Language Of Confusion: This and That

How about a bunch of little words that we use all the time?

This comes from the Old English þis, which is just this where the th has its own letter. It’s thought to be from the North Sea Germanic pronoun tha-si-, which is a mix of the base word þa with an -s at the end. Once upon a time, this had tons of different forms, Masculine, Feminine, Neutral, and Plural, and of course in all the different tenses. I am just so glad we pared it down to one. How annoying would it be to have to conjugate twenty different forms for this???

That is from the Old English þaet, which is that much like we use it. It comes from the Proto Germanic that, from the Proto Indo European tod-, which is from the root word -to-. That also had masculine and feminine forms—the masculine form was actually se and the feminine seo, with an S! That with the th is actually the neutral form. And we should now all take a moment to thank Middle English for getting rid of gendered articles, because that is a stupid idea that makes things overcomplicated.

Next, we’re looking at the, which was þe in Old English. At least, that was one of its forms. In fact, þe was a later form, and earlier it was se—yes, the same se that came from. It’s from the Proto Indo European root so-, which you know is the origin of this and that. I guess that’s where all these words come from.

Now let’s look at some non-th words. At comes from the Old English aet, which is just at. It’s from the Proto Indo European ad-, to, near, or at, which is part of just so many words that start with a- or ad-. Anyway, that’s at. Fairly sensible origin, and almost completely unchanged in thousands of years. Impressive.

From comes from (ha!) the Old English fram, which is just from with a different vowel. It can be traced to the Proto Germanic fra, forward or away from (kind of contradictory there) and Proto Indo European pro-mo-… Seriously??? It’s actually from pro-, forward, and get this, frame is from the same place. Well, technically, frame is from the already mentioned Old English fram. As in, this is where the frame you use for pictures comes from. I am one hundred percent not making that up. The frame thing is something I’m going to have to get into another time because holy crap is that a journey.

Okay, let’s end with something more sensible. For comes from the Old English for, meaning… well, for. What were you expecting? It’s from the Proto Germanic fur and Proto Indo European per-, forward. Which is also where pro comes from.

Nothing much else to stay here. My mind is still reeling from the from/frame thing.

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

University of Texas at Arlington

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Language of Confusion: Prepositions, Part II

More of this, and there are some interesting ones this time. Plus it’s my last etymology post before a solid month of etymology.

I know. I’m happy, too.

Through

Through showed up in the late fourteenth century, coming from the Old English word Þurh underwent metathesis, which basically means metamorphosis, but with sounds and no possibility of superheroes. So Þurh (which would have been pronounced thurh) came into contact with gamma radiation and turned into “thru”. Before that, it was the Proto Germanic thurkh, which sounds like my cat coughing up a hairball, and then the Proto Indo European tere, cross over or overcome. And the word thorough is related, too, its Old English equivalent, Þuruh, descended from Þurh. Because of course it is.

Of

Of comes from the Old English of, which was another way of saying aef, away or away from. So yes, of originally had pretty much the opposite meaning, but was used in Middle English (for some reason) as a translation for foreign words for of, like the classical Latin ex. Oops! We don’t have a good word for this. Let’s just change the meaning of this other word, then! Anyway, before English, it was the Proto Germanic af and Proto Indo European apo, away. Weirdly enough, apo- is still used today as a prefix before Greek words like apogee, which literally translates to “away from earth”, and apology.

For

For comes from the Old English…for, with pretty much the same meaning, and before that, the Proto Germanic fur. Its Proto Indo European ancestor is per-, and yes, that’s the progenitor of per- as well as fore. Per- was even more flexible then than for is now.

From

And the last word we’re looking at today is from, which comes from the Old English fram, which had some things in common with our definition, but more specific to “departure or movement away in time or space”. It comes from the Proto Germanic fra, forward or away from, and Proto Indo European pro-mo-, the pro- part of which gave us, shockingly enough, pro-. Oh, and the weird factoid for this one is that fram gave us the word frame. From and frame are related, fairly closely, too.

That’s it, everybody go home. The language is canceled. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Dictionary.com

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

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

University of Texas at Arlington