Language Of Confusion: Gifts, Part II

All these words are descended from the Proto Indo European root ghabh-, to give or receive. Though every one of these words you’re going to look at and say WTF???
 
First is debt of all words. It showed up in the fourteenth century—with debtor actually showing up in the previous century, and back then they spelled it dettur/dettour, sensibly without the silent B! Debt is from the Old French dete, from the classical Latin debitum, debt, while debtor is from the Anglo French detour (no, not related to detour), Old French detor, and then classical Latin debitor, debtor. Both words are from the verb debere, to owe or originally to keep away from someone. The de- means away, and the rest is from habere, which as I mentioned last week means to have and is from ghabh-. A debt is something that needs to be given away. A debtor is someone it’s given away to.
 
Similarly, there’s due. It showed up in the mid fourteenth century as what’s customary or regular, then later on in the century as what’s owed, and then also becoming a noun in the early fifteenth century and an adjective in the sixteenth century. It comes from the Old French deu, from the verb devoir, to owe, from debere in Latin. So due is from debt, but they didn’t stick in the useless letter this time. The word duty is pretty much the same. It showed up in the late fourteenth century first spelled duete, from the Anglo French duete, which is also taken from the Old French deu.
 
But that’s not weird enough. How about endeavor being from the same place? It showed up in the early fifteenth century meaning the effort taken to obtain something, actually coming from the phrase to “put yourself in dever”, which meant to make it your duty (to get something). Dever is an Old French word meaning duty, and is also from debere. Because people used to say “in dever” a lot, we have endeavor.
 
Finally is a word you’re definitely not going to expect: malady. It showed up in the late thirteenth century from the Old French maladie, from malade, which means ill. That’s from the Late Latin male habitus, which means feeling sick. Male literally means badly, while habitus is like habit, attitude, or disposition—when you have a malady, you’re in a poorly disposition. And habitus is of course from habere. A malady is to have illness.
 
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
Fordham University
Orbis Latinus