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'.
2151: don and doff Nov 4, 2020
The verbs 'don' and 'doff' as ways to describe the wearing or disrobing of a piece of clothing may seem a little old fashioned or even formal, though in actual fact these used to be mostly literary. They actually derive from a contraction of 'do on' and 'do off' and show that an older use of 'do' in Middle English meant 'put'. These contractions were only regionally used outside of literary archaism until the 19th century when they were brought back into regular use, but by that point, the original sense was slightly less clear since 'do on' was not a normal phrase.
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.
2149: Celtic Mutation, & Vowel Harmony Nov 2, 2020
Learning a language and its irregularities can be a real frustration, but some languages make this harder than others. Hungarian, Finnish, and Turkish feature so-called vowel-harmony, where the vowels near each other change regularly depending on the how affixes are attached (and there are a lot). For instance in Hungarian, -nek/-nak are the same dative suffix, but change depending on the vowel in the root word.
város város-nak 'city'
öröm öröm-nek 'joy'
On the opposite conceptual end, Celtic languages have mutations, meaning—as in the chart below—that based off of the surrounding words there is consonant mutation. For example
coeden goeden nghoeden choeden
meaning 'tree' in Welsh are all different forms of the same word, depending on what comes before it, and this process is how words are formed normally.
Celtic Vowel Mutations (imagine: public domain)
2148: 'merely vs. 'only' Nov 1, 2020
The difference between 'mere' and 'only' is qualitative, with both referring solely to what is specified, but 'mere' exerts a judgement that it can be no better than that, at best. In the past however, it referred to purity, coming from the Latin 'merus' meaning ‘undiluted’. The sense of lacking contamination has technically remained, though these days people would likely opt for 'exclusively' in order to convey (merely) high quality, which is no longer possible with 'mere'.
2147: A Parisian Menu with Actual Zoo-Animals Oct 31, 2020
It didn't have to be Halloween to enjoy "Cat à la Rat", or "Wolf's Leg, with venison sauce". The French are known worldwide for their fancy gourmet foods—snails and frogs notwithstanding—but there is a Parisian menu from 1870 that shows zoo animals on it. This, as a historical record, shows the way in which people reacted to the Franco-Prussian war, the siege on Paris, and the starvation it caused. Some more items include Elephant Soup, Kangaroo Stew, Stuffed Donkey Head, Antelope Terrine, and English-Style Camel...
2146: país, land, or country Oct 30, 2020
English is a language classes as Germanic, with some 60% overall Latinate vocabulary and yet both often it seems to go its own way. Its grammar is far more analytical than either, but even in the simple things like vocabulary, most Germanic languages use a word like 'Land' for 'country', whereas many Romance languages use a word from the Latin 'pagus' (countryside) like the French 'pays' or Spanish 'país'. The word in English instead comes from a word meaning literally 'lying opposite (i.e. land)', from the Latin "(terra) contrāta".
2145: Icelandic Cursive: ð, æ, and þ
There are certain letters including ð, æ, þ, ƿ, and ʒ (all represented in the lower case) which used to exist in English writing but no longer do. That said, three of these ð (like in 'THe'), æ (as in 'At'), and þ (as in 'THin') are still used in Icelandic. This raises the question: how are these written in cursive. Especially considering that Æ/æ was actually from Latin unlike the other Germanic ones, despite its current name 'ash' coming from the ash tree Germanic rune ᚫ which preceded it has a longer history. There are examples in the photo below from an Icelandic document from the 1920's. Indeed, all letter of these letters and more would have cursive form, especially since this was more popular in the past.
2144: black, bleach, bleak, blank... Oct 28, 2020
The word 'black' and the word 'blank', going way back are related, and while the base assumption might be that they are both void, this is not the source. Indeed, 'blanch', 'bleak', and 'bleach' which actually means 'make white' comes from the same root. There is a presumed Proto-Indo-European root *bʰleg- relating to fire, and drawing from the sense both of darkness from soot and other combustion, but also radiance—such as the Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga) 'radiance'—relating to white light and also probably ashes. This is relates the French and Spanish 'blanc/o' to 'black', all of which have a Germanic root; that said, the Modern German 'schwartz' is obviously not related, and instead shares a root with 'swarthy' meaning 'dark; dirty'.
