I recently talked with a teenager who accidentally said there was a “prep rally” happening that day. I found it an interesting insertion and made me think about how logical that sounded. A pep rally occurs before a game and it may appear that the team is preparing for the game.

Here is the path we wondered that day. The first note was that <pep> is free and had to do with energy.  “That dog has a lot of pep.” We quickly found <pepper> which I questioned whether it was really related, but when you eat pepper it is invigorating your taste buds. According to Etymonline, it is related. <Peppy> seemed like an appropriate fit, as most cheerleaders can be described as such. Then we got to <pepperoni>. While I wasn’t quite sure about <-oni> as a suffix, it certainly was an ending that is found in Italian words. Looking at <macaroon> and <macaroni> we thought this is a definite possibility to examine further.

Getting onto <prep> was a little more difficult start, as <prep> is a clip of <preparation>. At first without that knowledge, one could falsely assume that <prep> is the base. Sometimes popular clips do become base-like. One can be “prepping” for the pep rally. Luckily Etymonline helped us to understand that it was a clip fairly early on. The base <pare> of <preparation> helped us to see quite a few words. It comes from the Latin root parare “to make ready,” which actually gives us several English base elements. The two most common are <pare> and <pere>. Our matrix is small but it could be expanded quite a bit. One thing we’ve learned is that a matrix represent a small amount of morphemes up to all the morphemes. Just because an element is not in a matrix does not mean the matrix is invalid, it’s just representing what is necessary for that study.

So, I hope you enjoy your next pep rally, whether you have homecoming soon, or just want to get filled with energy for the next game.