Etymology | Year 7 | Grasp English

💡Understand

Etymology is the study of where words come from and how their meanings have changed over history. Many English words started life in Latin, Greek, French or Old English, and their original meaning can still give useful clues today — even when the modern meaning has shifted. Understanding a word's history helps you both remember its current meaning and notice interesting connections between words that don't look alike on the surface.

“The company launched a new campaign to promote healthy eating.”

'Campaign' comes from the French/Latin word for 'open field' — originally an army would 'campaign' by taking to open ground for a season of fighting. The word later broadened to mean any organised effort towards a goal, which is why we now use it for advertising or political campaigns, not just military ones.

🔍Spot it

Which statement correctly explains the word's origin and how it connects to its modern meaning?

Question 1

The word 'salary' comes from the Latin 'salarium', linked to 'sal' (salt).

💡 This is why we still say someone 'is worth their salt' when they do their job well.

Question 2

The word 'disaster' comes from the Latin/Greek for 'bad star' (dis- + astro/aster).

💡 The word kept its meaning of 'terrible event' even after people stopped believing stars caused bad luck.

Question 3

The word 'muscle' comes from the Latin 'musculus', meaning 'little mouse'.

💡 This is a good example of how a vivid, imaginative comparison can end up fixed permanently into a word's meaning.

🧠Think about it

The word 'campaign' broadened from meaning specifically 'a military operation in open country' to meaning any organised effort toward a goal. Why might understanding this original, narrower meaning still help you use the word precisely today?

✍️Try it

Use the word's origin to work out its connection to its modern meaning.

The word 'clue' comes from 'clew', an Old English word meaning 'a ball of thread'.

Question 1

In Greek mythology, a hero used a ball of thread to find his way back out of a maze. Based on this, why might 'clew' have come to mean 'clue'?

💡 Think about what the thread physically did in the maze story — it guided someone toward a solution.

📝Practise

Match each word's origin story to what it tells you about its meaning today.

Question 1

'Sinister' comes from the Latin word for 'left' (left-handed people were once viewed with suspicion). What does 'sinister' mean today?

Question 2

'Companion' comes from Latin 'com-' (together) + 'panis' (bread) — literally 'one you share bread with'. What does this suggest a companion is?

Question 3

'Nice' originally meant 'foolish' or 'ignorant' in Old French/Latin, and only later came to mean 'pleasant'. What does this show about word meanings?

Question 4

The word 'muscle' comes from the Latin for 'little ___' — what small animal is meant?

💡 See the Spot It section above.

Question 5

'Quarantine' comes from the Italian for 'forty days' (the length ships had to wait before docking during plague outbreaks). What does 'quarantine' mean today?

Question 6

'Panic' comes from Pan, the Greek god associated with sudden fear in wild places. What does 'panic' mean today?

🎯Apply

Read the passage, then answer the questions below.

Words are rarely invented from nothing. Most carry the fingerprints of earlier ideas, older languages and long-forgotten beliefs. To trace a word back to its root is to travel through centuries of human thought — discovering, for instance, that our 'disasters' were once blamed on unlucky stars, or that being someone's 'companion' once meant literally breaking bread with them.

Question 1

The phrase "carry the fingerprints of earlier ideas" is an example of which technique?

💡 Words don't literally have fingerprints — this is a figurative comparison.

Question 2

Which word from the passage refers to the ancient belief that misfortune was linked to star alignments?

💡 See the Spot It section for this word's origin.

Question 3

According to the passage, what does tracing a word's etymology allow you to do?

🏆Challenge

The passage describes tracing a word's origin as being like a 'journey through centuries of human thought'. Using one example from this lesson (salary, disaster, companion, or another), explain in two or three sentences what studying that word's etymology reveals about how the people who first used it saw the world.

🔄Review

A quick mastery check — 3 questions.

Question 1

What is etymology?

Question 2

'Salary' comes from the Latin word for...

Question 3

Can a word's meaning change completely over time, as with 'nice' (foolish → pleasant)?

Want to practise building words from prefixes, suffixes and roots? Try the word-family builder →