2759: Linguistic Connections: ζεῦγος Jul 10, 2024
The concept of pairing or joining may not seem very complex, yet it is in these simplest instances that we find the greatest adaptation and variation. The Ancient Greek ζεῦγος (zeugos), meaning ‘yoke’—not in the burdensome sense but in the sense of things joined—gave rise to words like ‘zygote’ and numerous everyday terms. It was adopted into Aramaic as זוגא (zuga), meaning ‘pair’, which led to Hebrew זוג (zug), meaning ‘pair; couple’, and זיוג (zivug), meaning ‘soulmate’. Arabic also borrowed it from Aramaic, forming the root ز و ج (z w j), resulting in words like ‘marriage’ زَوْج (zawj) and ‘spouse’, as well as مزدوج (muzdawaj), meaning ‘bisexual’ in the sense of twos. Sanskrit योग (yóga), while not directly from Greek, shares the same root (also found in ‘yoke’ itself), relating to pairing, but in a religious Hindu context concerning the body and soul.
2750: Why ‘First’ and ‘One’ Are So Different Across Languages Jul 1, 2024
When it comes to going from cardinal numbers to ordinal numbers, languages usually modify the name for the number with an affix and perhaps minor phonetic changes, such as in English four → fourth; twelve → twelfth. What is also usual is that the words for “first; second; third” are also commonly more different to their cardinal counterparts, and even more notable, ‘first’, and its cross-language equivalents are not merely irregular, but often have a completely different root for ‘one’. This is true of languages all over the world, completely unrelated to each other, though this is by no means a rule.
While the question of why can be frustrating in a social science like linguistics; it is easy to understand that the most frequently used terms are the most likely to become irregular, but not about different etymologies altogether. For instance:
One - First [English]
Unus - Primus [Latin]
Moja - Kwanza [Swahili]
Tʼááłáʼí - Áłtsé [Navajo]
אחד - ראשון (echad - rishon) [Hebrew]
واحد - أول (wahid - ‘awal) [Arabic]
하나 - 첫 번째 (Hana - Cheos beonjjae) [Korean]
ஒன்று - முதலில் (Oṉṟu - mutalil) [Tamil]
All of these languages, unrelated to each other and across continents, not only have irregular forms for this pairing—which they do—but completely different origins. For many of these other words, the sense is not only ordinal, but of leadership. The English ‘first’ is from a very old Germanic root related to the Dutch ‘vorste’ and German ‘Fürst’ meaning ‘chief; prince’. In Hebrew the word is from ראש (rosh) meaning ‘head’ which can be used in the sense of leadership just as English. This is true in a certain way in Latin ‘primus’ from prae (before) and the superlative suffix -issimus (i.e. “most eminent”). Arabic is perhaps the most peculiar case of this happening. This is from a pagan deity name who is the head of the pre-Islamic Arabian pantheon. The root also has some sense of ‘top’.
The Navajo áłtsé also means ‘before’, and likewise ‘kwanza’ is a participle meaning ‘beginning’, and unlike the other words in the list above, is not used in larger number, e.g. “twenty-first” is “ishirini na moja”, using the cardinal number 1.
Of course, there are plenty of languages like Mandarin and Kyrgyz where the word for ‘first’ fits into the same template as every other ordinal number, but the high number of disparate terms may be simply from the fact that a word like ‘third’ that it is preceded by two, the first in a set is apropos of nothing and doesn’t need to fit into a pattern.
2746: Brave and Barbarous Jun 27, 2024
English has lots of pairs of words that are doublets (i.e. have the same etymology) but are also antonyms. One example would be host-guest, but another comes from the words ‘brave’ and ‘barbarian’. While these words aren’t opposites per se, the former denotes righteousness and courage while the latter connotes incivility. ‘Barbarian’ originates from a Greek onomatopoeia, but this eventually morphed, along with influence from the Latin ‘prāvus’ (crooked), the source of the English ‘depraved’ to form ‘bravus’, thence ‘bravo’ meaning ‘bold’ or ‘showing off’, and also ‘skilled’ which did not carry over into English. This can help to understand the sense of ‘bravo’ at a time of applause, or even its historic meaning of ‘swordsman’.
