This week’s word is brought to you
by Liz. Because she read something that said that run was the most complicated
word in the English language and I wanted to see if that was so.
Run first showed up as a verb and then later (in the fifteenth century) as a noun. The verb is actually a
combination of two Old English words
that are kind of alike, rinnan, to run and irnan/aernan, to ride.
Both are from the Proto Germanic rannjanan and its root word ren-, to run, which is from the Proto Indo European rei-, to run or flow.
Rei- is the origin of a lot of
words, like derive and rival, both of which I’ve already covered before (though almost three years ago now). And you might be thinking river is
related. After all, flowing is what they do. But it’s not. Although river is
from a Proto Indo European word “rei-”, it’s a different Proto Indo European
rei- that means scratch or tear apart.
Okay, as weird as that is and as
diverse in meaning as run may be, I definitely don’t think it’s complicated.
But maybe I spent too much time pouring over information on leg-.
Sources
Tony Jebson’s
page on the Origins of Old English
