Still Writing

Old English-English Dictionary

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

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Monday, March 21, 2016

A-to-Z Challenge Theme Reveal

It’s almost here! Just over a week away now! And here’s my Theme Reveal post, which is why I’m posting a day early.

Come on. You know what I’m doing. It’s the same thing I did last year, and the year before that. It’s the same thing I do every Thursday pretty much without exception.

I love etymology. I think it’s fun and weird and interesting. The most bizarre words are related—black and bleach come from the same place, but ass (butt) and ass (donkey) do not. What the frigging HELL.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg of bizarre things that are true about the words we say. So yes, I’m doing it again, and I can only assume I’ll do it again next year and the year after that and the year after that. Because it’s cool and there are plenty of subjects to analyze and also I don’t have to come up with any other post ideas for a month.

There you have it. Are you doing a theme for the Challenge this year? Are you doing the Challenge at all? What else do you have planned for April?

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Spring In New England

Let’s say it’s…temperamental.

It’s supposed to snow tomorrow. SNOW. And not a brief dusting, either. Four to six inches. On the first day of spring. At least it will probably melt quickly from the heatwave made by my own hatred.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Language of Confusion: -Served

This week: serve and words that end in -serve. I think you’ll be pleasantly amused at how ridiculous it is. I know I was.

Serve showed up in the late twelfth century, coming from the Old French servir and classical Latin servire, both of which basically mean to serve. Now, it’s related to servus, slave, but it doesn’t seem to be related to the suffix -serve. Serve has no further origin, although it might be Etruscan, and -serve has a different history (you’ll see in a minute). They still might be related, but unfortunately I don’t know enough ancient Latin to be sure.

Next, we’re looking at deserve, the only -serve word that’s related to serve. It showed up in the early thirteenth century from the Old French deserver and classical Latin deservire, serve well. The de- prefix here means completely because prefixes are stupid sometimes, so “serve completely” makes sense. And apparently the idea of being served well transformed into being entitled to good service, and that’s why we have deserve.

Observe showed up in the late fourteenth century, coming from the Old French observer/osserver, which is just observe. That of course comes from the classical Latin observare, which has meanings that range from observe to guard to heed. It’s a ranged word, is what I’m saying. It’s a mix of the prefix ob-, over, and servare, save, keep, or preserve. So it’s to over save? Anyway! Servare can be traced to the Proto Indo European ser-, to protect. And it doesn’t seem to be related to serve. Man, how weird.

Next, reserve. It showed up in the mid fourteenth century and it has a fairly similar origin as observe. It comes from the Old French reserver, withhold, and before that the classical Latin reservare, reserve or hold back. The re- prefix is the back part, and with the save/keep of servare, it’s literally “keep back”. Well, at least that makes sense.

Next, preserve showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Anglo French preservare, Old French preserver, and Medieval Latin preservare, all of which mean preserve. Before that it’s the Late Latin praeservare, guard beforehand. The prae is just pre-, before, so the word is “to save before”. I guess that works.

Conserve also showed up in the late fourteenth century, coming from the Old French conserver and classical Latin conservare, which means (dramatic pause)…conserve. Yeah, not a lot of stretching with this word. Anyway, the prefix con- (from com-) is just an intensifier here—amusing aside: several common prefixes can also be intensifiers; I wonder how they decided when to use the actual meaning of the prefix and when to use it as word frosting. So with sevare, to keep, this word is to really keep. Not just save it, but conserve it.

TL;DR: Serve and deserve aren’t related to observe, reserve, preserve and conserve because words are freaking stupid.

Sources

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Mysterious Etruscans

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

University of Ottawa, Canada

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

Fordham University

Orbis Latinus

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

From The Spamfiles

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Boxes

Another true story.

At least all the extra boxes gave the cats somewhere new to play.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Language of Confusion: -Lude

I actually did words that end in -clude last year, namely conclude, preclude, include and seclude. So now we’re doing words that are just -lude. I wonder if there’s any etymological relation! Ha ha, just kidding. I’m sure there isn’t.

Elude first showed up in the mid sixteenth century meaning delude or a make a fool of, not meaning evade until a century later. It comes from the classical Latin eludere, parry or evade. It’s a mix of the prefix ex-, out, and ludere, play—the origin word for ludicrous. No, not Ludacris. That’s something else entirely. Anyway, I’m not really sure about the evolution from play + out to evasion. Maybe because if you outplay someone you’re evading them?

