2630: Obscure Root of Litera Feb 27, 2022

As mentioned, the root of the Latin 'littera', and from it a plethora of words like 'literature', 'literal', 'letter', 'obliterate' even the Finnish word 'littera' meaning 'internationalism' and '[banknote] denomination', all come from this root. The trouble is, past this, the etymology is disputed. Some suggest it is from an earlier word 'lītera', though this form did not even clearly exist. If so, it would have come from a normal vowel lengthening process of 'litus' or a reconstructed Old Latin *leitos, and would have been related to 'linō' meaning 'smear'.

The other prominent idea is that this is from an Etruscan root, which itself is then related to the Ancient Greek διφθέρᾱ (diphthérā) meaning 'writing material', but given as Greek and Etruscan are not related to each other, and would not have such a common source, this link seems tenuous. It could be both, with each word having a certain amount of influence on the final result.