Empty

My brother’s at home staying with my mom for a couple of weeks. This is the kind of stuff that happens.

And you should replace it before someone finds themselves in there without enough toilet paper!!!

Language Of Confusion: Whatever The Case May Be, Part VI

And we’ve still got two or three left of the words that derive from the Proto Indo European kap-, which means to grasp, and is the origin word for a case that contains something. Let’s see what weird words came from it this week.

Anticipate showed up in the sixteenth century, whereas anticipation came around in the late fourteenth century. It comes from the classical Latin anticipationem, which meant something like preconception, and its verb form was anticipare, something like “take care of ahead of time”. The anti- comes from ante, before, and the -cipare is from capere, to take. To anticipate is to take… before. I guess that makes sense?

Participate is similar in that while the verb came in the sixteenth century, the noun participation came in the late fourteenth century. It’s from the Old French participacion and Late Latin participationem, from the classical Latin participare, to participate. Now, we know the second part is to take/grasp/hold, but the first part is from pars, which is Latin for… part. To participate is to take part.

Emancipate is a (relatively) later word, not having shown up in any form until the seventeenth century. It’s from the classical Latin emancipatus, from the verb emancipare, which is just to emancipate, and in Roman law meant like emancipating a minor, a son being “freed” from his father’s control. Or a wife from her husband’s. Obviously, daughters aren’t mentioned here. Anyway, there are three parts to this word: the e- comes from ex-, out or away, the -man- comes from manus, hand, and then capare, to take. To take hand away. Figuratively, obviously, although I wouldn’t mind seeing it literally for a society where wives need emancipation.

Incipient is another late word, having shown up in the mid seventeenth century. Much like the other words, it’s from the classical Latin incipientem, from the verb incipere, to begin. The in- means in, into, or on here, so it’s “to take in/into/on.” Hm… I can kind of see it, although it requires some mind bending.

Finally today, municipal. Yeah, didn’t expect that one to be related to case, did you? All though what is a municipality but a metaphorically contained town? It showed up in the sixteenth century, from the Middle French municipal, and classical Latin municipalis, which is just municipal. This one doesn’t have a verb form, it’s just a mix of -capare and munus, which meant something like a function or service performed for a community. That’s from the Old Latin (that is, Latin from the first to sixth centuries BCE) moenus and Proto Italic (that’s a new one for this blog; it’s the hypothetical origin of Italic languages, including Latin) moini-/moinos-, obligation or task, from the Proto Indo European mei-, to change or grow. So because the Romans had municipalities, so do we.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

University of Ottawa, Canada

Rice University

Glosbe

Mid-Year Check In

I don’t even remember what my resolutions were for this year. Probably not a good sign.

Resolutions 2019

1. Figure out some way to keep my yearly resolutions in mind. Maybe I’ll put them at the top of the file I organize my blog posts in.

That’s a really good idea. Why didn’t I do that?

2. Finish the first draft of my new WIP and make my editing plan.

Hey, I did this! Good going.

3. (Hopefully) finish my older WIP, and at the very least keep making progress on it.

Progress, it is happening.

4. Write something new, but not necessarily an entire book. Something smaller.

Still planning on doing this.

5. Start up a new spam blog. I know. It’s the stupidest thing ever. I just think it’s hilarious.

I put it up here now. Don’t you guys miss it? Don’t worry. It’ll be back next week.

6. Arm myself for the upcoming revolution.

Really, all I need is my fists.

7. Be nicer. To the people who are nice. The people who are mean will learn new definitions of pain.

Well, this one’s been a total fail. These days, niceness doesn’t seem to work.

Honestly, I’m not doing bad this year. It just feels like it because the world is a total nightmare.

How are you doing this year? Do you remember what your resolutions were?

Now That’s Funny

I don’t generally get upset when sad things happen on shows, but occasionally something does get to me.

It is different when the characters aren’t so stupid and selfish that they deserve all the misery they bring upon themselves.

Language of Confusion: Whatever The Case May Be, Part V

Happy Fourth of July. It’s part five and, I’m not even kidding, we’re probably only about halfway done. The origin word for container case, the Proto Indo European kap-, has a ridiculous number of descendants.

First, a lot of words with cap in them, which, hey, sounds like kap-. Captive, for example, showed up in the late fourteenth century from the classical Latin captivus, prisoner, from the verb capere, to capture—as we learned last week from the -ceive words. It’s from kap-, which means hold or grasp, which is certainly a good way to capture someone. And that’s how we get capture, captor (Latin for catcher), and captivate, too.

Next, capable, which showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Middle French capable and Late Latin capabilis. That’s from the classical Latin capax, which means capable or capacity, and is from our old friend capere. It’s kind of confusing, but if you have capacity to do something, you’re capable. And speaking of capacity, of course it’s from the same place. It showed up in the early fifteenth century meaning the ability to contain, or just ability. It’s from the sense of the Old French capacité, ability to hold, and classical Latin capacitatem, which just means capacity. I guess if you can mentally grasp something, you have the capacity. While if you don’t, you’re incapable. Fun fact, capacity in the electrical sense is from 1777, with the idea that something can “hold electricity”.

Now things are going to get weird. First, caption. It showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning taking or seizure, from the Old French capcion, capture or arrest, and classical Latin captionem, which meant something like trap or catching. That actually makes sense for coming from capere, to take. But then in the mid seventeenth century it started to come at the head of legal documents involving seizing something—like a “certificate of caption”. From there, people started using it to mean the head of any document, even ones not involving capture, then the heading of a chapter/section, and finally, the description below an illustration. And that morphed into us calling it “closed captioning”.

Recuperate is also related to the above—really, it’s closer to receive, though. Recuperate showed up in the sixteenth century, while recuperation showed up a little earlier, in the fifteenth century. Both are from the classical Latin recuperare, to recover, which is related to recipere, the origin word of receive. That word is re- (back) and capare, take, so it’s to take back. Which is also recovering.

Finally today, cable. Yep, really. It showed up in the thirteenth century as a large, strong chain used on a ship, from the Medieval Latin capulum, lasso or rope used on a cow, and that’s from capere. So because a rope is how you hold a cow, it’s a cable for holding things on a ship, and now a wire used for transmitting. Sure, why not?

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

University of Ottawa, Canada

Orbis Latinus

July Goals

We’re on the downswing of the year now. I’d be more excited if we weren’t slowly sliding into a dystopia.

Now I’ve depressed myself.

June Goals

1. Get more beta reads for WIP 1. I still have a lot of questions about what works and what doesn’t.

Could still use more.

2. Distract myself from the above by working on all the notes for the other WIP.

Okay, I totally worked on something else instead, because of course I did. I also spent a lot of time working on one of my goals from, like, May or something. Again, because of course I did.

3. Update etymology page. I don’t want to forget!

All up to date as of the first week in June!

Yaaaay. Anyway, what should I do this month?

July

1. Edit one of the many projects I have in the works. Also start planning for the story I want to write this year.

2. Work on edits from the beta notes I should be getting.

3. Do some posts in advance to get ready for my blogging break next month. That’s right, I plan ahead.

What are you planning to do this month?

An Answer Stronger Than No

I’m not sociable with people I know, let alone people I don’t.

Try to make me go, and I’mma stab someone.