Except… none of
these words actually have -gress in them. They’re all from ghredh-, though, which is the Proto Indo European origin
of the -gress words. Now, we already did -grade words, which includes upgrade and degrade, but there are still plenty of others
for us to look at.
Degree
Degree showed up
in the thirteenth century meaning a
step or stair (makes sense), a stage of progress/single movement towards the
end (still makes sense) or a position in a hierarchy (uh, less sense). It comes
from the Old
French degré, which had the same
meanings as above as well as an academic degree (maybe that’s related to the
hierarchy thing?), so that explains where we got that from. Kind of. It’s from
the Vulgar
Latin degradus, a step, a mix of
the classical Latin de-,
down, and gradus, which means a step or a degree. Yeah, a bit recursive
there. And gradus of course is from ghredh-, the word that unites these all
together.
Graduate
Graduate showed
up in the early fifteenth century and fun fact it used to be “graduate man” before just graduate the sexist
bastards. It’s from the Medieval
Latin graduatus, past participle
of graduari, to take a degree. And
that’s from gradus, which means degree. A degree is something that signifies “a
degree of something rising by stages”, and that’s why graduates have degrees.
Gradual
It shouldn’t
surprise anyone that gradual is part of this family. It showed up in the early fifteenth century meaning having
steps or ridges, from the Medieval Latin gradualis,
which is from gradus. Wow, these are getting shorter and shorter. Anyway,
something gradual is taking place by degrees, so a graduate gradually graduates
with a degree.
Ingredient
Yes, this word
belongs here, too! And once upon a time it was sometimes written as engredient.
It also showed up in the early fifteenth century,
coming from the classical Latin ingredientem,
which can mean things like “that which enters into” something, like an
ingredient to a recipe. It’s the present participle of ingredi, go in or enter,
a mix of in-, which is from en and means in,
and gradi, to step. An ingredient
is something that steps in.
Sources
Well, there was a time when they deliberately kept women from education, so graduate man makes sense. I'm glad those times have passed...
ReplyDeleteSexist bastards is an understatement.
ReplyDeletehuh
ReplyDeleteNone of my ingredients ever step in.
Those actually all make sense!
ReplyDelete