Language Of Confusion: Per, Part IV

We still have plenty of words left that are descended from the Proto Indo European per-, forward.
 
First of all, paradise. It showed up first in late Old English specifically referring to the garden of Eden, and it comes from the Old French paradis, Late Latin paradisus, and the Greek paradeisos. Interestingly enough, that actually comes from Avestan origin—Avestan being an Arabic language in the third and fourth centuries—and in fact the modern Arabic word firdaus means paradise. So Avestan had the word pairidaeza, enclosure or park, where pairi- means around and is from per- while the rest is from diz, to make or form a wall.
 
Pardon showed up in the fourteenth century, from the Old French pardon/pardoner, Medieval Latin perdonum, and Vulgar Latin perdonare. The per is of course form per, through in Latin, and going through something is going forward, I guess. The rest of the word is from the classical Latin donare, to give, the origin word of donor. To pardon is to give a gift. Through.
 
Next, paramount, which showed up in the mid sixteenth century from the Anglo French/Old French paramont, which is also from the Latin per plus amont, which means upward or upstream (and is the origin of amount). Paramount is through upwards. I guess something paramount is upwards of everything?
 
Paramour is weirdly funny. It showed up in the early fourteenth century, from the Anglo French/Old French par amour, and you know the par is from per, while the rest is from amare, to love. Paramour is to love through. The funny part? Originally, paramour was used to refer to Jesus—by women—or the Virgin Mary—by men. Make of that what you will.
 
Promise showed up in the fourteenth century from the Old French promesse and classical Latin promissum, promised. The verb form is promittere, with the pro- from per- and the mittere meaning to send or release—the origin of mission, a word I looked at a very long time ago.
 
Finally today, we’ll look at pristine. It showed up in the mid sixteenth century, but back then it meant primitive or earliest period, not meaning pure until 1899—and back then, it was slang that educated people would not use to mean something like untouched. It’s from the French pristin, and classical Latin pristinus, which actually means former or original, with the pri- meaning before in Old Latin (and from per of course). The takeaway here? Pristine is slang! If you use it to mean pure or untouched, you’re using it wrong!!!
 
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
University of Texas at Arlington
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Dictionary of Medieval Latin
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Fordham University
Orbis Latinus
BrightHub [https://www.brighthubeducation.com/]

Language of Confusion: -Mission Impossible 2

Last week, I talked about the -mission and –mit words that everyone has heard of. This week, it’s the one that range from archaic to “Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize it as a word”.

Pretermit/pretermission

For those who don’t know, pretermit means to disregard or neglect, or to interrupt. Like last week’s words, it comes from classical Latin, the word being praetermittere—overlook. The –mittere (missionem is the past participle of it) part is obvious. If you don’t remember last week, it means “to send”. The praeter- part is where things get interesting as it’s not exactly a common prefix. It means beyond or more thanand is the combination of prae—before—and –itum, to go.

Intromission/intromit

No, not intermission. This word means “to send in” rather than a break between parts. The intro- prefix comes from the classical Latin word with the same spelling that means inside or within. So it’s inside plus to send. Pretty straightforward.

Demission/demit

This word means dismissal or resign and it has a verb form in demit . You might think it sounds like dismissal and it does, but actually, dismissal replaced another word: dismission. Anyway, in classical Latin it’s demissionem, a sending away, and it’s the past participle of demittere, to send down. It makes more sense when you know that the de- means down. It must have changed from down to away somewhere between the Latin and English versions.

Manumission/manumit

I cannot believe we don’t use this word more. It means “to set free” and is one of the most fun words I’ve come across. In Latin it’s either manumittereor manumissionem, which literally mean “set free from one’s hand”. As you may have guessed, the manu- prefix means hand.

Promise and compromise/compromit

Yes, promise is related to the -mission words. It comes from the Latin promissum, the past participle of promittere—send forth, foretell or promise. The prefix pro- means before, making it “send in before”. Compromise is an offshoot of that, descended from the Latin compromissus and compromittere, which means a mutual promise. It makes sense since com- means together. And yes, compromit is (or was) a word. Since it was basically a synonym for the endanger sense of compromise, it isn’t seen much anymore.

Next we have a bunch of words with familiar prefixes, but that have fallen out of use/been supplanted. Extramission for example, isn’t needed now that we have emit. Since the extra- prefix is related to the ex- one (where the e- in emit comes from), you can see where having both is redundant. There’s also amission/amit. The a- comes from ab-, a prefix meaning not or away from, so instead of sending in it’s being sent out. Useless when we have omit. Immission/immitis similar to the also not much used intromit. The prefix im- comes from in-which means…in. Anyway, it’s the opposite of emit. Instead of send out, it means send in. Finally, we have the odd word irremission, which means “refusal of pardon”. The ir- prefix is another form of in-, this one meaning “not” rather than in (no, that’s not confusing or anything). If we take it to mean not remission, it would mean not going back to its normal state. With mission is often a specific duty or service, it’s the refusal of going back to that service.

Whew, that was another big one. Anyone still there? Anyone at all? Is it just me or is it echoing in this blog?

Sources

Etymology Online

Dictionary.com

Orbis Latinus