A Dearth of Reading

I love to read, but reading a book can be challenging. It's a conundrum! I can't finish a page without finding a word that sparks my curiosity. When that happens, I check Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Etymonline to understand why the word is spelled as it is. This leads me from one word to another, and soon, I'm down a rabbit hole in the world of words.

A recent word journey began with "dearth." If a teacher had asked for a volunteer to come up to the board to spell it, I would have been dancing in my seat, silently pleading, “Pick me! Over here! Pick me!” I was that girl, and I would have been wrong. I would have spelled it <dirth> because it sounds like "dirt" and "dirk" (and even "Dirk Pitt!"). Spelling isn't just about how a word sounds; it starts with understanding its meaning, how it is built, and who its relatives are.

To investigate <dearth>, I checked Etymonline and cross-referenced with Merriam-Webster. I preferred Merriam-Webster’s entry for its simplicity. I didn't even have to look in their Word History section to understand the spelling of <dearth>. The reason <dearth> is spelled with <ear> instead of <ir> is in M-W’s first definition - “scarcity that makes dear.” Something scarce becomes precious and dear. When there's a shortage of reading in my life, there’s a dearth of reading, and the time I can carve out for it is very dear. Understanding a word's meaning, roots, and relatives is key to unlocking the richness of language and spelling.

With this information, I can create this word sum:         

          dear + th → dearth 

Word sums are read as follows: “d.ea.r plus .th. is rewritten as d.ea.r.th.” The <-th> is a noun suffix meaning, among other things, "state or condition."

Here are two word matrices. The first focuses on the base element of <dear>; the second highlights the suffix <-th>.

Why not use <deer>? That's an animal, and spelling represents meaning. More importantly, the word <darling>, as in “my darling, my dear,” shown outside of the <dear> matrix, is a cousin. The presence of <a> in "darling" suggests using a vowel digraph (two letters, one sound) with an <a>, such as <ea>, to spell the “Long E" sound in <dear>. The <ea> vowel digraph is versatile, spelling both the “Long E" sound in "dear" and the "er" sound in "dearth," as heard in "search," "learn," and "earth," which <eer> cannot do. Therefore, it's essential to consider a word's meaning and its related words before focusing on its sounds.

Now that I’ve solved that spelling mystery, what was I doing? Oh yeah, p. 54. “Tell me,” she coaxed. “Explain so that I may understand.” Hmmm. Coaxed. That’s an interesting word...