4/01/03
WILL WORD WEB VOCABULARY HAVE YOU LOOKING AT THE WORLD THROUGH ROSE-COLORED GLASSES?
Would you like a new way to look at the world? No, I don't mean through rose-colored glasses, although at times I wouldn't be surprised if that became the way you felt. I am really referring to the way Word Web Vocabulary opens everyone's eyes to the world around them, one that has always been there but was most likely overlooked.
Architectural features are one such element. Some architectural terms may have meanings that stretch beyond buildings. A niche, for example, may be a recess or hollow place in either an exterior or interior wall for holding a statue, urn, piece of sculpture or a fountain. A niche is also a situation or an activity specially suited to a person's interests, abilities, or nature. We say a person has found his niche in life when he enjoys a job or activity. "John certainly found his niche in life when he began coaching Little League!"
We also use niche to describe a special area of demand for a product or service. Many small companies have found a small market niche on the Internet. Furthermore, every species of plant and animal must find its ecological niche, the place best suited for its survival in its relations to food and enemies. Conservation laws attempt to retain these niches that are essential to its inhabitants.
Another architectural feature is dentils, whose root means "teeth." Once your eyes are opened to dentils, a line or series of small rectangular teeth-like blocks used for decorations on buildings, you will begin to notice them not only on the exterior of buildings but also around the top of interior walls, at the head of some columns, around some fireplaces and along the top of Colonial-style furniture.
Keystone is a building term used to describe the central wedge-shaped stone of an arch that locks its parts together. It also means something that is central or crucial to the whole, perhaps something that holds a project together. Why was Pennsylvania nicknamed "The Keystone State"?
Finally, do you know what a finial is? It's that ornament ("thing-a-ma-jig") on top of cupolas, fence posts, gables or furniture, such as lamps, bedposts, highboys or at the ends of some drapery rods.
Your life goes on whether you know these words or not, but I believe your awareness of them will enrich your life, which is why series of architectural terms appear in several volumes of Word Web Vocabulary as Real World Words®. It is one method I like that opens students to the world around them.
