What do words really mean?

I ran across this article...


Bear is like bare, and pear is like pare, but tear is pronounced tier and tare. Then hear is like here, and sear is like sere, and dear, shear like deer and sheer. Beat's not like great, nor beak like break, and neither is freak like steak; while beam, strange to say, will rhyme with seam, as well as with cream and dream.
Feign, deign and reign rhyme with fain, Dane and rain, as well as with skein, rein, vein. Although sew is like so, still new is like gnu, and ewe we pronounce just you.
Though dough rhymes with toe, and rough with ruff; enough, tough, and sough with gruff. But cough rhymes with off, and bough is like bow, while plough is the same word as plow. With bow, too, like beau, we have dough like doe, and glow, grow, and owe like go. But growl is like owl, while grown, mown and own don't rhyme well with brown but with bone.—Kalends, Sunshine Magazine