It was only later into the 15th century that the sense in Italian ‘bravo’ was changed in French ‘brave’ to go from ‘wild’ to ‘courageous’ and eventually ‘valiant’ which English adopted thereafter.
2703: Gelatin and Gelato May 15, 2024
Words like gluten, gelatin, glutamate, and even gelato are all related, beyond just having a vague food relation, but it may not be obvious why. In the case of ‘gluten’ and ‘gelatin’, which do not look so alike, this from the Latin ‘gluten’ meaning ‘glue’, though ‘gelatin’ is older in English, passing through many other languages along the way, but both become very sticky and springy in water and then harden into a shape, likely coming from the same source as ‘clay’ etymologically. This quality of sticking did not only extend to things that are sticky to the touch, but that come to stick together in some other way when they harden. ‘Gelato’ is called such since ‘gelata’ in Latin means ‘frost’, when water begins to bind, or even ‘glass’, made from sand coming together.
2702: 'Bus' comes from ¾ of a Latin Ending May 14, 2024
When it comes to motor vehicles, lots of words have been abbreviated to form used today, but not in the same ways. The word 'auto' common in many languages is shorted from automobile, but the prefix 'auto-' is common enough and stands on its own as a morpheme at least. In the case of 'bus' however, this is from omnibus which is a Latin word meaning “for all”, as the dative plural form of omnis (“every; all”). In shortening it, not only was the word abbreviated, but it implies the root is made of “omni-” plus “-bus” but the suffix in Latin is “-ibus”, and unlike say “auto + mobile”, “omn(i)-” would anyway not stand on its own, at least not with the same meaning.
Later, words like “autobus” emerged to refer to mechanical omnibusses (no sensible plural would exist using just Latin morphology), but by this point it had lost any originally intended meaning it might have had.
2701: Gardens, Orchards, and Paradise May 13, 2024
It’s lovely to sit in an orchard, though far less lovely sounding to sit in a wort-yard, yet this is what it would have been called in Old English ortgeard. 'Wort' in this case simply means ‘plant’, still seen at the end of many plant names, like butterwort, woundwort, and spearwort. However, etymologically speaking, there is an even better sounding orchard-word: paradise.
Paradise comes to English ultimately from the Avestan (Persian) word pairidaēza, meaning “enclosed garden” but in Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos) meant “palace gardens”. Because of this lofty definition, this word became associated with the Garden of Eden and by extension heaven (e.g. Dante’s Paradiso), displacing the enigmatic Old English word ‘neorxnawang’. These biblical connotations to ‘paradise’ do not exist in the doublet ‘parvis’ (i.e. “cathedral gardens”) but coincidentally came in the Hebrew פרדס (pardes) took on extra, spiritualism, while in Modern Hebrew still denotes an orchard.
2691: Old English Has a Word for ‘Hyena’, Sort of. May 3, 2024
The modern word 'hyena' comes from an Ancient Greek root ὗς (hûs) meaning 'pig' with a feminine ending -αινα (-aina) so called because it has a similar hide to a warthog. This replaced an earlier Old English word nihtgenġe (“night walker”) which is not only cooler, but begs the question of how much contact there was between these parts of the world to have a distinct and known word for the animal. You might think the answer is because of the Roman Empire, but Old English began after the Roman Empire fell, and the Germanic tribes that invaded then-Celtic Britain wouldn't have had much Roman contact. However, hyenas are used in the Bible as a metaphor for Satan, and the term nihtgenġe (“night walker”) would otherwise refer to a demon. So, in way this was the word for them, but it is also likely those living in Britain in the Dark Ages would not have had a clear idea how they looked.
There will be more on this tomorrow.
2688: Semantic Narrowing of Venom and Poison Apr 30, 2024
English has a lot of words. By many metrics, it has more words than any other language. That means that many terms that would have had lots of meanings have picked up highly niche connotations. For instance, there is a habit some people have of correcting the notion that snakes aren’t poisonous, but rather venomous, with the former denoting something that is toxic when ingested, and the latter referring to poison that is injected via bite or sting.
