Language Of Confusion: Vacation, Part III

Last part of words from the Proto Indo European eue-, to leave, abandon, or give out, which gave us vacation, vacate, and somehow want.
 
This week, we’ll start by looking at void. It showed up in the fourteenth century meaning vacant before also meaning to legally void in the mid fifteenth century. It comes from the Anglo French/Old French voide/viude, and before that the classical Latin vocivos, vacant, which is from vacare, the origin word of vacate and a bunch of these other words.
 
Plus there’s also devoid, which weirdly kind of means the same thing as void. It showed up in the fifteenth century, though the word devoided actually existed before that and had the same meaning. It comes from the Middle English devoiden, from the Old French desvidier, with the des- from dis- and meaning away, and the rest from voide. Devoid is to empty away.
 
Avoid showed up in the late fourteenth century as what we know it as, though before that in Middle English it used to mean to empty out. That’s from the Anglo French avoider, from the Old French esvuidier, with the es- actually from ex-, meaning out, and the rest is also from voide. So it means to empty out, and we just changed it to mean staying away from something.
 
Next there’s devastate, though that actually came in the mid sixteenth century while devastation showed up a whole century earlier. It comes from the Medieval Latin devastationem, from the classical Latin verb devastare, which is just to devastate. The de- means completely here, while vastare means to waste, so devastate is to completely waste! And vastare is from the Proto Indo European wasto-, of course from eue-. How sensible! And speaking of waste, it’s pretty old, having shown up in the thirteenth century from the Anglo French/Old North French waster, which just so happens to also be from vastare. Waste and devastate are one and the same.
 
The final word we’re going to look at from eue- is… vaunt. Yes, vaunt, like boasting about something, because boasting is kind of, well, vain. It showed up in the early fifteenth century from the Anglo French vaunter, Old French vanter, Medieval Latin vanitare, and finally the classical Latin vanare, which means something like to say in vain. That happens to be from vanus, the origin word for vain, from the PIE wano­-, which is from eue-. Because vaunting is vain.
 
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
University of Texas at Arlington
Dictionary of Medieval Latin
Fordham University

Language of Confusion: Wasted

We’re looking at waste plus a special bonus of the word waist because they sound alike and that bothers me.

Waste showed up in the early thirteenth century, both as a verb which meant to ravage or ruin and a noun that meant desolation. Both words are from Anglo French and Old North French, with the nouns version being wast and the verb waster because French at least differentiates verbs and nouns. Both words can be traced to the classical Latin vastare, to devastate. You might be thinking that’s the origin word for vast. And it is! But it’s also related to the origin word for vain, of all things (because the vain origin word means empty, like something vast or wastelands). But that’s not the end of the weirdness. There’s an Old English version of the word, westan, which is Germanic and origin. That’s probably related to vastare, but it’s not where we Modern English speakers get our waste from. That would make too much sense.

Waist on the other hand showed up in the late fourteenth century meaning both the middle of the body and a garment that you wore on your waist. It’s thought to come from the Old English waest, growth, based on the thought that a waist is “where the body grows”. Look, I’m just telling you what I read. Waest comes from the Proto Germanic wahs-tu-, which is related to wahsan, the origin word for wax—not candle wax, like the moon waxes. Also, wahs-tu- comes from the Proto Indo European wegs-, which is from aug-, to increase. The origin word for augment.

What the hell universe am I in?

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

Fordham University

Dictionary.com