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Word Power Book - A Course in Etymology Textbook
Word Power (SLL1002S)
University of Cape Town
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Word Power
- a course in etymology
Gail Symington
School of Languages & Literatures
UCT
Table of Contents
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- Appendix
This Indo-European family was divided into two branches: the western (centum) branch and the eastern (satem) branch.
The language groups which belong to the Western branch of the Indo-European family tree are:
Germanic Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic (North Germanic), German Dutch, English, Afrikaans, Flemish, Yiddish (West Germanic)
Hellenic Greek
Celtic Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Breton
Italic Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Roumanian (Romance languages)
The language groups which belong to the Eastern branch are:
Indo-Iranian Bengali, Punjabi, Hindi, Nepali, Urdu (Indic), Persian, Kurdish Baluchi, Pashto (Iranian)
Tocharian extinct
Hittite extinct
Balto-Slavic Latvian, Lithuanian (Baltic) Russian, Ukranian, Polish, Czech Slovak, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian (Slavic)
Armenian Armenian
Albanian Albanian
Other language families ( non Indo-European ) include:
Sino-Tibetan Chinese, Burmese, Thai
Semitic-Hamitic Arabic, Hebrew, Berber, Ethiopic, Sudanic
Ural-Altaic Finnish, Hungarian, Turkish
Japanese Japanese, Korean
Dravidian Southern India
Malay-Polynesian Pacific Islands, Indonesia
African Negro Central and Southern Africa
American Indian North and South America
A brief history of the development of English.
<. of invaders.. parts of their language, large and small, in the linguistic amalgam of English.= 3
English vocabulary today is a fascinating mixture of native words (Germanic) and borrowings from around the world. Let us trace the important historical and cultural events, from the 1st century AD to the present, that influenced and shaped this vast vocabulary.
The Roman Occupation of Britain: AD 46 – 410
The original inhabitants of Britain were the Celts, who, in antiquity, had occupied most of western and central Europe before migrating to Britain. The Celtic languages which remain today are: Welsh, spoken in Wales, Irish Gaelic, spoken in Ireland, and Scottish Gaelic which is spoken in Scotland. When the Romans invaded, conquered and occupied Britain in the first century AD, they brought with them their language, Latin, which was used for governance and commerce. The Roman army withdrew in 410 AD and returned to Europe to help defend the Empire which was coming under pressure from belligerent Germanic tribes. Surprisingly, Latin did not take hold as a spoken language in Britain after the Romans left. Only a few words of this era can be traced back to Latin. For example, the suffixes – caster and – chester come from the Latin word for 8camp9, castra. Lan caster and Win chester incorporate these suffixes. Similarly, the Latin word vinum means 'wine', strata means 'street' and portus means 'port'.
Old English: AD 450 – 1066
In 449 the Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, invaded Britain bringing with them their Germanic vocabulary. The basic roots and everyday vocabulary of English are Anglo-Saxon (also known as Old English). The name of the country, England ( Angle-land ), and the name of the language, English ( Anglisc ) derive from the Angles. One would expect to find at least traces of Celtic vocabulary in Old English but, surprisingly, Celtic had very little influence on English. The explanation for this is that the Germanic conquerors gradually either drove the indigenous Celts northwards or assimilated them. Roman influence during this time was essentially a result of religion. At the time of their invasion, the Germanic tribes were heathen but Christianity, the religion of the Romans, had gained a foothold during the Roman invasion, and now Celtic missionaries in the north and Roman missionaries in the south undertook the conversion of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. Since Latin was the language used in religious ceremonies and in the writings of the Church, words and ideas from Latin naturally found their way into English. In addition, Latin was considered the language of scholarship and most educated people of that time were bilingual, speaking of day to day matters in English and of intellectual matters in Latin. The practice of borrowing words from other languages served to enrich English. Yet
3 Hughes. op. cit. p. 12
spelling, in which the same letter represents different sounds and the same sound may be spelled by different letters.
