Have you ever seen a jellyfish in jewellery? Test your spelling knowledge of KS3 words beginning at je.
"How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god." - Alan Watts.
English is a rather greedy language. The quotation above includes words borrowed from Latin (fabulous, nerves, experience) and French (possible, sensitive, jewel, enchanted, musical, instrument). But language develops in a marvellous manner. Most of the French terms listed here were first borrowed into French from Latin, such as "enchanted", which has further developed in English so that it can form a typical English past participle ending in -ed.
"Arabesque" is another word which has been through many transitions. The word originally meant the Arabic language, but developed through Latin and French, with a little Italian thrown in, and here means a pattern of gracefully flowing lines. What a fabulous image for the nerves!