English language use, Etymology Emmett Stone English language use, Etymology Emmett Stone

2285: bias & cutting Mar 19, 2021

The word 'bias' is related to the word 'cut, though clearly none of those sounds are related. The original sense of 'bias' meant something like 'sideways', but the Vulgar Latin ebigassius, originally from Greek, is related via Proto Indo European root *krs-yo, taking from the root *sker-. As discussed earlier, this lead to both 'shear' and 'cut', along with dozens of other terms, some more similar today than others.

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Etymology, Proto-Indo-European Emmett Stone Etymology, Proto-Indo-European Emmett Stone

2284: cut, shear, and carve Mar 18, 2021

Now replaced by the word 'cut', the words 'shear' and 'carve' used to have more general meanings. 'Carve' now is restricted to cutting a material into a certain shape, engraving, or cutting meat. In the case of 'shear', this actually comes from the same Indo European root as 'cut', that being *ker-, leading to other words including 'carrion', 'curt', 'skirmish', 'skirt', 'scrap', 'shard', 'scar' and many more. That said, now 'shear' also has a fairly specific, restricted use especially relating to hair and other cuttings of top-layers of things.

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doublets, Etymology, French, Latin Emmett Stone doublets, Etymology, French, Latin Emmett Stone

2266: cutler(y) Feb 28, 2021

The word 'cutler' and by extension 'cutlery' may come from the same root as 'cut', but only very distantly at best. These two terms originate with the Latin 'cultus'—not '*cutlus'—but eventually metathesized into the 'coutel'. The '-erie' suffix is is used in French to mean 'belonging to' such as 'bakery', or 'jewellery'.

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