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Can We Help?: Word histories: how extraordinary!

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Presenters sit on set, text overlay reads "If 'ordinary' means plain, why does 'extraordinary' mean fantastic?"
Can We Help?: Word histories: how extraordinary!

SUBJECTS:  English

YEARS:  5–6


Words can change over time and so can their meanings.

The word 'extra' broke away from other words to become a word on its own.

Professor Kate Burridge explains how this impacts on words like 'extraordinary'.

She also explains the origins and meanings of the words 'hearse' and 'rehearse''.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Why do you think adding 'extra' to the word 'ordinary' creates a word that means 'beyond ordinary' or 'not at all ordinary' instead of 'very ordinary'?
  2. 2.What is the history of the word 'extra'? What are its two meanings? Kate describes four changes to the meaning of the word 'hearse'. How has its meaning changed?
  3. 3.When 'extra' appears in the word 'extraordinary', what does it mean? What does the word 'extraordinary' mean? From what word do 'hearse' and 'rehearse' originate? When she explains the meaning of the word 'rehearse', what other verb does Kate use?
  4. 4.Research words that include the word 'extra', then list ten of them. Find out if 'extra' keeps its original meaning as it does in 'extraordinary'. Do a search on a commonly used word such as house. Using the term 'etymology' (which is the study of how language changes) might also help.



Date of broadcast: 2 May 2008


Copyright

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