A-to-Z Challenge: Zenith

This is it! The end of the line!

What word did I pick? Well, didn’t you read the title?

Zenith showed up in the late fourteenth century, coming from the Old French cenith and Medieval Latin cenit/senit. It’s believed that cenit/senit is an error in the transliteration (translating a word by its letters rather than its definition) of the Arabic word samt, which means road or path. No word as to why it means peak, though.

Sooooo. We end on a mystery. I guess that’s okay. Thanks for reading all these!

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

A-to-Z Challenge: Yes

The end is nigh!

Our second to last word: yes.

Yes comes from the Old English gise/gese, which meant “so be it”. The first syllable, whether ge or gi, comes from the Old English word ge, which means so or yes and comes from the Proto Germanic ja/jai (another way of saying yes) and the Proto Indo European yam. The -se part of the word is from si, the third person form of to be that’s used in commands. So we just shortened a way of saying “so be it” and now it’s the most common way for agreeing to something.

And for the record, a lot of words beginning with Y began with G in Old English. It must have something to do with the pronunciation of G back then.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Xeno

Did everyone think up something for X? Not easy, is it?

Look, words beginning with X are hard to find.

Xeno is a prefix that means strange or foreign. It comes directly from the Greek xenos, a guest, stranger, or foreigner. Hm, nothing really interesting about this one. Maybe we should get rid of the letter X. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about the twenty fourth day of the challenge so much.

Sources

Dictionary.com

Google Translate

A-to-Z Challenge: Weak

Four left to go!

I remember how me and my friends used to use weak as an insult.

Look, we’re on the last letters. I’m out of material.

Weak showed up in the early fourteenth century, coming from the Old Norse work veikr. That word stems from the Proto Germanic waikwaz (yield) and wikanan (bend), so something that is pliable and easy to move is weak. It can further be traced back to the Proto Indo European weik, bend or wind, and the ancestor of several words, including vicarious and weak homophone week.

Week and weak are related. I’m not even sure how to react to that. 

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Omniglot

A-to-Z Challenge: Value

The end is getting close!

Value. Looks like we’re back down to two syllables.

Value first showed up in the early fourteenth century, coming from the Old French value, which has the same meaning. That value is a noun version of another word, valoir, which comes from the classical Latin valere, a word for one who is strong and of value. That word can be traced back to the Proto Indo European wal-, which means “be strong”.

Okay, I may have oversold it when I said that these would all be interesting. But you probably figured that out already.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Ubiquitous

Time for U! No outrageous pun this time!

Yeah, a four syllable word when almost every word I’ve done here has been one. Do you know how hard it is to find a word beginning with U that isn’t an un- word?

Ubiquitous, which basically means something that’s everywhere, showed up fairly recently, in the early nineteenth century (in etymological terms, that’s like last week). The reason it’s so recent is because another word, ubiquity, was used then (and I just found out that ubiquity is a real word! Wow!). Ubiquity showed up in the late sixteenth century, coming from the Middle French ubiquité and the classical Latin ubique. In Latin, ubi means where, and que…well, it has tons of meanings, including giving “universal meaning” when used as a suffix. So it’s like saying “all across the universe”, but in three letters and in suffix form.

I don’t pretend to understand Latin. Or any languages for that matter. They’re weird.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Omniglot

University of Ottawa, Canada

Dictionary.com

Google Translate

A-to-Z Challenge: Teach

T time!

Wait! Don’t leave!

A word that I’m sure has meaning for many of you: teach.

Teach comes from the Old English taecan, to demonstrate or point out, or to train or persuade. Yes, it was certainly a flexible word. It comes from the Proto Germanic taikijan, to show, and the Proto Indo European deik, also to show (as well as the origin word for diction). I know I throw the word interesting around a lot (I swear, I mean it!), but I’m going to do it again: interestingly, in Old English, taecan was not used to indicate teaching like a teacher would. It was used in that “show” way I mentioned above, rather than specifically for instruction. The word they used for that was laeran (before you ask, yes, that’s where learn comes from).

