We’re back to the Proto Indo European root ne-,
which means not, and is the origin for
so many no words.
Okay, we’ll start with the word
that’s in all of these: no. It comes from the Old English na,
which is actually a combination of ne, not, and a, meaning ever. Ne is from
the Proto
Germanic ne, which is from the PIE ne-, while the a is from the root
aiw-, life or eternity. Wow, so
no really means not-ever.
Then we have none, which comes
from the Middle
English non/none and Old English nan, not one, not any, or no
person. Nan is a combination of ne-, which we talked just about as meaning
not, pay attention here, and an, one,
so nan is not one—or none. It’s definitely related to the classical Latin non-,
which of course is from the PIE ne-. And then there’s nothing, which I’ve
actually looked at before (along with several other of these words) but it was
a long while ago, so let’s check it again. It comes from the Old English naþing, which is another combination, this of nan and þing, so nothing is none-thing, or not one
thing.
Of course, there’s also not,
which showed up in the mid thirteenth century as a variant of naught, another word from last week. Then we have neither,
which is from the Middle English neither/naither/nether
and Old English nawþer, which is actually a contraction of nahwaeþer,
na (no) + hwaeþer (which of
two, the origin of whether). This
makes neither “not which of two”, or not whether. And similarly, nor is just no + or. And all those nose come from
ne-.
So does that mean never is just
no + ever? Yes. Yes it does. Never comes from the Middle English never and Old English naefre, never or not ever. Not-ever. Yes, ne- means not, and aefre means always or ever. No! Really?
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
University of Texas at Arlington
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Online Etymology Dictionary
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
University of Texas at Arlington
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary
Last one is too obvious.
ReplyDeleteNow all I can think of is Monty Python. We are the knights who say 'Nee!'
That all seems way too simple and straightforward.
ReplyDeleteI just caught myself reading the italicized words and just reading the thorn in them. Like it was natural. When did the letter thorn click in my brain as a letter? Yikes.
ReplyDelete