Meiosis = understatement...who knew! I have a friend that tends to describe things as being an understatement all the time. As I was flipping through the glossary, I noticed the word understatement in italics listed next to the word meiosis. I never knew that this word exsisted! I have recently been finding that many of the words that I use on a daily basis have a word that is much bigger and more technical sounding than the word that I use. I'm not sure that I like these realizations. I think that this comes from the fact that I'm studying to be an elementary school teacher where things need to be said with as much simplicity as possible. I tend to use vocabulary that the everyday Joe uses, not the vocabulary one expects a soon to be college graduate to use. Does anyone else find this to be the case? Now, there are the occasional periods where I will slip into an explaination of something at home to my younger brother (he is 16) and he will give me this look and need to remind me that he is still in high school. Then politely tells me that he has no idea what I just said, but still on average I feel like I continuously find words that are bigger and wonder why not just use the simpler version. Something to think about for sure.
Murfin and Ray, Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms -- Jerz EL312 (Literary Criticism)
Posted by Tiffany Brattina at January 29, 2007 10:35 PM | TrackBackI always thought Meiossis had something to do with science. Or I guess this is one of those words that has more than one meaning, kind of like Canon, I always thought that word just had to do with the Bible but appearently not.
Posted by: Sue at January 31, 2007 4:42 PMYeah I always thought meiosis was a science term having to do with the division or replication of cells...but I had to know especially since this related to the term I gave on my blog. So YAY for Wikipedia! It does have to do with genetic variation and how the cells split to make reproduction possible...blah blah blah with all the crazy science bits. The important part is that it originates from the Greek word "meioun" which means "to make smaller" aka an UNDERSTATEMENT! I love words.
Posted by: Lorin at February 1, 2007 1:00 AMOooOOo. Flashback to my days as a science-gal. Wow, I miss science sometimes. I used to want to be a genetic engineer, you know...
Good term for looking up, Tiff. A strange one I probably wouldn't have considered, but I'll make a note to myself for a future date when I come across the word. (I'm always leaving notes for my future self... it's like Back to the Future without the flux capacitor. Yikes.)
Posted by: Karissa at February 1, 2007 7:41 AM