Orthography: correct, conventional spelling.
There are 40 sounds in English but more than 200 ways of spelling them, for example:
<sh=: shoe, sugar, passion, ambitious, ocean, champagne
<o=: go, stow, sew, doe, though
<a=: hey!, stay, hay, make, maid, freight, great
According to David Crystal 6 , there are only 400 irregular spellings in English, implying that 84% of English spelling actually conforms to a pattern. Generally, English preserves the spelling of borrowed words so that their meanings are immediately recognizable – they would not be if written phonetically.
Early Modern English: 1500 – 1650
During the 16th century, with the introduction of printing, new publications in English proliferated. This period is often called the English Renaissance. The word 8renaissance means 8rebirth9 (F. renaissance, 8 rebirth9 f. L. re,9 again9 + nasci, 8to be born9), and was used to reflect on the rebirth of interest in the classical languages and literatures. This impacted on the English language as new English words were needed to translate the Latin and Greek words used in the classical texts,. How were these words developed?
"There was, in fact, a conscious effort on the part of many writers and scholars, to enlarge the vocabulary of English and to make of their native tongue a means of communication to rival Latin. The spread of education had produced a literate but semi-Latinless public for whom translations and epitomes of Latin literature were made. Anyone familiar with the process of translation will recognize that it is natural to translate a word with a word like itself. Often the native equivalent does not occur at once, or there is no native equivalent, and rather than go through a long periphrasis, the translator simply Englishes the Latin word. 7 "
As a consequence of this Renaissance, there was an unprecedented number of additions derived from Latin and Greek, namely some 12000 words. These were frequently referred to as <Inkhorn= words because of their association with scholars and education (an 8inkhorn9 was the ink holder into which scholars would dip their pens), and they were
6 Crystal. op. cit. pp 200 - 267
7 Luschnig. op. p. 83
considered difficult words and regarded as 8alien9 by some. This led to the 8Inkhorn Controversy9 which was a debate about the merits of introducing or creating words from Latin or Greek, instead of keeping to the basic Germanic vocabulary.
During this period there were two major influences on the vocabulary of English: William Shekespeare and the King James Bible. Shakespeare had one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer coining many new words ( neologisms ) and using existing words in different ways ( conversions ). The King James Bible was hugely influential as it reached the masses who could not read Latin, the language used by the Roman Catholic Church. Many biblical phrases coined in the King James Bible are used as general English idioms today. For example:
8my brother9s keeper
8eye for an eye
8to spy out the land
8a man after his own heart
8the signs of the times
Modern English: 1650 to date
After the Renaissance, with the availability of literary works in English and the growth of vocabulary, there was a need for a more regulated system of grammar and spelling. Robert Lowth9s <Short Introduction to English Grammar= (1762) set out formal grammatical rules of English while Dr Samuel Johnson9s <Dictionary of the English Language= (1755) attempted to set standards of spelling as well as produce a comprehensive account of English vocabulary. Johnson9s dictionary had about 50, words
This was also a period of rapid scientific, medical and technological advancement and Latin and Greek provided the basis for new terminology that was needed to describe accurately new concepts, discoveries and inventions. Many other words, borrowed from languages around the world, were added to the English vocabulary as a result of British colonialism and commercial expansion. Thus the Oxford English Dictionary today has well over 615,000 words, excluding words of a specialised nature. This is because the English are not linguistically insular – they are happy to borrow words from languages around the world, as well as to coin new ones. As Luschnig 8 says, <[The size of vocabulary] has given English the capability of expressing extremely subtle shades of meaning and has made our language one of the most remarkable inventions of mankind.=
8 ibid. p.
however, the etymology of a word gives its history – when and where it originated and how and why it might have changed in form and meaning. Why should one be concerned with the etymology of a word? Firstly, some words have fascinating histories in themselves, and might well assist people in remembering their meaning. Secondly, understanding the roots of words often enables readers to decipher the meaning of words not seen before.
