Language of Confusion: Ply-ers (Originally posted January 30, 2014)
Yes, I’m doing the word ply this
week. I like what I did with the title, because not only is plyers a homophone
for pliers, a real word, the suffix -er means a person/thing that has to do with something, like
laborer to labor. Get it? Funny, right? Hello? Guys?
Ply
Ply has three main definitions,
work with or at (ply a trade), bend or fold, and a layer of something. The
first two showed up in the late fourteenth century and are
closely related, although in kind of a weird way. “Work with” ply is actually
short for another word, applien,
which was really used in English at one time. And yes, it sounds a lot like
apply, but applien doesn’t come from apply, except in the sense that they both
come from the classical Latin plicare, fold, and also where the other ply
comes from. The third ply showed up in the mid sixteenth century, coming from
the Middle French pli, a fold, and Old French ploi, layer. It also comes from plicare
because of that whole fold/bend thing.
Apply
Note that this is not something
that seems like apples. That would be appley. Apply showed up in the latefourteenth century, coming
from the Old French aploiier, same
meaning, and the classical Latin applicare,
to connect. Plicare, fold, is the root word here, with the prefix a- (or ad-),
meaning to or towards. Apply
has a lot of different meanings today. You apply for a job. You apply ointment
to the affected area. But originally, it meant to put yourself at work towards
a task, and a figurative definition of being in contact (i.e. ointment to
skin). Interestingly enough, job apply only showed up in the eighteen fifties,
although it’s quite similar to the original definition of apply. Well, I think
it’s interesting.
Imply
Showed up in the late fourteenth century, where
it meant enfold or entangle. Seriously. It comes from the Old French emplier and classical Latin implicare, involve. The enfold
definition makes sense since plicare means fold and in- means, well, in. Like
apply, it just went off in a completely new direction. Latin meant enfolding in
the figurative sense, so enfolding in an event (or whatever) would be
involving. English kind of took it from there.
Reply
Reply showed up in the late fourteenth century with
the same definition. It comes from the Old French replier, and Late Latin replicare. The re- prefix means back, and with
plicare, to fold, it means to fold back again. Like all the other words here, its
meaning comes from the figurative use of the word.
Comply
Comply showed up in the early
fourteenth century, where it meant fulfill or carry out, like one would an
order (at least getting to the definition of agreement makes sense from there).
Comply was compli in Old French (same
definition) and in Vulgar Latin it was complire and classical Latin complere. Notice there’s not a plicare
in there? That’s because although comply may have been influenced by ply, it
actually comes from complete. Despite what it looks like, it’s not a ply word! It’s actually made up by the
prefix com-,
with or together, and plere, fulfill.
Supply
Supply just happens to be in the
same boat as comply. It’s not from plicare but plere, being
a combination of sub- (from below) and
plere, fulfill. To fulfill from below. I’m going to guess that’s figurative.
Oh, and it showed up in the fourteenth century.
TL;DR: There are two origin
words for -ply words because we dropped the c from one of them.
Sources
I really wonder what
it was that made this post so popular. It’s not that it’s bad, but its view
count is certainly much higher than average. Any guesses as to why? Or is this
another weird glitch?
Interesting that this post was so popular. Funny what catches on.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some key word or phrase within tends to draw readers through search engines?
ReplyDeleteWeird that this one would be so much more popular than any of your other etymology posts. But since they're always fascinating, it's great!
ReplyDelete