Thursday, July 17, 2014

Word Play 4... LadyLee Style

I am reading a book called Secrets of Your Cells by Sondra Barrett, PhD, and I came across this word.


monocytesmacrophages

Say whutttt? I thought.

That is a long word. I wrote it down. Then I came across it again, and it was written out as...

monocytes-macrophages

Oh. Okay.

That is an interesting word, or hyphenated word, I must say. I saw it in a chapter detailing the white blood cells and the immune system.   

I first recognized that there was much more going on in blood than I ever thought when I would get a copies of my bloodwork over the years. I always thought of blood as being red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (lymphocytes) and plasma. But each of these cell types break down into FAR more than I ever learned in school.

Let's just say I thought that 1/2 page of strange blood related words on my normal bloodwork was detailed, but when I went to a hematologist and she did 4 pages worth of bloodwork? It blew my mind. There were words on there I couldn't even pronounce, let alone remember. So many types of cells with specific jobs to do.

The monocytes-macrophages are white blood cells, and they are our first line of defense when something foreign is detected in the body. The monocyte macrophages are scavenger type cells: they don't know what the heck is going on, they just know there is trouble. They just run up on the scene immediately, and break down the foreign substance into pieces. This seems to send out a signal for more intricate white blood cells that can recognize the invader. And it goes on from there.

And it was a lot going on.

It made me think of an old post I wrote. We are indeed never stagnant. Thank goodness the immune response is involuntary and we don't have to think about it to switch it on and off. With our sway every which way feelings - funky one day, happy the next -, we would be in a whole heap of trouble.

So that's my word play word of the week.

I spent 30 minutes trying to get words from it.

Monocyte-macrophages
 
Here's my list:

mono, macro, phage, gas, gap, crop, cop, pom, mop, monochrome, age, chrome, mate, mace, gates, page, cypher, came, same, name, some, morph, room, home, ghee, hope, rope, cope, acorn, corn phone, hone, goon, cam, scam, pass, ass, mass, mast, past, cast, caster, master, prom, team, seam, sage, rage, corn, money, horny, horn, coma, comatose, morose, rose, year, tear, peat, meat, meet, seet, hoop, coop, cooper, stoop, heap, seep, steep, caste, preset, present, resent, trap, pore, cross, crass, hast, haste, paste, omen, someone, common, commoner, camp, camper, amp, honor, psyche, coon, noose, moose, porch, roach, encroach, reproach, couch, coast, post, cypher, gap, gape, hyper, coot, tome, mote, photo, photon, proton, grasp, raspy, cyst, hammer, stammer, gassy, corporate, tea, sea, storm, stormy, most, mocha, proctor, grope, grape, crepe, ghost, moot, stop, pot, step, stem, steam, sham, shame, hamper, chomp, champ, pester, scram.

Whew. That was hard. I really needed an "i" and an "L". 

Right at 150 words. That's good. My goal is 100. Someday I will make 200. 

8 comments:

  1. When I first saw the word, I instantly thought cells and the immune system. I don't remember where I read about it. I think I will try the word play game on this one.

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  2. The things our bodies do ... simply amazing.

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  3. Thank you for teaching me something today!!

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  4. Now that I think about this, this may be a good activity for my class. When they learn a new word have them break it down into how many words can they make with it.

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    Replies
    1. Anything to get them to really connect to new vocabulary. Thanks Lee!

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    2. Anonymous10:26:00 AM

      I love that idea!

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  5. Anonymous10:28:00 AM

    I just fiinished a fiction book where the author clearly thought big words were the way to go...and its not. She sounded so pompous and NO ONE uses words that way.

    O well...she was still in the NYT top 10 so I guess she is doing something right!

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Slap the *crickets* out the way, kindly step up to the mike, and SAY something!!