Dictionaries:
There are many dictionaries available: unabridged as well as abridged (shorter versions). For the purposes of understanding the origins of words, it is important to check whether the dictionary entry gives the etymology , albeit briefly. In other words, look for the square brackets at the end of the dictionary entry. Some shorter dictionaries, in the interests of conciseness, exclude such information and give only the current definition. This would be inadequate for students of etymology!
Before using a dictionary, check the front of the dictionary to ascertain the meaning of the abbreviations and symbols used (the legend ). This is especially important when finding out etymological information. For example, Afrik. means 8Afrikaans9, Du. means 8Dutch9, and M. means 8Middle English9.
There are many dictionaries available. Here are a few:
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) – the unabridged version now runs to 20 large volumes. This is available in libraries as it is far too costly, as well as too cumbersome, for personal use. Even the 2-volume Shorter Oxford Dictionary is very large and expensive. Some good, reasonably-priced dictionaries are:
The Concise Oxford Dictionary
The Collins Concise Dictionary
The Chambers Dictionary
The American Heritage Dictionary*
Webster9s Dictionary*
Merriam-Webster9s Dictionary*
*These dictionaries use American spelling while the words in this book are based on the British spelling.
Of course, in this age of the Internet and cyber communication, many dictionaries, even specialised etymological ones, are available either as CD ROMs to be purchased, or are free on-line.
For example:
dictionary
oxforddictionaries
dictionary.cambridge
merriam-webster
etymology
etymonline
word-detective
Your dictionary is your best linguistic friend - form an everlasting relationship with it!
Types of words
The words can be broadly divided into two groups:
the core vocabulary which comprises of words that are in every day use and words that everyone understands. These words are usually Anglo-Saxon in origin, which is Germanic.
learned vocabulary which is acquired in the course of our education. The size of this type of vocabulary differs from individual to individual depending upon the level of education and the area of specialization. Hughes believes that while no one can be in control of the entire lexicon, the extent of one9s vocabulary (especially of the learned kind) often becomes a measure of intellect 10. Most of the learned vocabulary has been borrowed from Latin, Greek and French, sometimes without change, but usually the roots have been borrowed and then affixes added.
The choice of words to use depends upon their appropriateness to a given social situation or literary context 11 , that is, it depends upon the register required. Low register words are used in conversation, in informal situations and in popular writing. Higher register words are used in formal writing and to describe intellectual, abstract and learned ideas and concepts. Compare the use of the following pairs of words: kingly/regal; agree/concur; wise/judicious; shapeless/amorphous; revelation/epiphany; irregularity/anomaly.
10 Stockwell. o p. cit. p. 3
11 Hughes, Geoffrey. A History of Englsih Words. Oxford, Blackwell Publishers. 2000. 3
Chapter 3
The evolution of English vocabulary
<In exploring the evolution of the English vocabulary, we shall find that words are both fossils in which the culture of the past is stored and vital organisms responsive to the pressures of the present.= Geoffrey Hughes 12
This book will focus on English words formed from Latin and Greek roots, but will begin by looking at English vocabulary in general. English vocabulary is dynamic and continues to change and expand. Let us look at the ways in which words continue to be added to the English lexicon.
Neologisms
( neos <new= + logos <word=)
Sometimes, but not often, words are created without any connection to existing old words or roots, for example, dog, blizzard, jam, and more recently googol /google.
Sounds have given rise to many rootless words – these are called onomatopoeic words – such as cuckoo, bleep, bang, buzz, slurp.
Shakespeare was a great neologizer – at least one tenth of the words he used (and he used about 30,000) in his writings were neologisms (over 2000). Some did not endure but very many have become commonly used words, for example obscene, critical, weird, countless, foul-mouthed, to name but a few 13.
The language of advertising and journalism often contains neologisms, created to capture the attention of the consumer or reader, for example, kleenex, frigidaire and hoover.
Slang provides huge numbers of new words, most of which die out when they no longer are fashionable. Slang words are not used in formal English. Some common slang words in use at the moment are: defriend, tweetup, chillax.
