Here
is a list of few important words with their origin, etymology, history and
meaning. These philological word notes will definitely help all students of
English Language and Literature to enhance their knowledge as well as to
prepare them for the examination.
LIST
OF PHILOLOGICAL WORD NOTES
[A]
1. ADMIRAL
-Admiral, which was formerly amiral,
is of Arabic origin. It is a fragment of the phrase amir-al-bahr which means "commander" of the sea.
2. ANGEL
-The Old English form of the word was engel
which is from Latin angelus, (Greek aggelos). It is a pre-Christian Latin loan word. The Anglo-Saxons adopted this Latin
word before they migrated to Britain and long before they were converted to the
Christian religion.
3. ASSASSINATION
- The word is formed by adding Latin suffix-ion
to the word assassinate which is, in its turn, formed by adding Latin suffix-ate to assassin. Assassin is derived
from the Arabic word hashashin, the name of a fanatical sect in the East who
intoxicated themselves with hashish and who, like the Thugs committed murders
for the glory of their divinity, Shakespeare makes use of “assassination"
only in Macbeth (1,7,2).
4. ACHE
- The modern word ache (as in toothache, headache, bodyache) is a curious cross
of the Middle English noun (ache) whose spelling has been kept, and the Middle
English verb (aken) whose pronunciation (with k sound) has prevailed. Baret
(1573) says expressly. "Ake is
the verb of this substantive ache, ch
being turned into k".
5. ADVICE
- The Middle English form of the word was avis
(avus) which was borrowed from
French. The intrusion of d in advice is due to the Latin influence of the
Renaissance and post-Renaissance period, because during and after the
Renaissance many a French word already in English) was remodelled into closer
resemblance with their Latin originals (Avys was originally derived from Latin advisum).
6. ADVENTURE
- The Middle English form of the word was aventure
which was derived from Old French aventurer.
The tagging of d to ME aventure is
the product of the Renaissance influence upon the English language. After the
Renaissance many English words which were originally derived from French were
remodelled after their Latin originals. The ME form is still retained in the
phrase at aventure, where a has been apprehended as the indefinite
article (at a venture).
7. AMATEUR
– An amateur is – or was – a person who loves a game or subject. The word comes
from the Lat. amare (to love). Thus a painter like Sir Winston Churchill may
properly be called an ‘amateur painter’ for though his works may indeed have
genuine artistic merit. But presently the meaning is changed into ‘a person who
is not specialist or professional’.
8. ARISTARCHY
-The word is derived from the proper name Aristarch,
and means “a body of severe critics". But the word is wrongly interpreted
in the most dictionaries as a body of good men in power."
9. ALMS-
OE. aelmesse
is derived from Greek eleemosure. ME.
form of word was almesse, plural almesses. It is significant that the
word occurs in connections where it is impossible to decide, from the context,
whether a singular or plural is intended (e.g."ask alms", "give
alms") In the Authorised Version of the Bible the word occurs eleven times, but eight of
these are ambiguous, two are clearly singular and one is plural. Nowadays the
association between the s of alms and the plural ending has become so firm that
an alms is said and is written very rarely. (eleemosune
>almesse> alms.)
[B]
10. BRIDAL
- The word is an illustration of that linguistic phenomenon which is known as
"Obscuration of Compounds” which means the loss of identity of the
separate parts of a compound-the loss which results from the loss of stress,
Old English compound bryd-ealu became
in course of time bridal through phonetic change.
11. BEG
- The word is an example of back-formations. The ar of beggar was mistaken for a derivative suffix, and as such it
was subtracted from beggar to get the new verb to beg.
12. BEAUTIFUL
- The word is an example of hybridism which is made up of parts derived from
two or more different languages. Beautiful is a hybrid formed of the French
word beauty and the English suffix-ful. According to H. Bradley the word
beautiful was not known to have been used by any writer before Tindale, a Bible
translator of the 16 the century. He is of the opinion that Tindale certainly
did not invent it, but there is no doubt that by introducing it into the
People's Book, he helped to bring it into general use.
13. BUSK-
The word is borrowed from the Danes, because the sound combination sk (written sk or sc) in the word
points to the Norse origin, since genuine English words have instead an sh sound. According to Jespersen the
word is of Norwegian origin, and is illustrative of the fact that there were
many Norwegians among the Scandinavian settlers.
14. BANKRUPT
- It is an Italian word, latinized from bancarotta, and the English owe this
word to their commercial relations with the Italians.
