Selecting Candidates, Electing Officials, and Collecting Votes -- From Every Dialect

Greetings! Tuesday is Election Day, so it seems appropriate to explore the inner workings of the words elect, election and president.  I also pay my respects to some wonderful children's books that focus on elections, voting, etc.

Also, Jan and Carey Cook at My Vocabulary have published word games, puzzles, and brief readings for Election Day. Thanks to Jan for sharing this info with us!

The Morphological Composition of Elect

Prior posts and various guest authors have discussed the value of teaching students to pay attention to word structure, including addressing morphology and etymology standards. I won't say more today, but for a summary of some of the research, see Vocabulogic's Morphology Page.

The word elect contains two morphemes, e- ('out') + lect ('to select, to pick'). Both morphemes can be traced back to Latin -- the language of the Romans. (They supposedly trace even further back, to the hypothetical "Mother Tongue" composed of Indo-European roots.)

The Latin Prefix e- : "Out, Outward, Upward"
We see the prefix e- in evaporate:  e-  +  vapor  +  ate  >>  evaporate. (I parse it thus so students recognize the tight relationship between vapor and e-vapor-ate.) The prefix e- denotes 'out, outward, upward.'  Thus, morphologically speaking, evaporate might be interpreted as "outward and upward vapor" (with a verb-forming suffix -ate).  We see this same prefix e- in elect, erupt, edict, enormous, erase, and escape. The prefix e- is a form of the prefix ex- as in express, export, exhale, exclaim, extend, expel, excavate. Read more about this common prefix -- every student should know it before they enter middle school -- at Affixes.org.

The Latin Root Lect (Leg): "Choose, Gather, Pick, Choose Words"

This root takes on a slightly different nuance in each word, but the meaning has something to do with 'choosing, gathering, picking out'  or 'reading, reciting, gathering or selecting words.'  This morphological family includes elect, electoral, election, elective, select, selection, selectively, collect, collection, dialect, lecture, lectern, eclectic, and more. However, contrary to my expectations, delectable is NOT part of this family. Oddly enough, it is related to delight, but has undergone some transformations over the centuries, according to Online Etymology Dictionary.



Older students might resonate with electives. They could name some words with this root, brainstorming with a peer. They might enjoy creating graphical representations of the root for Election Day, maybe something along these lines:

The derivative election is parsed into three morphemes: e- +  lect  +  -ion. Words that end with this suffix -ion are usually abstract nouns, as in evaporation, nation, collection. This suffix is often mistakenly constructed as -tion. The Spanish word for election is a cognate; it shares the same Latin root and thus looks similar to the English word. In Spanish, the word is elección.


Visit Robertson's English-Word Information to find dozens of words that contain the root LECT, but beware! This root  appears in many different forms of LEG or LECT, with varied senses, as shown in the screenshot below. Also, try the Quizlet Challenge for this root.

The Etymology of the Term "President of the United States"

In case you missed it, I am including a TED Talks video from a prior post. With plenty of humor and some embellishment, etymologist Mark Forsyth makes the point that words change meaning based on the usage at the time. Try as we might, we cannot control word meaning, nor cast it in cement. It is likely to take on a life of its own. Speechifiers take note!
Forsyth states:

"Politicians try to pick words and use words to shape reality and control reality, but in fact, reality changes words far more than words can ever change reality.”

Forsyth explores how the term president came to reference the "chief executive officer for the US" and how its connotations have drastically changed since first applied to George Washington. The bit about the US Senate may be somewhat apocryphal, as some have suggested, but the story is entertaining and provides us with word-sleuthing material.

The video runs 6.26 minutes, published June 2012. Watch it below, or view it directly at the site, TED.com.

Children's Books for Election Day

Arthur Meets the President, by Marc Brown

Grace for President, by Kelly DiPucchio

Duck for President, by Doreen Cronin

Amelia Bedelia's First Vote, by Herman Parish

Vote for SpongeBob, by Erica Pass

Just a Few Words, Mr. Lincoln, by Jean Fritz

Otto Runs for President, by Rosemary Wells

The Election Day Disaster, by Ron Roy

 Changes for Julie (American Girls series), by Megan McDonald

Thanks for stopping by. Looking forward to Tuesday!

~Susan

To be notified when a new post is published, enter your email address into Feedburner. When Feedburner sends you a verification email, confirm to activate your subscription.