First of all, even in that definition, some snakes are poisonous, like the rhabdophis keelback snakes, though the snake’s poisonous quality is developed from its diet. More to the point, this distinction is really very new, and doesn’t really exist in other languages. ‘Venom’ comes from the Latin ‘venenum’ meaning ‘poison’. The original meaning of this word was also something like ‘charm’ and possibly ‘potion’, which would make sense especially given that ‘poison’, ‘potion’, and ‘potable’ all come from the same root meaning ‘to drink’. There will be more about the wide range of meanings related to ‘venenum’ tomorrow.
2680: The Mysterious Origins of Rice Apr 22, 2024
The word “rice” is a wanderwort meaning that is shared across many languages that aren’t related to each other, in this case many Semitic, Indo-European, Caucasian, and Turkic languages. Like a lot of old wanderworts, including ‘wine’ (LINK), it is not entirely clear where ‘rice’ comes from. Most likely, it is from a South Indian, non-Indo-European language, but words clearly from this root are seen from India to Persia, and the Middle East to Western Europe. One theory holds that it entered Sanskrit through some Dravidian source before entering languages to the west. Another holds that the word first entered Semitic languages like the Hebrew אורז (órez) ultimately from Old Tamil arici; Tamil is also a Dravidian language.
2677: Who Is Steven, Even? Apr 19, 2024
There is a phrase, 'even-steven', usually not capitalized, that gets thrown around, but the question remains: who is, or was, Steven?
The answer for sure is no one person or really anything to do with the name, but it's not clear why. One theory is that this is just rhyming for emphasis, though that wouldn't explain the 'st-' in particular except that Steven is relatively common compared to other rhymes.
Another theory, however, places the steven from the Old English 'stefn' meaning 'voice' and likewise 'vote' or 'constitution; composure'. This is related to the German 'Stimmen' with the same range of meanings. It's possible that both theories are at play and that people opted for a somewhat relevant word that would carry more emphasis than saying 'even composition'.
2471: lemon & citrus Sep 17, 2021
Around Europe, two different basic terms for 'lemon', or alternatively 'citron' are used, both very likely of Semitic origin though this is not certain. Ultimately, 'lemon', also found in Portuguese 'limão' and Spanish 'limón', along with a number of other Semitic and Nilo-Saharan languages comes from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn), itself from Persian and likely with a connection to the Sanskrit word for 'lime'. 'Citron' on the other hand, as in the French 'citron', German 'Zitron', or Italian 'cedro' is via the Latin 'citrus' from Greek, likely from a Mediterranean, pre-Greek root akin to the Arabic قَطْرَان (qaṭrān), which may have been used to describe the resins and only later the fruit itself. More on how limes fit into the story tomorrow.
2374: nachos Jun 18, 2021
There's an old joke:
What do you call cheese that doesn't belong to you?
Nacho cheese. (This really only works if you say it out loud...)
For Ignacio Anaya however, this would be false. Nachos were actually named after a specific person, Ignacio Anaya, a Mexican restaurateur who owned Nacho's Restaurant and named the dish after himself too. Nacho happens to be a fairly common nicknamed form of the Spanish name Ignacio. This was originally the Latin 'Ignatius', famed for the saint Ignatius of Antioch, with Ignatius technically being a name in English but far less common than its Spanish equivalent.
2240: The Transformation of 'Hide' pt. 2 Feb 1, 2021
Previously, it was discussed how 'hide' (verb) has a vast array of related words; many closer related than 'hide' as a noun. These may seem surprising on the surface, like 'sky' and 'shoe', but also consider that 'hide' has changed a lot over time too. Take for instance that the verb used to be weak, which is to say it would have conjugated like
hide-hided-hided rather than
hide-hid-hidden
In general, the tendency is to expect that as time goes on, the creation and productivity of these so-called strong verbs—verbs that indicate tense with changing the internal vowel—to decline.
2159: 'Frau', Meaning 'Lord' (*frawjǭ) Nov 12, 2020
Yesterday’s post discussed the odd pronunciation of ‘women’, but consider that most Germanic languages do not use this word. The German ‘Frau’, Dutch ‘vrouw’, Swedish ‘fru’ and so on all come from the same root *frawjǭ meaning ‘lady’, as in the female form of ‘lord’. More on this word tomorrow. Indeed, this root word referred to nobility but also normal women not unlike ‘lady’ does today. The Old English ‘frōwe’ for instance was connected to the OE ‘frēa’ meaning ‘lord’ or also ‘husband’. It is also related to the Russian пра́вый (právyj) meaning ‘right’ (also connected to words for a judge or a master), related to пра́вда (pravda), as in the infamous newspaper meaning ‘truth’. This Russian word is also related to the Latin ‘prōvincia’ (territory; dominion) and might help to elucidate why the connection to lordship exists.
