Language Of Confusion: Ak-!, Part III

The third part in our look at words descended from the Proto Indo European root ak-, meaning to be sharp, rise to a point, or pierce. Things are going to get weird.
 
First today we’ll look at vinegar, which makes sense since so many other biting smells have come from ak-. Vinegar showed up in the early fourteenth century from the Old French vinaigre, from vin, which means wine, and aigre, sour. Now aigre is actually the origin of another word, and I’m betting you won’t guess this one: eager. It showed up in English in the late thirteenth century, though back then it only meant ardent, fierce, or angry, before for some reason morphing to mean keen desire. Eager is from aigre, and before that it was acrus in Vulgar Latin, and that’s from a word we’ve discussed in previous weeks, the classical Latin acer, sharp. Eagerness is a sharp desire. Also it makes vinegar sharp wine.
 
Okay, I can almost see that. Then there’s the word edge. It comes from the Old English ecg, the edge of a tool or weapon. That comes to us from the Proto Germanic agjo, which is from ak-. Makes sense, edges are sharp points. But where things get weird is it’s where egg comes from, but not an egg like a bird would lay. No, this is only the verb egg, like to egg someone on. That word, meaning to incite or urge, showed up in the thirteenth century from the Old Norse eggja, which also came from agjo. This means that to egg (someone on) is not at all related to egg (that is laid). Because words. Are. Stupid.
 
Let’s see if we can top that one. The next word on our list is ear, but much like egg, it’s not the obvious one you’re thinking of. This isn’t the thing on the side of your head, this is an ear of corn and only an ear of corn. It comes from the Old English ear, while the word for hearing ear is actually eare. That’s from the Proto Germanic akhuz, which is from ak-. See, an ear of corn was thought of as a “spike” of corn, so that’s how that was named that way. And the ear on your head being spelled the same is just a coincidence.
 
I’m rolling my eyes so hard right now.
 
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
Encyclopaedia Britannica