2143: Productivity of 'fruit' Oct 27, 2020
The idea of fruit having a more generic sense of 'productivity' is fairly obvious considering phrases like "fruit of the womb" (children) and its tongue-in-cheek offshoot "fruit of the loom" (clothing) or just 'fruitful' all having meanings not relating to tree-fruit. Indeed, etymologically this is true many times over considering words like the Latin 'frui' (enjoy), German 'brauchen' (to need), and so forth all originate from the Proto-IndoEuropean root *bʰruHg- (to benefit from). This pattern of success, enjoyment, and physical productive creation exists across many other languages. The sense in English for many centuries was anything that came from the ground, including vegetables, which, like with apples, gained more specific meaning over time. NB the English 'blade'—for both swords and leaves, as in grass—originated with the botanical meaning, and shares an etymological root with this very productive 'fruit'.
2142: South African 'k*ffer' & Hebrew כפרה (redemption) Share Same Arabic Cognate Oct 26, 2020
The Arabic كفر (k-f-r) is the source of the very offensive South African slang 'kaffer', but also to the Hebrew כפרה (kapará) which in modern slang is a term of endearment. This is because the Arabic word meaning as a verb 'to disbelieve' can be used as a noun, كَافِر (kāfir), essentially to mean ‘infidel’. This word comes from Bantu—the Africans of this region of East Africa having extensive contact historically—but has now been taken up in other languages as an offensive term for black people. Meanwhile, the Hebrew כפרה (kapará) literally means "atonement; redemption", and also practically 'sacrifice'. This connection then to 'infidel' may seem odd, but it may seem even odder than the Semitic root relating these words means 'village'. Essentially, an infidel would be someone outside the village, and in other Semitic languages it came to refer to a more generic covering, or in this case protection. The phrase in Modern Hebrew comes from Judeo-Moroccan Arabic 'nímšī kapā́ra ʿalēk', or literally “I will go as atonement for you”, as a way to express humility—sort of like with ciao—and abbreviated as כפרה.
2141: "Loansounds" in Hebrew: [tʃ] Oct 25, 2020
Hebrew has no letter to represent [tʃ] (like in CHew) but there are two different traditions to draw from to do this. The way that was used for Yiddish, which did have this sound regularly, was to write טש (T-SH) as is used in קטשופ (ketchup). This word is also notable because it doesn't use the for of פ when it appears at the end of the word, ף, where one would be expected. Because the sound only exists in new loanwords, what Hebrew usually does for other foreign sounds instead is to add a sort of apostrophe (׳) known as a 'geresh' to indicate a variant. In this case, 'crunch' is written as קרונצ׳, as a variant of צ normally for /ts/. This is also used for instance for the [dʒ] sound (as in 'Jump'), written as a variant of ג which usually represents [g].
2140: Semantically Similar; Etymologically Different: -ment & -wise Oct 24, 2020
A lot of word in English that take the nominalizing ‘-ment’ suffix come from Romance languages, but this is not really related to the adverbial suffix in French ‘-ment’ such as with ‘finale’ + ‘-ment’ for ‘finalement’ (finally), nor its equivalents in other Romance languages like the Spanish ‘-mento’. This comes from the Latin the ablative form of ‘mens’, which means ‘mind’. In effect therefore, it is conceptually and functionally similar to the English ‘-wise’ that mean ‘in the manner of’ like ‘clockwise’, but which comes from a word (‘wise’) meaning ‘mind; manner’. The Latin was a feminine word, and hence the forms of the words to which it affixes are feminine, such as ‘vivement’ (lively) coming from ‘vive’, the feminine form of ‘vif’. The English -ment is also from Latin, but in this case it comes from a completely different word, ‘-mentum’.
Watch the newest video, about historical languages.
Get Word Facts Merch.
Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts
2139: excruciate and crucifiction Oct 23, 2020
Christianity historically has had a large influence on languages around the world, and many phrases like "one's cross to bear" have entered mainstream lexicon. One example people may not even realize though comes from 'excruciate' which can refer to anything being exceptionally bad or unpleasant. The Latin Latin 'excruciat-' however means 'tormented' and comes from 'crux' meaning 'cross' i.e. as if being crucified. Some have contested the idea that the was so literal and point also to the use of "crux interpretum" or "point of interpretation" such as a decision that is impossible to make, and thus stress-inducing but certainly the connotations will always be strong either way.
