Language of Confusion: Text, Part II

Here’s the rest of the words related to text, even though some of them really don’t look like it.

All. All of them don’t look like it.

Tech is related, although it has a somewhat long path to getting there. See, it first showed up in 1906 as short for “technical college”, and then in 1942 as being short for technician. But that word didn’t show up until 1833, and was a mix of technic and -ian, and actually showed up a couple of decades after technique (the spelling of that is from French, unsurprisingly). Technic is older, having shown up in the early seventeenth century, from the classical Latin technicus, technician or master, taken from the Greek tekhnikos, technical. No matter if it’s technic, the prefix techno-, or technique, all are from teks-, the Proto Indo European word for to weave that’s the origin of all of these words.

What other words are related? Well first of all, there’s subtle. No fooling. It showed up in the fourteenth century (even earlier as a last name, of all things), and back when it first showed up it was actually spelled sotil and meant penetrating or refined. That was from the Old French sotil, which was sometimes spelled soutil and even subtil, so I guess we have the French to thank for the B becoming silent. The word is from the classical Latin subtilis, subtle, a mix of sub-, under, and -tilis, from tela, web. Which of course is where weaving/teks- comes in.

Next on this tour of weirdness is the word tissue, which at least makes sense when you think about tissue being made up of “woven” fibers. It showed up in English in the mid fourteenth century, meaning a “band or belt of rich material”. It comes from the Old French tissu, ribbon, which has a noun form that meant to weave, and of course is from the classical Latin texere, to weave.

Finally today, toil. No, not the toil you’re thinking of. That one means hard work which isn’t related at all. There’s another one, and it means a hunting net—net, weave, web. Makes sense. It showed up in the mid sixteenth century meaning net or snare, from the Old French toile and the Latin tela, which gave us subtle. I didn’t even know that one existed, but if you’ve heard of it and wonder if it’s related to toil, then no, it isn’t, that’s crazy talk.

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

Language of Confusion: Working Words

And now, synonyms for work. Because…I don’t know. Pretend I had a reason.

Work

As a noun, work comes from the Old English weorc/worc, which basically just means work. It’s from the Proto Germanic werkan, also work, and before that the Proto Indo European werg-o, to do. The verb of the word has a slightly different origin. It’s actually a mix of two Old English words, wyrcan (cause, achieve, or make) and wircan, which is from a different dialect and can mean operate, function, or set in motion. Both words are from the Proto Germanic werkan, but it’s amusing to see how the words divided and joined back together like that.

Toil

Toil showed up in the early fourteenth century as both a noun and a verb, which was actually spelled toilen. The slight difference follows the word back in history, as in Anglo French the verb is toiller, meaning pull or drag, and the noun is toil, from toiler, to agitate. What a difference an L can make. But both words are from the Old French toeillier, drag around or make dirty. Before that they’re thought to be from the classical Latin tudiculare, crush with a hammer. That doesn’t make much sense, but neither does toil now meaning work hard these days.

Labor

Labor showed up in the fourteenth century, coming from the Old French laborer and classical Latin laborare, work. Nothing super interesting about this one, although labor did used to mean to plow back in the French. Weird how some uses of the word don’t get passed along.

Job

Job is a relatively late word, not having shown up until the mid seventeenth century. It actually comes from a sixteenth century phrase, “jobbe of worke”, meaning a single task. Before that, no one’s really sure where it came from, although one theory is that it’s from gob. It’s hard to believe that such a common word these days just kind of popped into existence.

Employ

As a noun, Employ didn’t show up until the mid seventeenth century, but the verb showed up two centuries earlier meaning to expend or to apply something for some purpose. It comes from the Old French emploiier and classical Latin implicare, which sounds like implicate because it means implicate. It’s actually a mix of the prefix en-, in, and plicare, to fold. To employ is to fold in. And guess what, imply is from the exact same word. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

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

Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English

Old English-English Dictionary

Fordham University