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Course: 6th grade reading and vocabulary (improved and expanded) > Unit 5
Lesson 4: Connecting multiple textsSignificant | Vocabulary
Let’s explore the meaning and origin of the word “significant”. Created by David Rheinstrom.
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Video transcript
- [David] Wordsmiths, hello. We've got important work to
get to, so I won't keep you. The word we're looking at in
this video is significant. Significant, it's an adjective. It means important, worth
paying attention to, a large amount. Something can be emotionally
significant, right? Emotionally important. Or there can be a significant
scientific development, a development worth paying attention to. Or maybe someone has just
given you a significant amount, which is to say, a lot
of old vinyl records, which you have no way of playing. This word comes to French by way of Latin, so its derivation is a little complicated. Sign means what it means in English, it's the same deal as
the English word sign. It's a marker, it's a thing with meaning. Fic comes from a Latin
verb, meaning to make. And ant comes from
French, and it makes words into adjectives and sometimes nouns. So we have significant now, right? And when we put all of
those word parts together to form significant, we
get a word that describes something that is making meaning. You can think of it as
being something so important or so large that it
would merit its own sign, like the world's largest rubber band ball having its own billboard
along the highway. That's significant, for a
given value of significance. So what can you think of that
uses some of these word parts, sign, fic, or ant? What words can you assemble
using those word parts? Let's throw 10 seconds on the clock, and I'll put on some music, here we go. (pleasant music) Here are three words I came up with, signature, your name in handwriting. It comes from the Latin for
a thing that has been marked with a stamp or a sign,
like an official document. Signify is a verb that
means to make meaning, to make clear, or evident. This eight sided red sign that says, stop, signifies that it's time to stop. Insignificant, which is merely
the opposite of significant. I've just taken the prefix
in, which here means not, and popped it onto the front. This is, in my opinion, a super villain word,
you insignificant worm. It feels like a villainous
thing to call someone. You gotta sneer when you
say it, insignificant. If you were worms, wordsmiths, I do not think you would
be insignificant worms. I think you are very important worms. So follow me, wiggly friends,
over to the sentence sandbox where I'm going to use
significant in some examples. The giant squid's suckers
did significant damage to the hull of the good ship Undertow. So I'm using significant
here to mean a lot. The squid really messed
up the good ship Undertow. Those poor sailors, they've
been through so much. Now, let me use significant to
mean important or noteworthy. The most significant change
Elisa made to her bike is definitely the wings, right? That change is the most notable, most motorcycles don't have
magnificent wings of steel. It is their presence, and indeed their
magnificence, that is notable. Wordsmiths, you too can
soar on wings of steel if you hold fast to one truth, you can learn anything, David out.