Next, delude, which has a very similar history. It showed up in the early fifteenth century from the classical Latin deludere, which could mean “to play false”, to trifle with, or to mock or deceive. The de- prefix here means down in a metaphorical sense. I guess playing down at someone is deluding them. It almost makes sense.

Prelude showed up at about the same time elude did, in the mid sixteenth century. It actually comes from the Middle French prelude, which meant an instrumental prelude. Before that it was the Medieval Latin preludium, preliminary, and classical Latin praeludere, play before for practice or preface. The prae- is pre-, before, making this one literally “play before”. Okay, now this one definitely makes sense. It’s a miracle! And it’s the same with interlude, where inter- just means between, so it’s between the play.

Collude showed up in the early sixteenth century, but collusion showed up even earlier, in the late fourteenth century. Collude comes from the classical Latin colludere, play with, while collusion has a bit longer of a journey. It comes from the Old French collusion and classical Latin collusionem, collusion. But that word just comes from colludere, a mix of the prefix com-, together. So when you’re colluding with someone, you’re playing together. Sure.

Finally today, we’re looking at allude. Like most of the words here, it showed up in the mid sixteenth century, coming from the Middle French alluder and classical Latin alludere, which meant allude in the figurative sense but also to play or joke in a more literal one. The prefix comes from ad-, to, so it’s to to play. Or to play to? Either way, I’m not really sure how one leads to the allude we know…

Sources

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

University of Ottawa, Canada

Dictionary of Medieval Latin

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Day 122

Sometimes I’m a little…overdramatic when my sweatshirt is in the wash.

In my defense, I get really cold. The minutes seem like days!

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Language of Confusion: Feeling Mad

Today we’re looking at the origins for words of angry feelings because why not?

Anger

Anger showed up in the early thirteenth century as a verb and then as a noun in the mid thirteenth century, but back then it meant more to annoy or to be in anguish rather than how we use anger, which didn’t start until a century later. The noun is from the Old Norse angr (cool word, right?) and the verb angra, both of which are closer to the annoy/distress definition anger used to have. Both Norse words come from the Proto Germanic angus, which comes from the ProtoIndo European angh-, painfully constricted. Interesting how it didn’t change definitions until so much later. At least this one kind of makes sense.

Mad

Now, mad has two meanings, one meaning insane and one meaning angry. The insane one showed up first, in the late thirteenth century, and then in the early fourteenth century it started to mean “beside oneself with excitement” and then “beside oneself with anger”. Apparently replaced an Old English word for mad, wod, which was also spelled wood. And before you ask, no it’s not related to trees in any way. Going back to mad, it comes from the Old English gemaedde, out of one’s mind or foolish/stupid. That word comes from the Proto Germanic ga-maid-jan and ga-mai-az, abnormal. The ga- part is an intensive prefix, while the rest comes from the Proto Indo European moito, the past participle of mei-, to change. So change became abnormal became insane became angry. Sure. Why not.

Fury

Fury showed up in the late fourteenth century, coming from the Old French furie/fuire, rage or fenzy, and classical Latin furia, fury. Yes, it’s related to the mythological furies, but no, there’s no real explanation as to why. The word is erinyes in Greek, where it comes from. Not an f in sight! Anyway, furia has a verb form in furere, which can mean rage or even heat. But don’t go thinking that word is related to fire or anything. No, fire comes from a word that starts with p.

Rage

Rage of course also has some weirdness to it. It actually showed up in the mid thirteenth century meaning play or romp, which is especially weird because pretty much everywhere else it has its standard definition. It comes from the Old French rage/raige and before that the Medieval Latin rabia and classical Latin rabies, which explains where that word came from. Although not why it has a g in it.

Wrath

And now, to finish things off, wrath. It comes from the Old English wraeððu (not just one eth, but two!), anger, and wrað, angry. That word can also be traced to the Proto Germanic wraith-, and before you ask, no, that isn’t where wraith comes from. Don’t go expecting etymology to start making sense. The Proto Germanic wraith- actually comes from the Proto Indo European wreit, to turn. The origin word for wreath.

TL;DR: Seriously words. What the f**k?

Sources

Dictionary of Medieval Latin