Now, I did the word text over five years ago when I did the word test, because it turns out, yeah, they have the same
origin. But I neglected to go over the prefixed versions of the word, and now
is as good a time as any.
To refresh your memories, text
showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old
French texte and Old North French tixte, which mean text. Before that, it was the Medieval
Latin textus, which could mean
the Scriptures or just plain text, but meant written account in Late Latin. The classical Latin version of
the word is textus, which meant “texture
of a work” and literally meant “thing woven”.
It’s from the verb texere, to weave (and the origin of test), which is traced back to the Proto Indo European root teks-, to weave, fabricate, or make.
Context showed up in the early fifteenth century meaning a composition, not, well, context. The classical Latin version is contexus, context,
from contexere, to weave.
The con- prefix means with or together,
so this word is “to weave together”. Funny how we never use it to just mean a
composition anymore. It went from being basically another word for text to the
literal meaning of its prefix and suffix.
Pretext showed up in the early sixteenth century from the French prétexte and
classical Latin praetextum, which
meant pretext or excuse. The
prae- is from pre-, in front and with texere,
it’s to weave or fabricate in front of. Which is a good explanation for what an
excuse is.
Subtext is much more recent, having
only shown up in 1950 (!) in reference to acting. Sub- means under, because the times it was used before becoming official in 1950 was to mean “text
appearing below other text on a page”. Subtext was once literally under-text.
Hypertext is common these days and also very recent, although since it first
appeared in 1969, it might be a bit older than you think since it predates the internet. Hyper- is the opposite of sub-, meaning over or above, so hypertext is text over the
other text. Just like all these web links I’m giving you.
Texture first showed up in the early fifteenth century,
but back then it meant a network or structure, from the Middle French texture and classical Latin textura. Textura has a few different
meanings, including texture, workmanship,
and a web. It didn’t actually start to mean the texture of something in English
until centuries later, if you can believe that. The word textile didn’t show up
until the early sixteenth century,
although at least it didn’t have some wildly different meanings compared to
today. It’s from the classical Latin textilis,
woven or textile, which… yeah.
That’s what a textile is.
TL;DR: Oh, what a tangled web we
weave.
Sources
Well done. Now, go weave yourself a basket.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised subtext is so recent.
ReplyDeleteSomeone wove something in my head, so I got nothing.
ReplyDeleteThe way "text" worked along through the centuries. It is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if subtext was part of that acting studio that started around then. Method acting happened around that time as well.
ReplyDeleteIn acting, subtext is about the words that aren't on the page, the words that are left unsaid, but are implied by the words on the page. When you can find that meaning, then your character will have the necessary depth to convey everything the playwright intended.
ReplyDelete