Stories That Words Tell UsO'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)
History
Stories That Words Tell Us
O'Neill, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Speakman)
English language -- Etymology
Doublets from Latin words for the most part resemble each other in
meaning and form, though, as we have seen, this is not always the
case. We could give a long list of examples where both sense and form
are similar, but there is only space to mention a few. _Poor_ and
_pauper_ (a miserably poor person) both come from the Latin _pauper_,
"poor." _Story_ and _history_ both come from _historia_, a word which
had both meanings in Latin. _Human_ and _humane_ are both from the
Latin _humanus_, "belonging to mankind." _Sure_ and _secure_ are both
from the Latin _securus_, "safe." _Nourishment_ and _nutriment_ are
both from the Latin _nutrimentum_. _Amiable_ and _amicable_ are both
from the Latin _amicabilis_, "friendly."
Examples of doublets which are similar in form but not in sense are
_chant_ and _cant_, which both come from the Latin _cantare_, "to
sing." _Chant_ has the original idea, being a form of singing,
especially in church; but _cant_ has wandered far from the original
sense, meaning insincere words, especially such as are used by people
pretending to be religious or pious. The word _cant_ was first used
in describing the chanting or whining of beggars, who were supposed
often to be telling lies; and from this it got its present use, which
has nothing to do with singing.
_Blame_ and _blaspheme_, both coming from the Latin _blasphemare_,
itself taken from a Hebrew word, are not, perhaps, quite so different
in sense; but _blame_ means merely to find fault with a person, while
_blaspheme_ means to speak against God.
_Chance_ and _cadence_ both come from the Latin _cadere_, "to fall,"
but have very little resemblance in meaning. _Chance_ is what happens
or befalls, and _cadence_ is movement measured by the fall of the
voice in speaking or singing.
But the most interesting doublets of all are those which have neither
form nor sense in common. No one would guess that the words _hyena_
and _sow_, the names of two such different animals, are doublets. Both
come from the Greek word _sus_ or _hus_, "sow." The Saxons, when they
first settled in England, had the words _su_, "pig," and _sugu_,
"sow;" and later the word _hyena_ was taken from the Latin word
_hyaena_, itself derived from the Greek _huaina_, "sow."
The words _furnish_ and _veneer_, again, are doublets which do not
resemble each other very closely either in sound or in sense. Both
come from the Old French word _furnir_, which has become _fournir_ in
Modern French, and means "to furnish." The English word _furnish_ was
taken direct from the French, while the word _veneer_, which used to
be spelt _fineer_, came into English from a German word also borrowed
from the French _furnir_.
No one would easily guess that the name _nutmeg_ had anything to do
with _musk_; but the word comes from the name which Latin writers in
the Middle Ages gave to this useful seed--_nux muscata_, "musky nut."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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