CLASSROOM C- CONVERLSATIONAL ENGLISH 101 - LESSON 1: VOCABULARY PART I

vocabulary. Vocabulary is all about words — the words in a language or a special set of words you are trying to learn. ... First used in the 1500s to mean a list of words with explanations, the noun vocabulary came to refer to the “range of language of a person or group” about two hundred years later.

OKAY, LET'S BEGIN.

WORD  FOR THE DAY #1.'

soil
material in the top layer of the surface of the earth

soil

Soil is the dirt between our fingers as we garden or farm, from which all living things come and to which, as the poets never tire of reminding us, all life eventually returns. Such a big meaning for such a little word.

To soil something also means to make it dirty, or to degrade it in some way — strange given the natural purity of soil. Sometimes nations talk about their soil, meaning the geographical area over which they have governance. In England in the eighteenth and nineteenth century the euphemism "night soil" was used to describe the contents of the commodes people kept under their bed. But you probably didn't want to know that.

#2

significant

Use the adjective significant to describe something that is important. Your "significant other" means the person who's most important in your life. A significant result in a scientific study is a result large enough to matter.

A less common meaning of significant is to describe something that has a special or hidden meaning. A significant smile can convey feelings or information without words. This adjective is from Latin significans, from significare "to signify," from signum "a sign, mark" plus facere "to make."