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With the proliferation of health supplement commercials and the incorporation of it into cooking, the word collagen has been popping up on my radar more and more. Many words from science are often of more recent coinage, named after we "discover" their benefits or properties. I'm wondering how old this word actually is. Is it Modern, or Scientific, Latin? Could it be an old word we have repurposed?
As we dig into this investigation, you'll discover how languages adopt and adapt words. We'll define bound elements and take a look at compounds. We'll also explore how nouns can modify nouns and examine the process of Latinization. Finally we will take a peek at palatalization.
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Meaning
What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?
Through the many cooking videos I've watched, I've learned that collagen is a gelatinous substance that can be used to flavor foods. I believe it is found in bone marrow. That is the extent of my knowledge; I'm not aware of its health benefits, other than to perhaps strengthen bones.
When I start with a word with a student, I ascertain the knowledge they bring to the table first, so that I can merely add or supplement. When students already have some knowledge, it creates a "hook" to which any additional knowledge can be hung. It's hard to hang a hat on the wall if there's no hook.
I need a student-friendly definition. Many dictionary creators write definitions in a way that is not easily understood by the majority of my students. After the student-friendly definition, we will work to incorporate it into our own words. My favorite resource for this is the Collins dictionary. My backup is the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English online.
The entry in the Longman Dictionary says that collagen is "a protein found in people and animals often used in beauty products." Aha! Now I remember all those skin commercials I've seen that crow about the benefits of collagen.
What's great about the Longman is that it also gives us many examples of how the word is being used.
- Electron microscopy showed a striking increase in collagen with minimal fibroblast proliferation.
Our word is a noun. A noun can have many functions in a sentence. In the sentence above, it is functioning as the object of the preposition in. Nouns may also function as direct and indirect objects as well as subjects.
- There was an article on collagen injections lying in front of her.
In this sentence, the noun collagen is functioning as a modifier. Adjectives modify nouns, but nouns can modify nounsas well. Adjectives, as a class, can be inflected for degree: green/greener/greenest or more incredible/most incredible. We cannot inflect collagen. We cannot say collagener or most collagen.
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Structure
What are the elements that make up this word's structure?
I often begin the structural question by asking my students, "Do you see any prefixes or suffixes you can peel off this word?" My answer for collagen would be, "No."
That is not to say that <-en> couldn't be a suffix. But the <-en> suffix is a past participle suffix. We see it on verbs:
take/taken
give/given
This suffix can also be used to create verbs from adjectives:
dark/darken
weak/weaken
A third <-en> suffix can also be used for adjectives like golden or silken.
I do not think that is going on in our word. However, I'm always prepared to be pleasantly surprised, because looks can be deceiving. Let's look at Etymonline to find the history of our word.
The entry there says this word has another spelling, Latinized form" of a Greek word. English words from Greek almost always came through Latin, so that is what Latinized most likely means here.
The Greek word kolla means "glue," and there is a second element. The genes and genealogy. We see this same element in oxygen.
colla + gen
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Relatives
What are the word's relatives and history?
When you have a compound like this, you could build a matrix off of either base element. A compound is a word with more than one base element. English contains many compounds, but they can be found often in Latin and Greek as well.
The second element, <-gen> is bound. We indicate this with the hyphen before it. A bound element is an element that cannot stand alone as a word. In this case, an element must come before it, which is why the hyphen is placed before the base. Some bases are bound, but all affixes are bound. This is why words like over and under are not prefixes; they can stand freely as words. Instead we might refer to them as "prefixal" in words like oversleep and underestimate. (I refer to those two words as compounds myself.)
In addition to being bound, the <-gen> base can be quite large. A matrix might have words like estrogen, halogen, along with carcinogenic and indigenous.
Relatives for collage. Etymologically, the word is related to colloid and the second part of protocol. The first part is from Greek protos, "first,;" therefore, a protocol is the "first glue."
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Graphemes
What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?
Let's talk for a moment about Latinization. Recall that languages adopt and adapt words from other languages all the time. When Latin adopted words from Greek, writers had to adapt the words to the Roman alphabet. The Roman alphabet happens to be the same alphabet we use in English, with a few minor changes.
The Greek alphabet did not use kolla, they would have adapted by using a
The
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Next Steps
What concepts from this investigation can we explore next to learn more about the English orthographic system?
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What are common noun modifiers? What about water ride, fruit salad, or birthday cake? |
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Structurally, have you and your students looked at the <-en> suffix? What about strong verbs? |
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If you have younger students, you might do a study of "hard" and "soft" palatalization. |
I love it when the etymology of a word and its orthographic denotation, or the literal sense of the word carried all the way from the root to the present day, helps me make sense of the modern-day word's meaning. It's fascinating that this protein we associate with beauty products and bone broth literally means "glue-producing." No wonder cooking shows and beauty products are promoting it when it's holding our bodies together!
Stay curious,
Brad
Join the community!
P.S. The suffix <-en> that is used with the past participles of some strong verbs actually also has the form
P.P.S. Do you want to know how to put scientific word study into practice? Dr. Jen Petrich and I teach a course called D.O.T.S.: Integrating Scientific Word Study into Your Practice. Go to this link to sign up for the next cohort.
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