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Storm

Letter S! Let’s get to it!

Storm! That should be fun, right?

Storm comes from the Old English word storm…which has the same meaning as we have. Sometimes they don’t even try to change things. Anyway! Before that, it comes from the Proto Germanic sturmaz, still meaning storm, and the Proto Indo European stur-mo-, which comes from the word stwer, turn or whirl (and which is also the ancestor of the word stir). Interesting how some words hardly change over thousands of years, and others like quit people can’t make up their minds on how to use.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Rave

I think this is the point where we’re officially leaving the middle and entering the end of the 2014 A-to-Z Challenge. Yay?

Okay, rave time.

Not that kind of rave. Put down the glow sticks.

Rave first showed up in the early fourteenth century as a word for someone showing signs of madness. It comes from the Old French raver, a variant of resver, which means either to dream or to be crazy. Before that, no one knows where it came from. Though it seems like they would fit together, ravage is not related to rave. Ravage comes from the Old French word ravage, destruction, and ravir, to take away. There’s also ravish, which comes from ravir as well, as does the word rapid, meaning rave is quite alone in the etymological word.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Quit

The best part of doing etymology as my theme? It’s really easy to come up with words for the hard letters. Well, mostly.

Today we have: quit.

Quit first showed up in the early thirteenth century, where it meant repay, like a debt. Quit has actually had a lot of meanings over the years. In the mid-thirteenth century, it meant to reward, while in the late fourteenth century it meant to take revenge or retort. Then in the fourteenth century, before we had acquit, quit meant to plead not guilty. Later on, in the fifteenth century, quit meant leave or depart (if you’ve ever read any Shakespeare, you’ve heard it used that way) and then mid-century, it also meant relinquish. It wasn’t until the middle of the seventeenth century that people started using it as “stop doing something”. There’s no real reason why quit changed definitions so many times, but most of the meanings had something to do with being free of something. That’s because quit comes from the Old French quiter, establish innocence or simply release. Quiter comes from another Old French word, quitte, which means free or clear. It comes from the Medieval Latin quitus and classical Latin quietus, which means quit, calm, or sleeping. And if you think that word looks and sounds an awful lot like quiet, there’s a reason.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Google Translate

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

A-to-Z Challenge: Pain

And...pretend I put something clever here.

I figure by now, everyone’s hurting coming up with posts. So, pain.

Pain first showed up as a noun in the late thirteenth century, where it meant punishment, usually for a crime, as well as the definition we know it as. It comes from the Old French peine, suffering or punishment, and before that the classical Latin poena, penalty or punishment. Poena is also where subpoena comes from. I guess that makes it “under penalty”. Anyway, like many things, the Romans took that word from Greek, where the word poini means penalty. From there, it can be traced even further back to the Proto Indo European kwei, pay or atone. No, I don’t know why the k changed to a p. Peer pressure?

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Google Translate

A-to-Z Challenge: Odd

Hey, A-to-Z-ers! You still hanging in there?

And now, for the word odd.

Odd first showed up in the early fourteenth century, but only as a word for an uneven number. Because an uneven number is unpaired and thus, “left out”, odd grew to mean peculiar, because obviously there’s something wrong with it if it’s unpaired. Anyway, odd comes from the Old Norse oddi, which figuratively means something like third or a tie-breaker (as in a vote), but literally means an angle or point of land (apparently, the notion of a triangle morphed it into that third definition, which is, shall we say, an odd transformation). Oddi comes from the Proto Germanic word uzdaz, pointed upward, and further back, the Proto Indo European uzdho-.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Omniglot

A-to-Z Challenge: Net

We’re on the downswing now!

Today’s word: net.

