The last one! As usual for the
finales of multi-parters, I’ve saved the weirdest for last. These words might
not seem like they’re descended from the
Proto
Indo European yeug-,
to
join. But they are.
First today, adjust. Yes, adjust
is from join, but no,
just is not, the two words aren’t related at all. Adjust showed up in the
late fourteenth century meaning to correct or remedy,
while meaning to adjust something to conform didn’t show up until the mid
seventeenth century, and a person becoming adjusted to something wasn’t until
1924! Adjust comes from the
Old French adjuster/ajoster,
from the
Late Latin adiuxtare, to
bring near. The ad- is from ad,
to, and
the rest is from the
classical Latin iuxta,
which could mean
near, or according to,
and is from yeug-. Just on the other hand comes from
iustus, from the Proto Indo European root
yewes-,
law.
In other words, they’re totally not related. What a difference an X makes. It’s
easier to see in the word juxtapose, which showed up in
1826,
with juxtaposition actually showing up in the
mid seventeenth century.
The word is basically juxta- + position, so to be in a position near to
something.
Next, another word that’s not
related to just (but is to adjust): joust. It showed up in the
fourteenth century meaning what you’d expect, to
fight on horseback. It’s from the Old French
joster/joste, which is from
the Latin
iuxtare, to be next to, which is unsurprisingly from iuxta. As
to how being next to got to mean hitting someone with a lance, well, let’s look
at the word jostle. It showed up in the
mid sixteenth century meaning to knock against (like you would during a joust!), and it’s really just
joust with an
-el at the end. Being near
someone to bumping into them, to hitting them in the face with a lance. Makes
perfect sense!
Now, almost all English words
are Proto Indo European, with emphasis on the European part. The word yoga on
the other hand is obviously Indian—Hindi, specifically. It showed up in English
in
1820, while yogi actually showed up
earlier in the
early seventeenth century.
Those just copy the Hindi words, which are from the Sanskrit
yoga-s,
which means union or yoking—with the Supreme Spirit—and from yeug-. Basically,
yoga is yoking your spirit to a higher power. And now it’s something white
yuppies do to pretend they’re spiritual.
The final word we’re going to
look at is zygote, which, yes, is somehow related to yeug-. It showed up in
1878 from a German scientist, for no
reason I can figure. The word—though not the definition—is related to the
zygomatic bone in your face, the name
of which showed up almost two hundred years earlier in
1709,
from the word zygoma, which showed up in the
late seventeenth century,
called that because it joins the bones of your face together. Back to zygote,
that word is from the Greek
zygotos,
zygote,
and also things like yoke and weighing scales. And zygotos just happens to come
from yeug-. No I can’t figure out how they got a clump of cells from that
either.
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
Encyclopaedia
Britannica
Orbis
Latinus