Language Of Confusion: Ter, Part II

This week, more words from the Proto Indo European root ters-, to dry, and it’s starting to get weird.

Okay, weirder.
 
First, the ones that kind of makes sense. Tureen isn’t really used much these days so you might not know it means an earthen vessel. It showed up in the early eighteenth century from the French terrine, same meaning, from the Old French therine. That’s from the Gallo Roman terrinus, from the classical Latin terrenus, of the earth, and that’s from terra, which is from ters-.
 
Thirst comes from the Old English þurst, which is thirst with a different symbol for the th sound. It comes from the Proto Germanic thurstu-, and that’s from ters-, and when you’re thirsty, you’re dry, right? Also I think this is the only example of the Germanic descent of ters- as opposed to the much more abundant Latin. Clearly it wasn’t as possible with the old Germanic languages.
 
Next is another word that I can see work: toast. It showed up in the late fourteenth century from the Old French toster, from the Vulgar Latin tostare and classical Latin torrere, to roast. Of course that’s from ters-, as toasting something means drying it out more. And for the record, to toast as in to drink for someone showed up in the late seventeenth century (though the custom is much older and originally was used in regards to women), and apparently back then spiced toast (as in bread) was dipped in drinks to add flavor before the toast, to symbolize the flavor the toastee added to life. No, I’m not making that up. I could never come up with something so bizarre.
 
Let’s look at something both more and less weird. Torrent—yes, like water!—showed up in the seventeenth century from the classical Latin torrentem, which is just torrent. Before it meant a rushing stream, it meant roaring, boiling, burning, or parching, which makes sense because it’s from the same torrare that gave us to roast. Not really sure how it switched from fire to water there, just that it did. Torrid is from the same place, though at least this one makes more sense. Not a lot of sense, but more. It showed up in the late sixteenth century, but in reference to the “torrid zone”, which is basically what we’d call tropical zones now. It’s from the Medieval Latin torrida zona, and that’s also from torrere, because tropical zones are hot.
 
At least that one makes sense.
 
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
Dictionary of Medieval Latin
Encyclopaedia Britannica