Net has two definitions, netting and remaining (like net income after taxes). The first net comes from the Old English word net (believe it or not) and before that, the Proto Germanic natjan, and Proto Indo European [http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/pie.html] ned-, twist or knot. The other net showed up in the early sixteenth century and originally it meant clean or neat (the monetary origin is probably from Italian influence as their word for neat, netto, meant “remaining after deductions). It comes from the Old French net (yes, this is different from the Old English one), which meant clean or pure, and classical Latin nitere, to shine. It also has a Proto Indo European origin word: nei-. Which leaves us to assume that the reason these two words are spelled the same is because people dropped the a in the neat when they were talking about deductions. Because things weren’t confusing enough.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Omniglot

Google Translate

A-to-Z Challenge: Make

Incidentally, make is the word that prompted me to join the challenge, because it didn’t have enough to it for a regular post.

So. Make.

I have no time for when make showed up in English, just that it’s from the Old English macian, which has a variety of meanings such as make, construct, prepare, cause, behave, transform—basically all the meanings we have for make. Macian comes from the West Germanic makon, to fashion/fit, which can be traced back to the Proto Indo European mag, knead or fashion. Interestingly enough, past tense made came from the Middle English maked (which might explain how that d got there). The Old English equivalent is macod, the past participle of macian.

Halfway done!

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

University of Texas Arlington

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Let

Back for more? Let’s get to it!

Ooh! Did I make a funny? 

No?

Another of the dateless, let comes from the Old English laetan, leave behind or allow. Before that, it was the Proto Germanic letan and Proto Indo European le-, to let go. There’s also an older, not used anymore definition of let that means hinder or obstruct. It actually has a different history than the common let, coming from the Old English  lettan, delay, and Proto Germanic latjanan, which happens to be an ancestor of the word late. Latjanan does come from le-, though, so the two lets are still somewhat related.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Dictionary.com

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Kiss

Kissy, kissy.

You should probably get what word I’m doing. If not, you may need to see a specialist.

There’s no date for when kiss showed up, but it is known that it was cuss in Middle English (no relation), and before that, coss (as a noun) and cyssan (as a verb) in Old English. Cyssan can be traced to the Proto Germanic kussijanan, and it’s thought that the kuss- part of the word is supposed to be onomatopoeia of the sound it makes.

Now try not to think about that the next time you kiss someone.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

A-to-Z Challenge: Jealous

Ah, J. My favorite letter, obviously.

Feeling jealous?

Jealous first showed up in the early thirteenth century as gelus, then a century later, as jelus. It comes from the Late Latin zelosus/zelus, meaning zeal (and before you ask, yes, that’s zeal’s origin word, too). The Roman tongue took zelus (along with many other things) from the Greek zelos, same meaning. Further back from that, no one knows.

Insert mysterious music here.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Orbilat

A-to-Z Challenge: Ill

Sorry about it being late! For some reason I had this set to post this afternoon instead of this morning!

Ill!

When ill first showed up in the early thirteenth century, it had nothing to do with health. Back then, it was just evil, hurtful, difficult, or unfortunate. The “unwell” sense of the word didn’t show up until the mid-fifteenth century, over two hundred years later, possibly changing meanings due to the influence of an Old Norse idiom. Old Norse is actually where we get the word from; it’s illr in that language, and that’s as far back as the word can be traced. And I don’t know if this needs to be said, but ill has nothing to do with words like illegal or illicit. The il- prefix there actually comes from the word in-. They just dropped the n.

Coincidence is never more prevalent than in looking up the histories of words.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Omniglot

A-to-Z Challenge: Heart

More words! Okay, I’m running out of little introductions to do. How many more days do I have?

Another one without a specific date attached to it. Heart comes from the Old English heorte, which could mean heart, breast, soul, mind, or even desire. Heorte comes from the Proto Germanic khertan- (yes, a K!) and before that, the Proto Indo European kerd-, meaning heart. Interesting factoid of the day: the reason heart has an “ea” spelling is because it used to have a long vowel sound, meaning “ee” instead of “ah”. It’s one of the many cases in etymology where you’ll find pronunciation shifted but spelling didn’t.

