Friday, April 17, 2015

A-to-Z Challenge: O

A-to-Z Challenge! Open! Because!



Open comes from the Old English open, which meant…not closed. Okay, they’re not even trying. Anyway, it comes from the Proto Germanic upana, put or set up, and Proto Indo European upo, over or up from under. If you think that word looks like up, it’s because it’s the origin of up, as well as the prefix sub-, which is used to indicate under.

So it goes from over to set up to not closed. Man, etymology is usually vague, but even I can’t see the thought process behind this one.

Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

12 comments:

  1. Tasha Duncan-DrakeApril 17, 2015 at 7:49 AM

    That one does seem rather out there - at least there's one word from Old English that I might get okay :)
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alex J. CavanaughApril 17, 2015 at 8:45 AM

    Let me over the door for you...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Andrew LeonApril 17, 2015 at 9:50 AM

    I want to not close this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chrys FeyApril 17, 2015 at 10:38 AM

    Open up makes sense though...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Liz A.April 17, 2015 at 10:56 AM

    Open. Up. Sub. *shakes head*

    ReplyDelete
  6. S. L. HennessyApril 17, 2015 at 11:15 AM

    I'm with you. That's a strange etymology connection there.

    Good luck with the A to Z Challenge!
    A to Z Co-Host S. L. Hennessy
    http://pensuasion.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. David Powers KingApril 17, 2015 at 11:42 AM

    Sounds rather open-ended to me... :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Susan Gourley/KelleyApril 17, 2015 at 12:43 PM

    It starts out so simple, not closed, and then gets really compicated.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mark MurataApril 17, 2015 at 12:53 PM

    Think of opening the entrance to a tent. Well, I suppose that had more to do with the Ancient Near East. The most common things these people were opening must have needed an upward motion.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Kate LarkindaleApril 17, 2015 at 2:38 PM

    It seemed so simple, but no….

    ReplyDelete
  11. William KendallApril 17, 2015 at 3:49 PM

    Simple until it gets complicated.

    ReplyDelete
  12. bettyApril 17, 2015 at 11:33 PM

    Maybe they were more than halfway through a challenge when they came up with this for open and they were a bit tired :)

    betty

    ReplyDelete

Please validate me.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)