Language Of Confusion: Tense, Part IV

Still more words from the Proto Indo European root ten-, to stretch. Appropriate, as these definitions are definitely a stretch.
 
The first word we’re looking at today is hypotenuse, as in the leg of a triangle across from the right angle. It showed up in the late sixteenth century from the Late Latin hypotenusa, from the Greek hypoteinousa. That’s a mix of hypo-, which means under, and teinein, to stretch, which is from the PIE ten-. A hypotenuse stretches under—or across—from a right angle.
 
Next is the last word to actually have ten in it: lieutenant. Really! It showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning one who takes the place of another—it wasn’t a rank until a century later. It’s from the Old French lieu tenant, which means substitute or deputy, with lieu meaning place (as in, in lieu of) and tenant from the verb tenir, to hold, which is from ten-, to stretch. Now, the rank notion is that a lieutenant is the one taking the place of the captain in their absence, so the lieu part makes sense. It’s the ten part that’s weird. A lieutenant stretches in the place of a captain?
 
Also from ten- is temple—temple like the side of your forehead, as a place of worship temple might not actually be related. Forehead temple showed up in the mid fourteenth century from the Old French temple, Vulgar Latin tempula, and classical Latin tempora, meaning side of the forehead here. That’s from ten-, apparently in the sense that the temple is a thin stretch of skin on the side of your head. As for the other temple, that might be from ten- in the sense of one stretching in front of an altar in worship. Or it may be from the Proto Indo Eurpoean temp-, to cut, as in a place reserved (or cut out) for worship. Either way, it makes little sense.
 
The next word makes sense when you think about it: thin. It comes from the Old English þynne, thin, and making it the first word we’ve looked at from Germanic origins instead of Latin. Before English, it was the Proto Germanic thunni, which is from ten-, to stretch, because thin things can be stretched out.
 
Finally today, rein, which doesn’t even have a T in it. It showed up in the fourteenth century, from the Old French rene/resne, thought to be from the Vulgar Latin retina—no, not related to the eyeball word, it means bond or check here. That’s from the classical Latin retinere, to retain. So rein is from retain, it just lost the T. And now you know what we’ll be looking at next week.
 
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
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Orbis Latinus

The Language of Confusion: Make it Rain

I’m looking at the word rain this week, as well as its homophones rein and reign. It is April after all, and the rainy season. Plus it’s not like any of you can stop me.

The noun rain comes from the Old English regn, which itself comes from the proto Germanic regna. That g probably did used to be pronounced—if you don’t remember my post on silent letters, words with gn used to pronounce the g too, and in fact it’s still pronounced in other Germanic languages, like Dutch and Swedish. However, in English it was dropped just as it was with the word gnaw. It’s also worth noting that rain the verb comes from the Old English regnian, which was often shortened to just rinan, so it’s possible that spelling was simply preferred.

Reign first showed up in the early thirteenth century, first as a noun and then as a verb at the end of the century. The noun comes from the Old French reigne while the verb form is regner. Both words can be traced to the classical Latin regnum, which means rule or realm. The g actually makes sense in Latin, where it was vocalized, but like many gn words, it was just a graphical remnant of an old pronunciation.

Finally, there’s rein, as in a bridle lead. It first showed up in the early fourteenth century from the Old French rene and (most likely) the Vulgar Latin retina, a bond or check. As far as I can tell, no, it’s not related to the word for eye. That word is actually from, get this, the Greek word for tunic and totally beside the point. Retina—the Latin retina—comes from retinere, hold back, the origin word for retain, itself a mix of the prefix re-, back, and the Latin tenere, to hold. So basically, rein is retain without the two middle letters.

TL;DR: Coincidence.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

The Guardian

 Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English 

University of Texas—Arlington 

Orbis Latinus