15. BATH-
(cp. bathe)- In the English language
there is a tendency to have nouns and verbs of exactly the same sound, and as a
result there are some interesting doublets in English. Besides the old noun
bath and the verb to bathe, we have
the recent verb to bath (She did not
bath her baby today) and the noun bathe (I went to the river yesterday and had
a very decent bathe).
16. BRIDEGROOM
- The word exemplifies how folk-etymology sometimes transforms only part of a
word. In the word bridegroom OE.gum
'man' has become groom by association with groom, ‘an attendant'.
17. BREECHES
- OE. broc formed its plural brec. (cf. gos, ges, goose, geese) but gradually broc went out of use with the result that brec (subsequently breech) came to be looked upon as a singular and
a new plural breeches formed. The word breeches
in an instance of those words where the original singular is not in use, or the
manner of forming the plural is no longer perspicuous.
18. BODICE
- It is really nothing but a by-form of bodies.
It is an instance of words (invoices,
quinces etc.) which have a double plural ending. The unusual sound of the
first ending (voiceless s where the
ordinary ending is voiced as in joys,
sins etc.) facilitated the forgetting of the original function the s written ce, and as such bodice came to be looked upon as a singular and a
new plural can now be formed from it by adding the ordinary plural ending s.
19. BOYCOTT
- Boycott illustrates the philological phenomenon that names of persons are a
fruitful source of new words in English. The word boycott is derived from the
name of Captain Boycott, an Irish landlord who ostracized about 1880. Boycott
treated the cenants so truly that they rose in revolt against him and boycotted
him (i.e. refused to have social or commercial relation with him) . This word
has in recent times found its way into other languages. In English it is used
as noun or verb.
20. BRETHREN
– it is an instance of double formed from the original plural brether. When brether came to be used collectively for the members of a single
family, it became necessary to have a second plural to express brothers of many
families, and brethren was formed by
adding to brether the en ending. In Modern English we restrict
brothers which replaces brether, to those of one family, and use
brethren for those who call one
another brother, though belonging to different families.
21. BISHOP-
The word is derived from OE, biscop
which was derived from Latin episcopus.
This word is as old as the introduction of Christianity in England. This word
is also an example of apheresis which means the loss of an unaccented vowel at
the beginning of a word. And in bishop we see one of the earliest examples of
apheresis occurring in an English word, -bishop
.
22. BY-LAW
- The English owe many law-terms to the
Scandinavian settlers, which has been conclusively shown by Professor
Steenstrup in his well-known work on Danelag.
The most important of these law-terms is the word law itself, known in England
from the 10th century in the form lagu
which must have been the exact Scandinavian form. By-law is now felt to be a compound of the preposition by and law, but originally by was the Danish by meaning town or village
(found in words like Derby, Whitby etc.). and the Danish genitive-ending is
preserved in the other English form byrlaw which is now obsolete. By-law is
probably from obsolete byr-law, local custom" (C.O.D.).
[C]
23. CAB- The word is derived from cabrioler by the
process of what is known as Shortening, that is, the clipping of long foreign words.
Like many other words formed by shortening, cab has undergone a
sense-development of its own. A cab and a cabriolet are not the
same kind of vehicle at all.
24. CALL
- It is a Scandinavian loan word. It
occurs for the first time in the glorious patriotic war-poem, written shortly
after the battle of Maldon (993 AD.) which it celebrates. Call shows how early the linguistic influence of the Danes began to
be felt and reveals that the relations between the English and the Danes were
not altogether hostile.
25. CHARLOTTE
- The French influence upon the English language has not been restricted to one
particular period, and it is interesting to compare the forms of the old French
loan-words with those of recent ones. This comparison will reveal the changes
which French has undergone since the Middle Ages. Where a ch in an originally French word is pronounced, as in changes, chaunt etc., (with the
sound-group (S), the loan is an old one; where it is sounded as in champagne (with simple S), the loan is a
recent one. But it is curious that the two pet names should now be spelled in
the same way Charlie, although they
are distinct in pronunciation: the masculine is derived from the old loan Charles, and has, therefore, the sound
(1S), the feminine is from the recent loan Charlotte
with the sound (S).
26. CENSURE
- The word is derived from Old French censure
which was derived, in its turn, from Latin censura.
The word found its way into the English language in the Middle English period.
