Language Of Confusion: Vegetation, Part II

More stuff that grows out of the ground!
 
Shrub comes from the Old English scrybb, which means a woody plant—I’m not sure how it was pronounced or if that’s a hard C or a soft one. It actually predates shrubbery, which showed up in 1748 and is just shrub + -ery. As for its origins… no one knows. It might be Scandinavian, as there are similar words in Danish and Norwegian (skrubbe—as in, scrub). But hell, scrub, as in what you call bushes, might not even be from there. Words are so stupid sometimes.
 
Foliage showed up in the mid fifteenth century, possibly the first of these words with an actual date. Although amusingly enough, it was actually spelled ffoylage, and that is spelled just so much cooler. It also has a murky origin, though it’s probably related to the Old French feuille, which means foliage, and the classical Latin folium, leaf.
 
Sprig showed up in the fifteenth century and its origins are absolutely positively—I’m just kidding, they’re not sure about this one either. It’s probably related to an Old English word, spraec, which means shoot or twig here. And with an unknown origin.
 
Sprout comes from the Old English asprutan, to sprout. It’s from the Proto Germanic sprut-, from the Proto Indo European spreud-, from sper-, to stew. Well, at least this one has an origin. I was beginning to think none of these did!
 
Finally today, shoot. Like an offshoot, not firing a gun. Though the two words are somehow related. Shoot the plant showed up in the mid fifteenth century, and it came from shoot the verb, though come on, hurling missiles at something also means a young plant? Seriously, where’s the logic in that one? Okay, maybe I can see it being thrown off of a bigger plant, but come on! As for shoot’s origin, it comes from the Old English sceotan, like I said, to hurl missiles at. That’s from the Proto Germanic skeutanan, from the Proto Indo European skeud-, to shoot or throw.
 
Yeesh.
 
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

Language of Confusion: Murderous Methods

Time for more etymology of scary things! Today’s topic: ways to kill someone.

Stab

Stab first showed up in the late fourteenth century, interestingly enough coming to us from Scottish the word stob, which also means stab. I think this is the first time I’ve ever featured a word of Scottish origin here. I can’t believe they’re the ones we have to thank for it!

Shoot

Shoot comes from the Old English sceotan, which could mean shoot or drag or even move quickly. Makes sense since shooting does happen quickly. Anyway, it comes from the Proto Germanic skeutanan, which is from the Proto Indo European skeund-, shoot, chase, or throw and is the origin of words like sheet (seriously), shout, shut, and shuttle. But it’s the sheet one that really gets to me.

Strangle

Strangle showed up in the late thirteenth century from the Old French estrangler and before that the classical Latin strangulare, which you know just means strangle. They took it from the Greek strangalan, choke or twist, from strangos, twisted. That word can in turn be traced back to the Proto Indo European strenk-, narrow or twist, and the origin word for string. Which you can use to strangle someone with!

Choke

Choke showed up in the fourteenth century as another word for strangle before morphing into to suffocate, like from swallowing something. Choke is actually from a former English word, acheken, from the Old English aceocian, choke or suffocate. Before that, it’s thought to come from another Old English word, ceoke, which means…cheek.

Suffocate

Suffocate showed up in the early fifteenth century, coming straight from the classical Latin suffocatus, which meant deprive from air. Or, you know, suffocate. It comes from the verb suffocare, to suffocate or smother, a mix of the prefix sub-, from under, and fauces, throat. And the origin of faucet! That makes more sense than mixing from under and throat and getting suffocate.

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