Friday, September 9, 2011

Do Engineering and Latin and Greek Root Vocabulary Mix?

So, it is an amazingly hot September night in our household. We've been swimming, grilled chicken for dinner, and worked our way through a few science experiments. My husband asks our daughters what else they did while homeschooling today. Somehow we ended up discussing my youngest daughter's vocabulary lesson in which she is learning words rooted on the word "cycle" and "circ." My husband, being the kind of guy he is, started thinking about how this vocabulary related to his life and work.

 So . . . what do you get when you mix Latin and Greek Root Vocabulary with an Electrical Engineer? And then have a snarky secondary education major/English major commenting on the sidelines?

 Bad jokes like this one.

Cycle means one wheel or one revolution.

Bicycle means two wheels.

Unicycle means one wheel.

Hertz is the name of one electrical cycle.

What happens to an electrical engineer on a unicycle?

He hertz - he hurts.


It has nothing to do with writing, unless you want to create a character with an individual sense of humor . . .


My oldest daughter has also been helping me warm up my writing with riddles.

What is set on the table, is cut on the table, but never gets eaten?
A deck of cards.

What goes in the house, around the house, but never touches the house?
The sun's rays.


With all this warm up help, I'll soon be writing some kind of riddling quest fantasy book - watch out Bilbo!