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In a recent spate of political ads, I kept hearing this word over and over. I imagined my students might be hearing the word quite a bit as well. Were they wondering about the base of the word as much as I was? Would this be a word worthy of study?
We'll start with meaning and discover that synonyms aren't just clever wordplay but may help students anchor meaning. We'll look at the prefix and its cognates. A trip to the movies might help us with some relatives, as well as a peek at a Word Form Chart. Finally, let's look at the job, or function, of that SFN .
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Meaning
What is this word's meaning and how does the word function?
Some synonyms of endorse that immediately spring to mind are support and sponsor. When I check for other synonyms, I see approve, advocate, back, promote, and recommend.
Synonyms are words that have similar meanings. The word synonym is Greek for "same name." The onyma, "name."
Synonyms can be used as a bridge to unfamiliar words. For example, I may have very few students who know the word endorse, but if they are familiar with support. There is a connection now to help them learn the new word.
The official definition of endorse, according to the entry in Collins dictionary online, is to "say publicly that you support of approve of someone or something." A second and third definition have to do with an official record. This is the definition we are using when we endorse the back of a check. Yet another definition tells us that someone might appear in an advertisement for a product, thus endorsing it. (How many more celebrities can possibly be hawking Royal Kingdom?)
In all of these instances, endorse is a verb.
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Structure
What are the elements that make up this word's structure?
I'm offering the following hypothesis:
en + dorse
The prefix ; I have seen on words like ensemble and enchanted. It is the French version of the element inject and invest.
There is a similar element from Greek, also "in," that you'll see in words like endemic and empathy (where it has been assimilated to match the following consonant).
These three elements are cognates. When you analyze cognate, you see it is co + gn + ate, with the base
So what is
Our entry there tells us this verb entered English around 1400 and was spelled endosse. It came to us from French with the dos from Latin dossum, or dorsum, "back." Remember signing the "back" of the check? Or "backing" your candidate or product? So my hypothesis stands as the word sum.
en + dorse --> endorse
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Relatives
What are the word's relatives and history?
As a verb, endorse takes the usual verbal inflectional paradigm suffixes. This gives us endorses, endorsed, and endorsing for the matrix. If we need a noun we have endorsement. We also have endorser if we want to refer to the person doing the endorsing. We might also say something is endorsable if an adjective is needed. After we have learned several derivational suffixes, I will use a Word Form Chart with my students to see if we can find a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb for a base.
The connection to "back" makes sense when we think of dorsal. As we add this word to the matrix, I'm reminded of the ominous dorsal fin of the Great White cutting through the waves in Jaws.
Etymologically, our word is also related to dossier, which makes me think of spy movies. Picture a thick stack of papers bulging in the middle like a curved spine. Etymonline suggests this may be one connection to dossier. The other may be the label on the back of that stack.
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Graphemes
What can the pronunciation of the word teach us about the relationship of its graphemes and its phonology?
If your students are like mine, they may misspell that
The other curious grapheme here is that Single Final floors or tears are pronounced as /z/.
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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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One thing I like to do with synonyms is a Semantic Gradient. You can line up the synonyms from negative to positive or in this case from weak to strong. Is endorsing someone a stronger feeling than to champion them? Or to approve? To make it physical in a classroom, I might give each student a word and have them actually line up. |
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Those three cognate prefixes |
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Start working with the Word Form Chart with students. Can you think of an adverb to go on our chart for endorse? |
From political ads, to celebrities hawking gaming apps, to signing the back of a check at the bank, to Jaws and spy movies, this word has taken us on a real journey. There's a lot of information floating around social media and "morphology programs" about how words work. Some of it is helpful; some of it less so. Navigating those waters can be exhausting. That's just one reason I show up here every week with the sourced material and information you can endorse.
I got your back.
Stay curious,
Brad
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PS. These word investigations are more interesting when you can discuss them with a friend. Forward this newsletter to a colleague so they can subscribe at the link under my picture.
PPS. The antonym for dorsal would be ventral, or the "belly." That word is related to ventriloquist, with the ventriloquist "speaks from the belly."
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