Article: Fun with words.

WORD ORIGINS

Monsters Got the shivers? Sometimes, that is exactly what hearing the word does to people. So, its origin is appropriate--the Latin noun monstrum, which means "omen" and derives from the Latin verb monere ("to warn"). The ancient Romans believed that their gods created monsters to punish humans for wrongdoings. Today, a monster can be anything that goes "bump in the night." This includes dragons, goblins, and bogeymen. What's more, modern-day monsters are not necessarily sent to scare us into behaving properly, as they were in ancient times, but rather to play a more entertaining role in our lives.

WORD STORIES

Frankenstein ...

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