New meanings can be given to existing words: webliography, icon, mouse, tweet
A neologism only stays new until people use it easily without thinking (as in the slang words mentioned above) or until it is accepted into the dictionary.
12 Hughes. o p. cit. p. 1
13 Bryson. o p. p. 70
Compounds
This is the largest source of new words, many of which reflect the explosion of technology. Compounding is when two words or phrases are either joined together, hyphenated or stand side by side to create a new meaning. These are similar to blends, but they do not lose a portion of either word. Here are some common examples:
new-born , boyfriend, spreadsheet, upmarket, road-rage, think-tank, laptop, hard-drive, Facebook.
Blends
Blends are also known as portmanteau words (a portmanteau is a large suitcase with two compartments). A blend is created by combining parts of two words in such a way that both lose a portion. For example:
motel – motor + hotel guestimate - guess + estimate
heliport – helicopter + airport breathalyser - breath + analyser
brunch – breakfast + lunch phubbing – phone + snubbing
chillax – chill out and relax s taycation – stay at home vacation
Anyone for tennis?
Have you ever wondered why the zero score in tennis is always referred to in English as love? Did tennis originate as a game for lovers? No! There is nothing romantic insinuated in this word. It is actually an Anglicized blend of the French for 8 the egg9, l9oeuf , as the shape of the egg was often associated with a zero (as in the cricketing term 8 out for a duck which is short for 8out for a duck9s egg9 , and means that the cricketer made no runs.) The peculiar thing is that French umpires use zero and not love in their scoring!!
Acronyms
( acros <top= + onyma <name=)
An acronym is a word formed by taking the first initial or the first sound of several words. It sounds like a word and is never punctuated. Most often they are formed to make unwieldy technical, political or medical phrases more compact. For example:
RAM Random Access Memory
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
2. Clippings
Words can be created by removing a syllable or even more from a word, such as phone from telephone, plane from aeroplane and advert and ad from advertisement. University students seem particularly fond of clipping words, for example Prof, math, lab, exam. Some clipped words are used so commonly that the abbreviated form has become accepted as a word in its own right, such as taxi from taximeter cab , fan from fanatic and bus from omnibus. Technical advances, advertising, emails and cell phone text messaging have led to an explosion of acronyms and abbreviations, accepted and understood by the public.
Conversions
A new grammatical function for a word can be created by clipping off the suffix ( back formation) as with the adjective lazy becoming the verb to laze, the noun escalator becoming a verb to escalate. Sometimes the word does not change in spelling or in sound but it is used as a different part of speech ( functional conversion). For example, the noun chair can be used as a verb to chair (a meeting) and the adjective major as a verb to major (in a subject) while the fairly recent abbreviation e-mail has also provided the verb to e-mail and google can also be used as a verb, to google.
Eponyms and Toponyms
Eponyms are words that are derived from the names of people and toponyms derive from the names of places. These often have very interesting and entertaining histories latent in their common, daily usage. Many eponyms are coined from the name of the inventor, such as braille, pasteurize, sandwich, from the particular behaviour of an individual, such as sadism, chauvinism, boycott, and from literary characters, such as Jekyll and Hyde, and mentor. Toponyms , on the other hand, tend to reflect products originating from an area, such as champagne (France) , jeans (Genoa) , denim (de Nimes) and bedlam (St Mary of Bethlehem insane asylum).
Marathon - why 42,2 kilometres?
The long-distance race, the marathon, is actually a toponym, named after a place , Marathon, where a battle was fought between the Greeks and the Persians in 490 B. This place was 42 km from Athens. Pheidippedes, an Olympic athlete, was sent, first, to get help from the Spartans, and then to announce victory to the Athenians in Athens. He ran as quickly as he could, delivered the victorious news and then collapsed and died.