The word has also semantic significance. Of late it has undergone the
degeneration of meaning by being specialised in meaning. In Elizabethan English
it was a neutral word, and was used in the sense of judgement' as well as in
that of 'blame.' Shakespeare has used the word in both the senses. He uses it
in the sense of judgement' in Othello [II, 3, 191-93).
"The gravity and stillness of your youth
The world hath noted, and your name is great
In
mouths of wisest censure"
27. CERTAINTY
- (cp. certitude) Certainly is a French word and certitude a Latin word. These two words
are often used indiscriminately, but there is now a tendency to restrict certitude to merely subjective
certainty, as in the following lines from Cardinal Newman's "Apologia pro
Vita Sua" : "my argument is that certitude
was a habit of mind, that certainty
was a quality of propositions that probabilities which did not reach to logical
certainty, might suffice for a mental
certitude etc."
28. CHILDREN
- Like brethren it is an instance of
double plural formed from an original plural childer which is still preserved in the Northern dialect of
England. When childer came to be used
collectively for the offspring of a single family, a second plural became
necessary to express children of many
families. And the result was the formation of children by adding en ending to the plural childer. Childer has now
fallen out of use in Standard English, and children
now expresses children of a single family and of many families.
29. CHEAP
- It is a Latin loan-word which the Germanie forefathers of the English had
adopted before they left their continental homes to settle England. Cheap (OE.cēap), which originally meant bargain, price, is derived from Latin
caupones which meant
"wine-dealers, keepers of wine shops or taverns". Caupones were the chief type of Roman
merchants with whom the Germanic forefathers of the English dealt when they
were on the continent.
30. CHRISTMAS
- There are many compounds in English which have undergone processes of
phonetic change on account of their use without distinct consciousness of their
etymological meaning; Christmas is an example of this fact. Christ's mass is now Christmas, with an altered pronunciation
which quite disguises the first word. It is a fixed compound.
31. CHURCH
- It is a pre-Christian loan-word. It is
derived from OE.cirice which was
derived, in its turn, from the Greek word kuriakón
(house) of the Lord'. The English knew the word (kuriakón) so well that when they became Christians, they did not
adopt the word universally used in the Latin Church and in the Romanic languages (ecclesia, chiesa etc.) and they "even extended the
signification of the word church from the building to the congregation, the
whole body of Christians." (Jespersen).
32. CLIMAX
- Climax
is one of those Greek loan-words which are used in English with a different signification
from the classical ones. The Greek word klimax
from which climax is derived means 'a
ladder or gradation'. In English it is used in the sense of culminating point.
33. COOK
- It is a Latin loan-word which the
Germanic forefathers of the English had adopted before they left their
continental homes to settle in Britain. The Old English form of the word was coc which came from Latin coquus. The adoption of such words as byden (barrel), kitchen (OE cycene from
Latin coquina), scutel (dish), orc (pitcher, cook etc. suggests a complete
revolution in the art of cooking of the forebears of the English. So cook is a
milestone of general history.)
34. COMPANION-
The word has a diversified history. In
its ordinary sense of associate' it is from the French compagnon which was derived from Roman companionem (comi'with and panis bread'). As a nautical term it is
a corruption of the French chambre a la
compagne (or the Italian camera della
compagna) which meant the pantry' or storeroom on the ship's deck. Perhaps
the English word passed through the Dutch languages (kompanje) where from many nautical terms have got into English. In
the Elizabethan England companion in the snese of 'associate') was often used
in a bad sense like fellow now.
35. COURT
- It is a French loan word. Historically the word is very important, because it
belongs to the list of those early French words which indicate the fact that
the conquerors (Normans) formed the upper classes of the English society. That
is why we see that almost all the words relating to government and the highest
administration are French. Court is
one of these words. Philologically also the word is important. The older French
words have been, we know, so fully assimilated to the genius of the English
language that they have followed its successive changes in pronunciation and
stress. while, on the other hand, the later French loan-words have entered into
the English language with their modem French pronunciation. Court is the Old French word, and as
such has been fully assimilated to the English language, and has been subjected
to the successive changes in pronunciation and stress.
36. COURTSHIP
- It is an instance of hybridism.
Strictly speaking we have a hybrid (a composite word formed of elements from
different languages), as soon as an inflexional ending is added to a French
word. Courtship is formed by adding
English suffix -ship to the French
word court. Courtship . The significance of the word lies in
the fact that Shakespeare first uses it.
