![\"Manhattan](\"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2018\/03\/etymologies-gre-verbal-cat-powell.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? <\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n Learning new words can be one of the most daunting parts of the GRE, particularly because the English language has such a large and varied vocabulary. This linguistic richness is the result, in part, of the language\u2019s early history, which was shaped by German, Norman, and Scandinavian invasions, with each wave of arrivals bringing new contributions to the language.<\/span><\/p>\n In subsequent centuries, English continued to absorb new words from the wide array of languages that English-speaking peoples came into contact with. The word \u201cavocado,\u201d for example, comes to English via the Spanish \u201caguacate,\u201d which originates with the Nahuatl name for the fruit: \u201cahuacatl.\u201d The word \u201chazard,\u201d on the other hand, derives from an old French dice game, \u201chasard,\u201d which in turn has murky origins in older Spanish and\/or Arabic vocabulary (possibly beginning with the Arabic \u201cyasara,\u201d which means \u201che played at dice.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n Other words have less exotic origins, but equally interesting stories. The word \u201cclue,\u201d for example, comes from the old Germanic word \u201cclew,\u201d which referred to a ball of yarn. A \u201cclew\u201d is the tool that Theseus, a hero in Greek mythology, uses to escape from the maze that contains the monstrous Minotaur, a man with the head of a bull. Over time, the influence of this myth gave a new meaning to the word \u201cclew,\u201d eventually leading to our modern understanding of the word as a hint that helps one to unravel a mystery.<\/span><\/p>\n Most words, it turns out, have interesting histories, or etymologies. If you\u2019re a language nerd like me, you might find these fun in their own right; learning etymologies can also be a great way to boost your vocabulary for the GRE.<\/span><\/p>\n Human brains generally love a good story (as anyone who\u2019s ever binged on a TV series can testify). Etymologies give us interesting narratives about how and why words acquired their current meanings. By attaching these stories to the words you\u2019re trying to learn, you immediately give yourself an easier way to remember that word. If I tell you my best friend\u2019s name is Sirena, you may or may not remember that. However, if I tell you that she\u2019s named Sirena because when she was born her mom thought she looked like a baby manatee (taxonomic order <\/span>sirenia<\/span><\/i>), well, you\u2019re a lot more likely to remember that. (FYI: this is not a true story).<\/span><\/p>\n Of course, you can also make up your own stories about words, fitting them into narratives that are relevant to your life in some way. Etymologies are fun, though, because they give you added information about how to use that word correctly. The word etymology comes from Greek: \u201cetymon\u201d (true sense) + \u201clogia\u201d (the study of). The study of a word\u2019s true meaning: this suggests that a word\u2019s history, or etymology, tells us not only about how this word got to us, but also about the nuances of the word\u2019s meaning. For this reason, professional literary translators often use etymologies to help decide whether a word in one language is a good match for a word in another.<\/span><\/p>\n For GRE purposes, it often isn\u2019t enough to have just a rough sense of what a word means. The fill-in-the-blank vocabulary questions, particularly the ones that ask you to pair synonyms, are often much easier if you have a very precise understanding of how a word is used. Etymologies can help you develop this understanding in a fun and efficient way.<\/span><\/p>\n So, as you begin making GRE flashcards, or if you\u2019ve been studying vocabulary for some time and feel stalled, go online and look up etymologies for some of the words you\u2019re learning. I like etymonline.com or Wiktionary, but there are lots of good free resources out there. Have fun! ?<\/span><\/p>\n Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free! We\u2019re not kidding.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>Check out our upcoming courses here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here. Learning new words can be one of the most daunting parts of the GRE, particularly because the English language has such a large and varied vocabulary. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[474284,921840,6,7,733451,733445,12],"tags":[1362541],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-11428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-studiers","category-gre-prep-2","category-gre-strategies","category-how-to-study","category-life-hacks","category-study-tips-2","category-verbal","tag-etymology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11428"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11456,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11428\/revisions\/11456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11428"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.manhattanprep.com\/gre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=11428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\n
\n![\"cat-powell-1\"](\"https:\/\/d27gmszdzgfpo3.cloudfront.net\/gre\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2017\/08\/cat-powell-1-150x150.png\")
Cat Powell<\/a>\u00a0is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York, NY.\u00a0<\/strong>She spent her undergraduate years at Harvard studying music and English and is now pursuing an MFA in fiction writing at Columbia University. Her affinity for standardized tests led her to a 169Q\/170V score on the GRE.\u00a0Check out Cat\u2019s upcoming GRE courses here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"