The marathon, as a race, was only introduced into the modern Olympic Games. It was not an event in the ancient Olympics. Why the curious distance of 42,2 km? When the Olympic Games were held in Britain in 1908, the Olympic Committee decided to start the race at Windsor Castle to honour the King, and to end it right in front of the Royal Box in the stadium in London. This added 200 metres. The 42,2 km became standardised as the marathon distance in 1924.
Because eponyms and toponyms add such flavour to words, sometimes false or misleading etymologies are created which are gladly accepted by gullible logophiles (word-lovers). These are called folk etymologies or popular etymologies and these do not have the etymological connections which they are thought to have. For example: female is not derived from the word male and crayfish is not connected with fish.
Oh st!!**
A folk etymology regarding the origin of the most common expletive, shit , was introduced in 2003, claiming that it was an acronym for Ship High In Transit. This referred to the shipping of manure which, if it became wet while stored in the hold, would ferment and produce the highly flammable gas, methane. Therefore the bags of manure were stamped with the warning: SHIT. Interesting, but not true! The word originates from the Old English word scitte , which meant diarrhoea. When it first appeared, it had no negative connotation - a good example of degeneration of meaning.
Likewise, the supposed origin of crap as a taboo word meaning faeces does not derive from the inventor of the first flush lavatory, Thomas Crapper. This meaning of 8 faeces 9 was already in use about fifty years before Crapper was born.
Affixation
By using affixes (prefixes and suffixes) not only can new words be formed but also the grammatical function can be changed. This is the most common way in which Latin and
ID crossword laser bookkeeper Facebook rugby to mushroom goodbye blog online balaclava advertorial motherboard zoo SARS
- With the aid of a dictionary, find out the following:
a) the word's current meaning b) its etymology c) any interesting history
fascist Levi9s dismal heroin swastika robot pariah canary kangaroo vaccine
- The words listed below are all derived from the names of people or places. Find out:
a) the current meaning of the word b) who the person was or what the place was after whom this is named c) the story of this eponym or toponym
chauvinist balaclava braille boycott alsatian paparazzi gerrymander pasteurize sadist teddy bear hamburger sandwich bowdlerize nicotine guillotine
Degeneration and Elevation of meaning
Degeneration is the type of semantic change whereby a word which originally had a good or neutral meaning has come to suggest something low or unpleasant. This is also known as pejoration.
e.
villain: farm labourer [f L. villanus, farm worker]. It was a neutral word, indicating the separation of the classes. Then it came to mean one who had (bad) qualities which the gentry attributed to the lower classes, and it now means 8a wicked person9, 8a scoundrel9.
vulgar: pertaining to the common people [f L. vulgus, common people]. It came to mean lacking in sophistication and good taste, and it now means 8coarse', 'crude9.
Elevation is the type of semantic change whereby a word has come to mean something more pleasing or dignified than it did originally. This is also known as amelioration.
e.
nice: ignorant [f L. nescius, not knowing] An ignorant person was often quite affable and so it came to mean 8pleasant9, 8agreeable9, 8satisfactory9.
chancellor: usher in a law-court [f L. cancellarius, door-keeper f L. cancelli, lattice]. In court, the public was separated from the judges by a lattice-divider and this was attended by the cancellarius. Today a chancellor is 8a senior state, legal or academic official9.
Specialization and Generalization of meaning
Specialization : the process whereby a word shifts in meaning from the general to the specific.
e.
undertaker : one who undertakes to do anything. Now it means 8one who manages funerals9.
disease : discomfort. Now it means 8illness9.
Generalization : the process whereby a word shifts in meaning to become more general.
e.
decimate : destruction of one tenth of a military unit. Now it means 8to kill or destroy a large proportion of9.
vaccine : pertaining to a cow. It now means ' a substance given to stimulate the body9s production of antibodies and provide immunity against disease.
Exercises
- Look up the etymologies of the following words and find out whether they have degenerated or elevated in meaning (note that not all of these words are Latin in
Word Power Book - A Course in Etymology Textbook
Course: Word Power (SLL1002S)
University: University of Cape Town
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