Brought is the past tense of bring, while bought is the past tense of buy. Cereal vs. Serial Cereal is a type of grain (and a type of breakfast food made from grain), while serial refers to something that occurs in sequence. Desert vs. Dessert Desert can refer to either the act of abandoning someone or something or to an arid stretch of land with little vegetation. A dessert is a sweet course at the end of a meal. Effect vs. Affect An effect is a consequence. If you affect something you make a differen...
Today we’re looking at two words that are pronounced in the same way, and are also spelt very similarly – no wonder they’re easy to mix up! What does each word mean? The word stationary is an adjective used to describe something that is standing still or something that is not capable of moving. Here is the word used in some example sentences: That traffic was stationary. The class remained stationary until they were given permission to leave. Click here for our full dictionary definition of the word stationary, as well as the Spellzone word lists featuring this word. The word stationery is a noun that refers to paper and othe...
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