Frigging spelling.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Gift

More etymology! Wheeeeee!

I can hear your excitement from here.

My gift to you.

Gift is funny because it showed up in the twelfth century in last names, but wasn’t a word until the mid-thirteenth century. It’s also interesting because it’s an English word that doesn’t come to us by way of French or Latin. It’s definitely Germanic in origin (there’s gabe in German, gåva in Swedish, gave in Norwegian, etc.), coming from the Proto Germanic giftiz. Further back, it can be traced to the Proto Indo European ghabh-, give or receive (and in another crazy origin story, that word is the ancestor of habit).

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Google Translate

A-to-Z Challenge: Fry

I could really go for some French fries about now.

You probably figured out what today’s word is.

Fry showed up in the late thirteenth century, from the Old French frire (same meaning, so I guess they had fried food back then). I can totally see why they changed that. Too many R’s in a row there. Anyway, before frire, there was the classical Latin frigere, again, same meaning, and even further back there’s the Proto Indo European bher-, cook or bake (among other things; bher is the verse- of Proto Indo European, meaning it was everywhere, and so a lot of English words stem from it). Yes, it really did switch from b to f. That’s language for you.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Earn

I think I missed an opportunity to etymologize the word etymology. Oh well.

Today we’re going to learn to earn. Or, more accurately, learn about earn.

There’s no particular date when earn showed up in English. It’s just known to have come from the Old English earnian (same meaning). Before that, earn was aznojan in Proto Germanic, a variation of azna, labor. That azna can be traced back to the Proto Indo European aznon, which meant to serve or to do harvest work. Since work is how people earn a living, it’s easy to see why this word has this meaning.

See you on Monday!

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

A-to-Z Challenge: Dread

Here we go again!

This time we (and by we I mean me) are looking at dread.

Dread first showed up in the late twelfth century as a shortened version of the Old English word adraedan, which itself was a shorter version of ondraedan, advise against. The prefix on- means against, while raedan is advise. Oh yeah. Raedan is also the origin word for read, which had a variety of meanings, including advise, discuss, guide, explain and, of course, read. Combined with the against, the word becomes “advise against”, which is a good definition for something to dread.

This might be the first time I’ve ever found two words similar in spelling that are connected in a way that makes sense.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

A-to-Z Challenge: Cure

Ah, Thursday. The proper day for etymology.

Because I said so, that’s why.

Today’s word is: easily read in the title.

Cure showed up in the early fourteenth century as a noun and then later on as a verb. Originally, it meant care, like it does in its classical Latin form cura/curare, but it evolved from just “care for” to a medical sense. Cura can also be traced all the way back to the Proto Indo European kois-, be concerned. The word curate also comes from curare, by way of Medieval Latin, where it meant “to take care of souls”.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

Omniglot

Google Translate

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

A-to-Z Challenge: Baby

What? I’m posting on a Wednesday?

Today’s word: baby.

Baby first showed up in the late fourteenth century as as babi, which is a diminutive of baban, which despite being English is probably a word you haven’t heard of. Baban was shortened into the word babe, which actually preceded baby. Some think it comes from the word babble, a descendent of the Greek word barbaros (barbarian) which did showed up in English more than a century before babe or baby, and is also probably not related to the Tower of Babel. It’s interesting to note that in other languages, words descended from barbaros are words for grandmother. Don’t know why. Just reporting it.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

A-to-Z Challenge: Art

It’s the A-to-Z challenge! I think it was made just for me this year because it starts on a Tuesday, which is one of my blogging days. With evidence like that, how could it not be true?

Today’s word: art.

Art showed up in the early thirteenth century basically meaning a practiced skill (i.e. the art of cooking, the art of kicking ass). It comes from the Old French art and classical Latin artem, which had pretty much the same skill/craft meaning. It can be traced all the way back to Proto Indo European, where it was ar-ti-. Oh, and that ar-? It means join or fit together. It’s also the root word for arm.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

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

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center