Crisis | Vocabulary

- [David] Wordsmiths, we're in it now, you and I. The situation has become very serious. You might even say it's a crisis. Yes, crisis is the word we're going to be looking at in this video. Cri-sis. It's a noun. It means a tipping point, a very dangerous period or situation. But its literal meaning comes from the verb krinein in Greek, meaning to judge, to choose, to decide. So krinein becomes crit or cris, to choose, to decide. In crises, for that is the plural of crisis, crises, we must choose what to do. The balancing act is no longer available. A situation must go one way or another. A boulder on a mountaintop, a cherry on a sundae, a meatball on a carrot, they must go one way or another, but they cannot remain in crisis. They cannot remain in this urgent, unstable situation. A crisis by its very nature must resolve for good or for bad. What are some other words that have that crit or cris word part in it? Those words that might mean judgment, or choice, or dangerous. Give it 10 seconds while I throw on some dangerous music. Let's go. (upbeat music) Here's what I thought of. Critical, an adjective, meaning very important or necessary, like a critical ingredient in a recipe. A critical ingredient in a tomato sandwich is a tomato. Critical can also mean exercising judgment, as in critical thinking, when you use your judgment on a situation or on a Khan Academy reading passage, wink. Hypocrite, a noun, meaning a person who pretends to be good. A hypocrite says one thing and then does the opposite. Like if I talked a big game about ocean conservation, but then threw a bunch of trash into the water when nobody was looking, that would make me a hypocrite. I judge others, right, for the stuff that I do myself. And finally, critic, a noun. A person who judges stuff for a living. A movie critic, a restaurant critic, their jobs are to watch films or eat at restaurants saying to their readership or their followers, "I liked this movie," or "I didn't like this restaurant." The work of a critic is called criticism. Let us not neglect the present crisis, however, and use the word crisis in a sentence. Marcus watched the shipping crisis unfold from his perch in the lighthouse. You can tell it's a crisis because ships aren't meant to go bonk. All those ships are getting stuck on each other, but they can't stay like that forever. A crisis is a big problem, and if the ships can't get out of the canal or wherever, that's a crisis for sure. All right, let's try another one. You can't get through to Denise when she's in crisis mode. People can have emotional crises or be in states of high alert. Maybe you've heard the phrase, "Midlife crisis," when middle-aged people suddenly freak out about the way they've spent their lives. I went on a big trip when I was 25, and I called it my Quarter Life Crisis Adventure. I was anticipating a crisis and it never came, actually. Instead I ended up working for Khan Academy, which rules. I hope you enjoy watching these videos as much as I enjoy making them, because I'm having a delightful time. You can learn anything. David out.