Wednesday, April 20, 2016

A-to-Z Challenge: Q

Today’s word is quiet, because sometimes you just want things quiet.


Quiet showed up in the early fourteenth century as a noun and the late fourteenth century as an adjective and a verb. It comes from the Old French quiete/quiet, rest or tranquility, and classical Latin quies, rest and its verb form quietare, which means lull or make quiet. It can be traced even further back to the Proto Indo European kweie, to rest or be quiet, and the origin word for while. Not making that up. Quiet and while are (distantly) related.

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

8 comments:

  1. Quiet and while ... I suppose I can kind of see the distant connection after looking at the definition of while. Would never have connected the dots myself :). It always amazes me how language can be traced.
    Tasha
    Tasha's Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

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  2. Interesting. I wouldn't have thought of it, but it almost makes sense.

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  3. I, too, can see the distant connection between the two. I never would have thought of it, either. We learn so much when we visit your blog!

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  4. I guess words are like people. You can pick who you're related to.

    Susan Says

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  5. I enjoy quiet. That's interesting it's related to while. I don't see it, but whatever.

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

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  6. Well, if you're quiet for a while... Nope, can't do it.

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