Language Of Confusion: Warning, Etymology Ahead, Part I

I’m really pleased with this title, as we’re looking at words related to warn this week, as well as all the crazy words its related to. Though I guess in terms of etymology, it’s only slightly above average.
 
Warn itself comes from the Old English warnian, which is just warn, no big surprises there. That’s from the Proto Germanic waronan, which is from the Proto Indo European wer-, to cover—there are actually other versions of wer-, which are basically homonyms that have totally different meanings, some of which I’ve already looked at! But right now we’ll just be looking at the ones related to the to cover one.
 
It’s kind of appropriate that to cover would lead to warn. It also leads to the word warrant, which also gives us warrantee (which is just warrant with an -ee at the end). Warrant showed up in the thirteenth century, but back then it meant protector or defender, which makes a lot more sense when you think of to cover. It took on the meaning of to receive permission from a superior in the fourteenth century, and then a document conveying authority in the sixteenth century, and now we don’t use it at all in the original sense. It comes from the Old North French warant, Frankish warand, and before that the Proto Germanic war-, to warn or guard, and unsurprisingly that’s from wer-.
 
But what about warren? You know, like a living space for animals? Yeah, that’s related. It showed up in the late fourteenth century, from the Anglo French/Old North French warenne, a hunting reserve. It’s thought to be from warir, defend or keep, which is also from the Proto Germanic war-, but man, of words you wouldn’t think would be related to warn… And this is only the beginning.
 
That’s literally the last word beginning with W that’s from wer-. Next is garment, which I’m pretty sure I’ve looked at before but if I did, it was a long time ago, so whatever. And hey, a garment is a covering! It showed up in the fifteenth century, though it was also here as garnement in the fourteenth century. It’s from the Old French garnement, from the verb garnir, to adorn or provide. It’s weird to think of garment and warn as related, but you can kind of see it.
 
Garnish is a little more confusing. It showed up in the late fourteenth century, strictly meaning to decorate or adorn, before also meaning to arm yourself or to embellish, and then in the sixteenth century it also meant “to warn or serve notice for attachment to funds” in the legal sense. By the eighteenth century, it was also used to mean to decorate a table, so that’s three really different definitions that aren’t used all that much today. Anyway, it’s from the Old French garniss, which is also from garnir, like in garment. Garnir is from the Frankish warnjan, from the Proto Germanic warnon, which is related to the origin word of warn and from wer-. I mean, it makes sense, but wow, what a journey.
 
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
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Fordham University

Language of Confusion: -Ment, Part III

Today’s -ment words are physical objects. That’s almost like a theme that ties them together, because the origins of the words sure as hell won’t.

Cement

Cement showed up in the fourteenth century from the Old French ciment, also cement, and classical Latin caementa, which… yeah, is also just cement. It comes from the verb caedere, to cut down, hew, or hack, evolving from the sense that stones were “hacked” into chips or powder for use in cement. Also, caedere is from the Proto Indo European root kae-id-, origin of words such as decide, precise, and homicide. Okay, I’m going to have to look into that at some point.

Pigment

Pigment showed up in the late fourteenth century from the classical Latin pigmentum, which it’s pretty safe to assume just means pigment. It’s from the verb pingere, to paint, the origin word for paint. Amusingly enough, pingere is from the Proto Indo European peig-, to cut or mark with incision, which evolved to the sense of decorating with cut marks, then just decorate, then decorate with color. Therefore, paint, and pigment.

Ornament

Ornament came about in the early thirteenth century meaning an accessory and not necessarily something decorative. It’s from the Old French ornement and classical Latin ornamentum, which could mean ornament or decoration, but also things like apparatus or kit. It’s from the verb ornare, to adorn, and ordo, which means… order. And yeah, that’s where order comes from.

Garment

Garment showed up in the fifteenth century, although it existed in the fourteenth century as garnement. That was taken from the Old French garnement (so that would explain the spelling), which is from the verb garnir, to fit out or adorn. It’s actually from a Germanic source, not Latin, can you believe it? But it can still be traced back to Proto Indo European, in this case the root word wer-, to cover. Origin of words such as garnish, warn, and cover because things are never weird enough.

Ointment

Ointment appeared in the late thirteenth century from the Old French oignement, which was taken from the Vulgar Latin unguimentum and classical Latin unguentum, perfume or ointment. The verb of that is unguere, to smear with ointment, from the Proto Indo European ongw-, salve or anoint. And yeah, that’s where we get anoint from, as well as unction.

Words are so weird sometimes.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Omniglot

University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center

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

Encyclopaedia Britannica