Incidentally, make is the word that prompted me to join the challenge, because it didn’t have enough to it for a regular post.
So. Make.
I have no time for when make
showed up in English, just that it’s from the Old English macian, which has a variety of meanings
such as make, construct, prepare, cause, behave, transform—basically all the
meanings we have for make. Macian comes from the West Germanic makon, to fashion/fit, which can be
traced back to the Proto Indo European mag, knead or fashion. Interestingly
enough, past tense made came from the Middle English maked (which might explain how that d
got there). The Old English equivalent is macod,
the past participle of macian.
Halfway done!
Sources
Tony Jebson’s page on the
Origins of Old English
University of Texas at Austin
Linguistic Research Center
