Language Of Confusion: Going In Circles, Part II

This week, we’re back to looking at words related to the Proto Indo European sker-, except this version of sker- means to turn or bend instead of to cut like the other one. It just goes to show that there have been homophones for as long as there has been language.
 
Now this word gave us circle, and you might be surprised to find out that it also gave us ring. Ring comes from the Old English hring, which means ring and also used to mean circle before it was replaced in that regard. I mean, kind of. You see a circle you can just as easily call it a ring. It’s from the Proto Germanic hringaz, which is from sker-, as weird as it might seem. Germanic did what’s called “nasalizing”, which basically means a consonant sound spoken with the soft palate, like M or N. I really don’t know how that works, because it sounds crazy to just start saying a word in a completely different way.
 
Also from the same place is rink. It showed up in the late fourteenth century, meaning ground sectioned off for combat or a race, and then in 1787 a section of ice for curling, and then smooth wood for skating in 1875. It’s thought to be Scottish in origin and taken from the Old French renc/reng, and that’s thought to be from hringaz as well.
 
It’s kind of funny that shrink is also related, yet surprisingly not as much to rink. Shrink comes from the Middle English shrinken and Old English scrincan, which also meant to shrink. It’s from the Proto Germanic skrink-, which actually makes more sense as being from sker-, although it doesn’t make much sense that to turn/bend changed into to make smaller. Still, I suppose I can kind of see it.
 
Then there’s ridge—ridge! It comes from the Middle English rigge and Old English hrycg, which meant ridge or a spine, and is actually what gave us rucksack. Yes, rucksack. The ruck literally meant back, and the sack is just sack, so it’s a backpack (or back sack!). Anyway, it’s from the Proto Germanic hruggin, which is thought to be from the Proto Indo European kreuk-, a form of sker-. However, this one is a lot more of a guess than the others, so it would make sense if this isn’t true. But it’s not like etymology is about making sense.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Omniglot
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: Jewelry

It is the season where gifts are being bought, and jewelry is a big one. So let’s look into it.
 
Jewel
Jewel showed up in the late thirteenth century, coming from the Anglo French juel and Old French jouel. Its origin before that isn’t certain, but one theory is it’s from the Medieval Latin jocale, which is from the classical Latin jocus. You know, the origin word for joke. But that’s crazy, you might be saying. Well, the other theory is that it’s from the Latin gaudium, which means rejoice. I guess that makes slightly more sense.
 
Ring
As in the one you put on your finger, since a ring like a bell is not related. It comes from the Old English hring, ring or circle, which is from the Proto Germanic hringaz. Now that’s from the Proto Indo European sker-, to turn or bend, which does make sense for something that’s essentially a circle. No idea what happened to the K though, or why they threw an ng in there.
 
Necklace
Now, obviously neck is a word and lace is a word, but why are they combined like that? Necklace showed up in the late sixteenth century, literally just a combination of neck and lace. As it turns out, this is because lace, when it showed up in the early thirteenth century, meant a cord made of braided silk. It wasn’t just lace as what we know it as until the sixteenth century, and before that it could mean a net or snare, or a noose. So a cord that goes around your neck is a necklace.
 
Bracelet
This one’s a bit similar to the above. -Let is a common diminutive suffix, and brace is related to arms—the word originally meant armor for the arms. A bracelet is a diminutive thing for the arms. It showed up in the mid fifteenth century from the Old French bracelet, and that’s from the classical Latin bracchiale, an armlet. Bracelets go on the arms!
 
Brooch
Now this word I find annoying because the pronunciation makes no sense with the spelling. Brooch showed up in the early thirteenth century, coming from the Old French broche, which meant a long needle. Makes sense since a brooch is a pin. Broach is actually from the same place, since it means to pierce, like you would with a long needle. But since a brooch was specifically a piece of jewelry, they altered the spelling to something stupid.
 
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
Dictionary of Medieval Latin
Fordham University