Wednesday, April 6, 2016

A-to-Z Challenge: E

Today, we’re looking at eat and…I just suddenly realized that I’m hungry.


Anyway! Eat comes from the Old English etan, which just means eat, and before that, the Proto Germanic etan and Proto Indo European ed-, to eat. Ed- is also the origin for edible, no surprises there, although edible comes to us by way of Latin rather than through straight Germanic roots.

So yes, we have two words related to food that originate from the same word and yet came to English by two very divergent paths. Because words are weird.

Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

13 comments:

  1. Great word! Now I'm hungry :) Have a lovely day.

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  2. So interesting! I'd love to know how you are choosing your words. Will you tell? I could spend all my free time on etymology.

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  3. You're right there - words are definitely weird. I find your posts fascinating and entertaining :) Hmm ... time for lunch :)
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  4. If we're going to eat something it might as well be edible.

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  5. Words are so weird. And I love them for it.

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  6. Words are weird - but you already knew that.

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  7. Fortunately lunch is not that far off, so hunger's welcome!

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  8. Well, since eating is such a central part of the human experience, of course it would have been around for a very long time. And yeah, now I'm hungry, too...

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  9. Hmmm..Now you've made me hungry too.!

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  10. I'm eating dinner. Talk about food for thought!

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  11. Eating is good, words are weird.

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  12. Hey, I happen to be eating as I read this. =D

    ~Ninja Minion Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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