2152: man Nov 5, 2020
One of the oldest and certainly significant root across all Indo-European languages is 'man'. For sure it has broad-reaching senses that gave us many modern derivatives, but not only is it unclear where it comes from, but also across Germanic languages it pushed out an earlier word 'wer'. One theory on its origin connects it to another root *men- giving 'mind' and more obviously the Latin 'mēns', hence 'mention', 'admonish', 'demonstrate', and 'automatic' through Greek, but other linguists contest this idea. Another theory points to Germanic mythology involving a figure known in Latin as Mannus who was the progenitor of people, known in the language as *Mannaz. Either way, it was used as a generic term for humanity and the pronominal use—still seen in German 'man' for 'one'—before it pushed out 'wer' (hence 'werewolf') as a word for 'man' (as in male) by the 13th century. This process is similar to the generic Latin term 'homo' (hence the French 'homme') pushing out 'vir' for specifically male. In all these words though, it also had the sense of 'husband'.
2150: ser/estar: Why Differ? Nov 3, 2020
The Spanish verb 'ser' is notable for a lot of reason, but both it and its counterpart 'estar'—meaning 'to be'—come from the Latin meaning 'to sit' (sedēre) and 'to stand' (stāre) respectively, which may help to explain why 'ser' is for permanent things, and 'estar' is more often for transient uses. This is not actually so rare to see verb meaning 'sit' or 'stand' used existentially. While in some languages this is standard, even English has the phrase "that sits well with me", though this is obviously not exactly the same. In the case of 'ser', the verb is irregular partly because some forms come from the Latin 'sum', always having meant 'to be', namely present tenses, the imperfect, and the preterite tenses.
2138: knight Oct 22, 2020
When one thinks of a Medieval knight, ideas of nobility likely arise. Indeed, for much of history in different places, only the upper echelons of society could participate in wars. However, the German 'Knecht' means 'servant' and comes from the came root. This root, *knehtaz, has many derivatives among other Germanic languages, and in English it originally meant 'servant' or 'boy'.
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2126: Chai vs. Tea Oct 10, 2020
Around the world, lots of languages use a world like 'tea' and many others use 'chai' to describe the same thing; English uses both words but to describe the different preparation of the same plant-leaves. The word 'chai' comes to English via Arabic or Russian, ultimately from Mandarin ch'a, which also led to the now rare 'cha' or 'char' used in the 16th century. The word 'tea' came in the 17th century as a later variant (pronounced [tei] like 'pay') and also comes from this Chinese root, but through the Malay 'teh' (via the Dutch who held colonies there). The words in language like German, French, Dutch and so on that have the T come from this root, and the others like Greek, Farsi, Russian, and Arabic take the more direct Chinese root.
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2118: Correction on "Well Good god!" Oct 2, 2020
Correction: It was stated in a post 5 years ago that "'[g]ood', however, comes from the Old English 'gōd', which meant "god, deity"" but this is not true. This is a popular folk etymology, but a look at the terms historically shows this to be clearly off. First off, in the Germanic pantheon, and hence the Old English root, pagan deities were not considered to be clearly and consistently good; that notion came later and from a separate religion. Likewise, 'good' did not have the ethic nor moralistic sense it has not until later, and just meant more along the lines of 'pleasant'.
2112: augur Sep 26, 2020
Today, the word 'augury' refers to anything which is a sign for the future, or in particular a sort of omen, whether seen to be good or bad. 'Augur' is now used as a verb but it started as a noun as the '-y' suffix suggests, denoting a specific Roman official who observed signs in nature to predict the future. Most especially this would depend on birds, and though it is uncertain some suggest that 'augur' comes from the Latin 'avis' (bird) and 'garrire' (to talk). Otherwise, it could be related to 'Augustus' meaning 'growing (in might)'.
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