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Jun 22, 2020 5 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Hi parents! To help your kids ages 8-12 beat the summer slump, we’ve put together an entire season’s worth of vocab activities and book recs that will keep them reading and learning all summer long.

Check out our Puku Summer Camp program here! merriam-webster.com/vocabulary/puk… Puku Summer weekly calendar...
Our Week 1 theme is The Great Outdoors, featuring nature-inspired games and activities, as well as a vocab guide to @KeklaMagoon’s ‘The Season of Styx Malone.’

Read and play along with us here:
merriam-webster.com/topics/puku-su…
Good news, campers: this week’s installment has been updated with a vocab guide to ‘Island of the Blue Dolphins’ by Scott O’Dell! merriam-webster.com/topics/puku-su…
This week's at-home summer camp theme: Cooking Club!

Join us for kids' culinary activities and vocab, plus reading guides to 'Stef Soto, Taco Queen' by @jennanntorres and 'Jasmine Toguchi, Mochi Queen' by @DebbiMichiko! merriam-webster.com/topics/puku-su…
This week in our at-home summer camp: Animal Kingdom!

Check out some animal word lists, vocab activities, and reading guides to:
- The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
- Hoot by @Carl_Hiaasen
merriam-webster.com/topics/puku-su…

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More from @MerriamWebster

Mar 13
For no reason at all, here is a guide to British noble titles:

‘Prince’ comes from the Latin word that literally means “one who takes the first part.”

It shares its ultimate Latin root with words that denote firstness, like ‘principal’ and ‘prime’ and ‘primary.’
By tradition, only those born into the royal family can use ‘prince’ or ’princess.’

Even though many people refer to ‘Princess Diana,’ the title of ‘princess’ should properly come after her name, since she was not born into the royal family.

“Diana, Princess of Wales”
The title of Prince Philip, was the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’. He was also known as the ‘prince consort’ (husband of a reigning queen).

These peculiar titles with adjectives that follow the nouns are a byproduct of the French-speaking Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066.
Read 10 tweets
Dec 19, 2023
Rudolph gets all the love so let’s talk about the names of Santa’s other reindeer.

dasher | noun | one that dashes
dancer | noun | one that dances
prancer | noun | one that walks or moves in a spirited manner

Ok, those three are easy to understand.
Now, we get to ‘Vixen.’ ‘vixen’ is a noun and has 3 senses.

1. a female fox
2. a shrewish, ill-tempered woman
3. a sexually attractive woman

Ummm, what’s going on here, Santa?
comet | noun | a celestial body that appears as a fuzzy head usually surrounding a bright nucleus, that has a usually highly eccentric orbit, that consists primarily of ice and dust, and that often develops one or more long tails when near the sun

Both fly... so sure, why not?
Read 5 tweets
Jul 20, 2023
‘Hello’ has only been in use for about the last 150 years.

An older term used for greeting or salutation is 'hail,' which dates back to the Middle Ages.

This word is related to others that originally meant ‘health,’ such as ‘hale,’ ‘health,’ and ‘whole.’
Several variants of ‘hail’ are recorded, including ‘hollo’, ‘hallo,’ ‘halloa,’ and ‘holler.’

‘Hello’ was first recorded in the early 1800s, and was originally used to attract attention or express surprise.

“Well, hello! What do we have here?” twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
‘Hello’ really took off with the invention of the telephone.

Thomas Edison claimed to have initiated the use of ‘hello’ upon receiving a phone call—which required people to address an unseen and unknown person.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 15, 2023
What the $%&# is a ‘grawlix’???

The ‘grawlix’ is the character or series of characters that often appear in place of profanity—the visual equivalent of bleeping out a word.
The term ‘grawlix’ is credited to the late cartoonist Mort Walker (1923-2018), creator of Beetle Bailey. twitter.com/i/web/status/1… A "Beetle Bailey"...
While the term was coined in the 1960s, its use goes back to at least 1901. A cartoon from "Lady B...
Read 6 tweets
May 19, 2023
You probably learned about homonyms in school: words that are pronounced or spelled the same but differ in meaning.

bear (animal)
bear (carry)

But did you know there are actually two kinds of homonyms: homophones and homographs.

Let’s dew this. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Homophones are words THAT SOUND ALIKE but could be different in meaning or derivation or spelling.

to/too/two
rose/rows
one/won
berry/bury
knot/not
guessed/guest
bread/bred
would/wood twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Homographs are SPELLED ALIKE but could be different in meaning or derivation or pronunciation.

bow (ship)
bow (arrows)

desert (sand)
desert (abandon)

tear (rip)
tear (boohoo)

refuse (no)
refuse (trash) twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Read 5 tweets
May 19, 2023
Moira Rose Vocabulary

pettifogging | noun | quibbling over trifles
obsidian | noun | a dark natural glass formed by the cooling of molten lava
mercurial | adjective | characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood

Artemis | noun | a Greek moon goddess often portrayed as a virgin huntress
Read 8 tweets

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