Language of Confusion: Feeling Sleepy

I literally came up with this idea because I’m tired (I had trouble falling asleep and then woke up early, it was a whole thing).

Sleep

Sleep comes from the Old English slaepan (for the verb) and slaep (for the noun), both meaning sleep, and before that the Proto Germanic slepanan. So I guess each iteration just gets rid of an “an”. It can be traced all the way back to the Proto Indo European sleg-, which means to be slack or languid and has a lot of weird descendants that are either related to slacking (like lax, release, and languid) or just make no sense (lease, relish, and catalectic). I could probably do a whole post on these weird words (and I’m sure I will in the future).

Doze

Doze showed up in the mid seventeenth century (possibly earlier in some dialects) and is thought to be Scandinavian in origin, although it doesn’t get more specific than that. It also might be related to the Old English word dysig, which just happens to be the origin word for dizzy. Fun fact, dysig actually meant stupid.

Slumber

Slumber showed up in the mid fourteenth century, although it also existed a century earlier as slumeren, related to slumen, to doze. I guess they needed to use something before doze was invented. It’s thought to be from the Old English sluma, light sleep. No idea where the b comes from. It just seems to have showed up one day.

Snooze

Not much to say about snooze. It showed up in 1789 and is what’s known as a “cant word”, which basically means it’s lingo or jargon. It’s origin is unknown, and people think it might be echoic of the sound people make when snoring. Sure. Why not? Makes more sense than most of the other words today.

Nap

Nap comes from the Old English hnappian, to doze or sleep lightly. And that’s it. It’s origin is unknown. As is why it had an H. No relation to nap as in “downy coating” or the fuzzy ends of fibers or knap. Or knapsack, which is somehow not related to knap.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Dictionary.com

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

From The Spamfiles

Yes, this again. Well, next week is my goals post so at least you get then off.

The Keto diet is just the Atkins diet. This PSA brought to you by: stop changing the names of things and expecting them to be different you won’t lose weight.

I knew it. Greg is sneaking into my accounts and getting messages sent to him. But I caught him this time.

…This is the first time I’ve ever been given a neutral option. It might be the first time I’ve been given an option that suits me.

Sorry to be repeating spam types, but I wanted to point out that I’m vehemently against spelling it “woah”. The word is “whoa”.

How could you possibly think this was a scam! The National Central Bureau of Interpol has been enhanced by the United Nations! And the FBI!

No Sense

I hate it when I’m with my mom and she asks me to do a favor for her. Especially going to the store up the street.

There’s a reason why she does most of her grocery shopping at a store in a different town. The one up the street is like a game that no one can win.

Language Of Confusion: Later

Late comes from the Old English laet, which meant sluggish or slow before it meant, you know, late. It comes from the Proto Germanic lata- and Proto Indo European led-, slow or weary, from the root word le-, which actually means let go or slacken, and like most Proto Indo European words has a lot of descendants.

For example, belated (which showed up in the early seventeenth century) is just be- + late. Later, appearing in the sixteenth century, is a comparative (i.e. near and nearer) form of the word. Then there’s latter. It comes from the Old English laetra, slower, and it was actually a comparative of laet! It actually meant “belonging to a subsequent period” in the thirteenth century and didn’t mean the last item mentioned until the sixteenth century.

Last showed up in the thirteenth century, actually a contraction of the Old English latost (last) and the superlative (the highest comparative of laet. The verb form of last (as in outlasting something) is not related, because of course it’s not related that would make sense.

Seriously, that last comes from the Old English laestan, perform, carry out, or pursue. It’s Proto Germanic origin word is laistjan, and it’s Proto Indo European word is lois-, which means furrow or track. No, I have no idea how it got from furrow to outlast. This is a madman’s game.

Sources

Online Etymology Dictionary

Google Translate

Dictionary.com

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

From The Spamfiles

Yes, still doing this. It means one lest post for me to write, which means more time for actual writing. Besides, these are funny.

Well, as we learned last week, Greg’s significant other might be cheating on him, so maybe this is right up his alley.

Look at all these messages Greg received just in one day. Seriously, what kind of sites is he visiting and why is he using my email address on them?

I’m not Jhon. I’m Greg.

I guess it makes sense that it’s impossible to deliver something I never ordered.

Honestly, I kind of like the little flowers. Why don’t I get those in regular messages?

The 18 with the strike through over it is weird. To me it seems like they’re saying that eighteen year olds aren’t allowed. Anywhere. Ever.

These are the things that bug me.

Puke Isn’t Usually Shiny

Peaches apparently thinks that if something exists, it’s for a cat to eat.

I have no idea where she found it. I can’t even remember the last time I used a piece of ribbon. I didn’t wrap any gifts with it for Christmas, that’s for sure.

Language of Confusion: Love

It’s love day, so I might as well look at words of love. Otherwise I’ll have to wait until the next time that February 14^th ends up on an etymology day.

Love

Love comes from the Old English lufu, which was pronounced something like “luhvuh”, and is clearly way more fun to say. It comes from Proto Germanic lubo, which is from the Proto Indo European leubh-, which means to care, desire, or love and is the origin word for things like libido (makes sense) and believe (What??). The Old English verb form of the word was actually lufian, which is actually pronounced like “loovian”. Why did we change this???

Passion

Passion showed up in the late twelfth century but back then it was only in a Christian context, and it took a few decades for it to mean “strong emotion”, and then things like sexual love and strong liking. It comes from the Old French passion and Late Latin passionem, suffering or enduring, and can be traced to the classical Latin pati, to suffer. I really want to know what happened in those few centuries that made it turn from suffering to strong emotion, because that sounds like a hell of a leap.

Adore

Adore showed up in the late fourteenth century as aouren, no d, coming from the Old French aorer, to adore. It does have a d in its classical Latin form, adorare, which could mean to adore but also speak to formally or ask in prayer. See, the ad- means to here, and orare means to speak or to pray. Adoring something is praying to it. Kind of.

Ardor

Ardor showed up in the mid fifteenth century from the Old French ardure, heat, glow, or passion. Before that it was the classical Latin ardorem, heat. Like, literally heat, but also sometimes figuratively, which is how we got the current definition of ardor. It can also be traced back to the Proto Indo European as-, burn or glow, another word that shows up in quite a few places. Which we will be getting to another time.

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

Orbis Latinus