Word of the Day: May 14, 2023

engender

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verb | in-JEN-der

What It Means

Engender is a formal word that means “to produce; to cause to exist or to develop.” It is used especially when feelings and ideas are generated.

// The annual company picnic featured activities, such as a scavenger hunt, meant to engender a sense of teamwork and

Examples

“Student silence and compliance are often more comfortable and comforting for those who are invested in and benefit from the status quo, but it is truly anti-learning. ... Listening to students does not mean ‘giving in to students’ or treating students as customers. It’s a step toward fostering engagement and engendering responsibility. If we say we are listening, students are more likely to speak. We just have to be ready to absorb some things we might not want to hear.” — John Warner, Inside Higher Ed, 17 Oct. 2022


Did You Know?

A good paragraph about engender will engender understanding in the reader. Like its synonym , engender comes from the Latin verb generare, meaning “to generate” or “to beget,” and when the word was first used in the 14th century, engender meant “propagate” or “procreate.” That literal meaning having to do with creating offspring (which generate shared when it was adopted in the early 16th century) was soon joined by the “to cause to exist or develop; to produce” meaning most familiar to us today. Generare didn’t just engender generate and engender; , , and have the same Latin root. As you might suspect, the list of engender relatives does not end there. Generare comes from the Latin noun genus, meaning “origin” or “kind.” From this source we took our own word , plus , , and , among other words.


Larger Vocabulary = More $$

Not enough people realize that it is our ability to use our language that will determine our place on the social pyramid–and that will also control, to a great extent, the amount of money we will earn during our lives. Research has shown over and over that a person’s vocabulary level is the best single predictor of occupational success (more info). Ready to reach the top? Subscribe and receive a new word daily via TXT!


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Facts & Statistics

"A person may dress in the latest fashion and present a very attractive appearance. So far, so good. But the minute he opens his mouth and begins to speak, he proclaims to the world his level on our social pyramid...Our use of our language is the one thing we can't hide."

Earl Nightingale (one of the greatest self-improvement authors of all time) conducted of a 20-year study of college graduates. "Without a single exception, those who had scored highest on the vocabulary test given in college, were in the top income group, while those who had scored the lowest were in the bottom income group."

Another study by scientist Johnson O'Connor, who gave vocabulary tests to executive and supervisory personnel in 39 large manufacturing companies:

Presidents and VPs

236 out of 272

Managers averaged

168 out of a 272

Superintendents averaged

140 out of 272

Foremen averaged

114 out of 272

Floor bosses averaged

86 out of 272

In virtually every case, vocabulary correlated with executive level and income.

In a "Reader's Digest" article titled "Words Can Work Wonders for You", author Blake Clark told a fascinating story of a salesman in his 50s who scored in the bottom 5% of a standardized vocabulary test. He worked himself into the top 45% and became a vice president of the company.

You can reach the top! We may not all be brilliant enough to be the top in our fields, but we can certainly be in the top 5%–including you.

"Let's face it, from the earliest times, the favored class of people has always been the educated class. They can make themselves recognized instantly, anywhere, by the simple expedient of speaking a few words. Our language, more than anything else, determines the extent of our knowledge.

Step out, and make something more of yourself!