JIU CI JUN
Click to Watch the Video
As long as you recognize it, you can remember these four words after watching the video, mastering the rules will make your work twice as effective with half the effort. Jiu Ci Jun helps you remember all English words!
Arm, meaning “arm, limb”, although this word is made up of only three letters, it also has a root “ar-” that means “to combine”. How do we understand this?
Foreigners believe that the arm is connected to our upper limb through the shoulder joint, so they used a root that indicates combination, ar-, to create the word arm to mean “arm”.
The letter m at the end of this word is a product of swapping with the letter n, because when coining words, it is common to add the letter n after r.
For example, in words like turn, born, etc., but here, due to pronunciation reasons, n is swapped for m. This is also a type of letter swapping phenomenon we refer to as the ACS English word formation rule.
So many simple words can also be understood. The word arm can also mean “armrest”, because an armrest is attached just like an arm. Additionally, arm can be used as a verb.
For example, arm yourself; here it certainly cannot be translated as “arm you yourself” but must be understood as “to arm oneself”. At this time, the core meaning of the word arm is “to combine”.
To arm yourself means to combine some weapons with yourself, so at this time, the word arm should be translated as “to arm, prepare for battle; equip”, with the core still being the root ar- indicating “combination” as an extension of meaning.
Now do you understand why the word arm has meanings beyond “limb” and also includes the verb meaning “to arm”? By the way, I also explained how one word can have multiple meanings in English. If you found this helpful, please like and follow.
Armor
The first new word today is armor, which is created from arm as “to arm” by adding a noun suffix or. Therefore, armor refers to the “armor or protective gear” that ancient soldiers wore to arm themselves, which you should often see in TV shows.
Army
The second word today is army, meaning “military”. It is still related to the meaning of arm as “to arm”.
The army is an organized, disciplined, and combat-ready group of people armed with weapons, also known as “armed forces”, which is quite easy to understand.
Alarm
The third word alarm, where the prefix al- is a variation of the prefix ad-, meaning to strengthen the tone, thus abstracting or extending the meaning of the following root.
This word’s arm still relates to “to arm”, meaning a “warning device” that alerts everyone to arm themselves when danger approaches.
For example, the air raid alarm that can be sounded is an alarm; in daily life, this word refers to “alarm clock” as it can also emit a reminder sound.
Additionally, the word alarm can also mean “a feeling of fear” or describe an action that causes fear, all of which stem from the meaning of “warning device”.
When you hear the “alarm” sound, it means danger is coming, which induces “fear”. Now do you understand why alarm has so many meanings?
Harmony
The fourth word harmony, where the first h has no meaning.
The middle arm- here is not the meaning of limb but is a variation of the root ar- indicating “to combine”, meaning the following m is a kind of doubling of the preceding r.
According to word formation rules, it should double to r, but it is generally doubled to n because r-n can be interchangeable; however, here n is swapped for m for pronunciation convenience, which is a phenomenon of letter swapping.
The on- at the end of harmony is a suffix, and the final letter Y is a tail vowel, so the core meaning of harmony still relates to “combination”, specifically referring to everything or everyone in an environment being interconnected, achieving a perfectly appropriate state.
Translated into Chinese, it means “harmony, peace; harmony, coordination”, for example, humans and nature should coexist harmoniously, which can use this word.
This is the content we discussed today. There aren’t many words, but there are several meanings.
After listening to the explanation, you should have a new understanding of these words and be able to remember their multiple meanings and how to use them. This is what word memorization should achieve. Our explanation ends here for today, see you next time!
END
Recommended for You:
◈ Word Memorization | Issue 25: Why is proof added to water to mean “waterproof”?
◈ Word Memorization | Issue 24: Understand the connection between plenty and plus in one minute!
◈ Word Memorization | Issue 23: Offer and provide both mean to provide, how to distinguish?
Or add WeChat【JCJ-Y2】
Thank You for Reading
If You Find This Article Valuable
Please Forward It to Your Friends