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'.
Watch the newest video, about historical languages.
Get Word Facts Merch.
Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts
2137: ciao Oct 21, 2020
Especially in Italy but also around Europe more broadly thanks in part to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ‘ciao’ is a common greeting. As might be discerned from the fact that it is used for both farewells and meeting, it has a generic meaning along the likes of ‘aloha’ (love) or ‘shalom’ [שלום] (‘peace’), but in this case it comes as a variation to a dialectal form of Italian ‘schiavo’ meaning ‘I am your slave’, shortened from the Latin phrase ‘servus humillimus, domine spectabilis’ (I am your humble servant, admirable lord). In that sense, it is a gesture of humility. However, in the Italian, like ‘slave’ itself, the word also comes from the same root as ‘Slav’, but in Greek Σκλάβος (sklábos) and Latin ‘sclāvus’ the word has a [k] that is not seen in either English or Italian but is still seen in German ‘Sklave’. This is also connected with the Greek κλάβος (klábos) meaning ‘fame; renown’, which was also itself used as a greeting, but in any case in Italian [skl] becomes [sch] as with ‘ciao’ (or ‘schiavo’) . The [s] at the beginning just got dropped off.
Watch the newest video, about historical languages.
Get Word Facts Merch.
Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts
2136: Biblical Hills* in Modern English Oct 20, 2020
There are are some mountains identified in the New Testament which have now become words totally detached from the original meaning in many other languages. 'Armageddon' is a Greek word but it comes via the Hebrew Har Megido (הר מגידו) meaning ‘hill of Megiddo’; it is now called Tel Megido (תל מגידו) or just 'Megido', with Tel meaning 'mount'. Conversely, 'calvary' has taken on the meaning as the name for a mountain, but comes from a Latin calque of the Greek Γολγοθα (golgotha), as an imitation of the Hebrew גולגולת (gulgōlet) meaning 'skull'.
2135: Metathesis as a Grammatical Feature Oct 19, 2020
Metathesis is a process that can affect words from any language, and involves the sounds internally moving around, but not every language does it for the same reason. Some fairly innocuous English examples include 'nuclear' to something like 'nucular' /ˈnjuːkjʊlər/ or 'asterisk' like 'asterix' /ˈæstərɪks/. In Hebrew, there are a few examples of this in loanwords like נמל (namél) from the Greek λιμήν (limḗn), and how the Bible contains both כֶּֽבֶשׂ (keves) and כֶּֽשֶׂב (kesev) to mean 'lamb'. Moreover even in normal cases it is actually a part of the grammar. The binyan hitpael used for reflexive verbs actually demonstrates metathesis with the prefix (hit-) and the first consonant of the stem when there is an alveolar fricative. For instance, this occurs with:
סכל (skl) --> הִסְתַּכֵּל (histakkēl) = "he looked at..."
where the T (תַּ) follows the S (ס), but this does not happen with
לבש (lbš) --> הִתְלַבֵּש (hitlabbēš) = "he got dressed"
2134: Lifting and Stealing Oct 18, 2020
A number of languages have a connection between words meaning 'to lift' and theft. In the case literally of 'lift' it has been suggested it might actually be related to the Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌹𐍆𐍄𐌿𐍃 (hliftus) meaning 'theif'. If so, it would have a connection to the Latin 'cleptus' (Greek κλέπτω (kléptō)), or in other words the same root as 'cleptomaniac'. Indeed the Greek has a far more general meaning including not only theft per se but also cheating and disguising.
Watch the newest video, about historical languages.
Get Word Facts Merch.
Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts
2133: The Basics of 'Basis' Oct 17, 2020
A lot of basics principles (and quirks) of English language history can be seen through the word 'basis'. First off, although the Greek is βάσις (básis) the root first entered English as 'base', and 'basis' entered via a more direct etymological path a few centuries later. Moreover, although it looks completely different, the word is related to 'come'. In Greek, the word means 'step' as in a stair, and likewise even 'step' in English means in a basic sense 'platform' or a measure of walking. Both 'basis' and 'come' are traced back to a Proto-Indo-European root *gʷem-.
Watch the newest video, about historical languages.
Get Word Facts Merch.
Support on Patreon.com/wordfacts
