Definition Essay

Crystal Massingill
English I
Dr. Chatman
T-Th 11:00
Cream of the Crop People are always looking for new words and different ways to use them to expand their vocabulary. People with more eloquent vocabularies tend to get better jobs because they come across as educated. There are many different meanings to common words such as the word “crop”. It is very interesting to learn of the many different definitions and uses of this word. The information in this paper will hopefully help people implement the many different forms of such a common word in their every day language. This word is a good choice to research because of its many different definitions and uses. “Crop” can be used as a noun, verb, or adjective. Some of the definitions were very unexpected and surprising. It is always helpful to learn about the different uses of a word to help strengthen writing and speaking skills. The goal of this paper is to research the word “crop” to find different meanings that can be used to build upon vocabulary and to persuade high school and college students to expand their language skills to have stronger essays and speaking skills. Learning different definitions and uses of words can help people become well-spoken in their oral and written language skills. The first usage that will be discussed is the noun usages. An interesting definition is a pouch-like enlargement of the esophagus, or gullet, in many birds, in which the food undergoes a partial preparation for digestion before passing on to the true stomach; the craw. (“Crop” definition 1, Oxford English Dictionary). The etymology of this word is Old English and the first usage was seen in c 1000 by Levictus. Crop is also the head of an herb, flower, etc. as gathered for culinary or medicinal purposes. (“Crop” definition 2, OED).This particular usage was first seen in a700 in Epinal Gloss. The uppermost section of a fishing rod is also called a crop. In the year 1450, in Fysshynge with Angle, was the first time this definition was used. In 1562, W. Bullein called the upper part of a whip a crop in Use Sicke Men. The most common usage of the word “crop” is the produce of the field and was first used in c1213 by T. Madox in Formulare Anglic. In 1939, the term crop duster came into use. It is a person who sprays crops with fungicidal or insecticidal dusts from an airplane. It is also used to describe the airplane used for such spraying. The verb uses of this word began in the 13th century. The transitive verb definition as seen in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is: to remove the upper or outer part, such as to crop a dog’s tail or the top of a bush. This use was first seen in 1607 by E. Topsell in Fovre-footed Beastes. The intransitive verb definition is to appear unexpectedly or casually such as “new problems crop up daily”. (Merriam-Webster). This usage was first used in 1849 by S.R. Maitland. The cropping of photos is a fairly recent verb usage. Cropping a photo means to cut off some of the photo making it smaller or more appealing. Unsightly items can be cropped out of a photo before placing it on social media or using it for any matter This is a more modern usage of the word used by photographers and teenagers mostly. Teenagers love to crop their photos before placing them on their social

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