Still Writing: Language Of Confusion: Kind Of -Fer, Part I

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Language Of Confusion: Kind Of -Fer, Part I

Remember when I looked at -fer? Come on, it wasn’t that long ago. It comes from the Proto Indo European bher-, to carry, and while I looked at words ending in -fer, it turns out bher- is part of many more words than just those. So now we’ll finally look at them.

First, the last word with -fer in it: ferret. Yes, like the animal. It showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old French furet, which is from fuiron, a weasel or ferret, or more literally a thief. It’s thought to be from the Late Latin furionem, from the classical Latin fur, which actually means thief and makes me wonder where fur comes from. And that word is thought to be from bher-, which started this mess. Similarly, furtive showed up in the sixteenth century from the French furtif, which is from the classical Latin furtivus, which means stolen or stealthy and is from fur. I guess ferrets are thieves?

Now for a word you probably didn’t expect, metaphor, which showed up in the late fifteenth century from the French metaphore and classical Latin metaphora, all of which just mean metaphor. As for why it’s a ph instead of an f, well, Latin stole it from the Greek metaphora and they liked to put ph’s for f’s when they stole words from Greek. Anyway, meta- means over or across, and the rest is from pherein, to bring, and that’s from bher-. A metaphor… carries across. Metaphorically.

A lot of other words have similar origins. Periphery showed up in the late fourteenth century, though back then it was spelled periferie. It’s from the Old French periferie, from the Medieval Latin periferia, which was peripheria in Late Latin. That’s from the Greek peripheria, circumference—or more literally, carrying around. Peri- means around, and the rest is from pherein, so it’s carry around. Then there’s pheromone, a very recent word since it showed up in 1959, coming straight from pherein, as dubbed by a couple of scientists. We also have phosphorus, which showed up in the mid seventeenth century, which is taken directly from Latin, and of course they stole it from the Greek Phosphoros, which means phosphoros, morning star or light bearer. Phos means light, while phoros means bearer (or tax, in a more modern sense), and that’s from pherein. Phosphorus carries light.

And there’s still more weirdness. Euphoria showed up in 1727 in medicine—the language it’s from is literally called medical Latin, as in the Latin those in medicine used—and in 1882 in the happy usage we use now. It’s from the Greek euphoria, which is a mix of the prefix eu-, good or well, and the rest from pherein. To be euphoric is to carry something well. And finally there’s esophagus. Yes, your throat! It showed up in the late fourteenth century right from the Greek oisophagos, which is just esophagus. Oisein might not look it, but it’s actually from pherein, while phagos means food. A throat carries your food, and that’s why we have esophagus.