37. CULPRIT -The
word illustrates a curious instance of word-making by shortening. It comes from
the strange, corrupt Norman French once used in English law courts. After a
prisoner had pleaded not guilty', the reply made on behalf of the king was 'culpable; prest' which meant (he is guilty. (and are ready to prove it). In
the reports of criminal cases the phrase was monly abbreviated cul prest, and afterwards it was corruptly
made into prit. Later on, as a result
of the clerks of the King's practice of using the syllables culprit as an oral formula which was
followed by the question will you be tried ?", addressed to the prisoner,
it came to mean 'guilty man When culprit became a current word with a new
sense, the use of the oral formula was discontinued.
38. CAMOUFLAGE
- We owe this word to the First World War. It is from French camoufler, 'disguise'. Though originally
a military term it is now also used as a general term, and as a general term it
means "means of throwing people off the scent." The word is also an
exmaple of what Barber calls conversion, that is, the transfer of a word from
one grammatical category to another, (for example from verb to noun or from noun
to verb), because in English the word is also used as a verb (to camouflage).
(D)
39. DAINTY
- Originally the word was a noun meaning
a delicacy. It is derived from Old French daintie
which is from Latin dignitatem.
Though originally a substantive, it is now also used as an adjective. So the
word is an example of conversion, that is, the transfer of a word from one
grammatical category to another (for example, from verb to noun or from noun to
adjective).
40. DAISY
- The word is an example of the obscuration of compounds which means the loss
of identity of the separate elements of compounds. Thus the old compound dayes eye has now become daisy through
phonetic change. In daisy the
compounding elements (dayes and eye) are so obscured that we never think
of it as containing two elements.
41. DARKLING
- Darkling is an adverb. It was formed by adding the suffix-ling which occurs
in many other adverbs, now mostly obsolete, to dark. But in such a sentence as
"I listen darkling," the suffix - ling
looked exactly like the ending -ing
with the happy result that a new verb to darkle was formed from the adverb by
subtracting -ing.
42. DEBT-
The Middle English form of the word was dette
which is from Old French dette. The
French dette was derived from Latin debitum. The intrusion of b into debt is due to the Latin influence of the Renaissance period, for
quite a number of French words were remodelled into closer resemblance with
their Latin originals. The incoming of b
in debt has affected the spelling of
the word, and not the pronunciation.
43. DEVIL-
Devil is the Greek diábolos, 'slanderer’, ‘traducer'. This
word was used as a Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Sätan (the adversary) who was the accuser or slanderer of the just,
as in the first chapter of Job. Roman Christianity took the Greek word into
Latin as diabolus, and from Latin it has
passed into the Teutonic languages. The Anglo-Saxons adopted the Greek (or
Latin) word devil before they went to
Britain, and long before they were converted to the Christian religion.
44. DIE
- Die (M.E. deghen) is from Old Norse deya.
Death (deap) and dead were OE. noun and adjective as they are now, but the
corresponding verbs were steorfan and
sweltan. The Scandinavian verb deya obviously was more closely
associated with the OE noun and adjective than the OE verbs, and as such it was
taken over by the English to replace steorfan
and sweltan.
45. DISCIPLE
- Disciple (OE descipul, ME deciple) is
from Latin discipulis. The original
Latin sense of the word was that of a pupil' or 'scholar'. In English it is
more or less limited to the twelve Disciples of Jesus or to similar
applications.
46. DOUBT -
Doubt, the Middle English form of
which was doute, is from Old French doute. The b of doubt is due to the Latin influence of the Renaissance period,
for during and after the Renaissance quite a number of French words of Latin
origin were remodelled into closer resemblance with their Latin originals. The
remodelling of the French (also English) doute
after its Latin original dubitare
resulted in the introduction of b into the word. It is interesting to find that
the b in doubt as in debt has
thrust itself into spelling, but has failed to assert itself in pronunciation.
47. DREAM
- There are many words in English which have adopted the signification attached
in Scandinavian to the corresponding words. Dream
illustrates this fact. It meant in Old English "joy, mirth, revelry"
and was commonly used of the pleasures of the warriors relaxing in the hall
over their beer or mead, but the modern meaning of the word is taken over from
Old Norse draumr (Old Saxon drūm, Old High German troum).
[E]
48. EARL
- OE. eorl meant vaguely a 'noble
man' or more loosely a brave warrior' or 'man' generally. But "under Knut
it took over the meaning of the Norse jarl,
'an under-king' or governor of one of the great divisions of the realm, thus
paving the way for the present signification of earl as one of the grades in the (French) scale of rank."
(Jespersen)
49. EASTER-
The word, which now means the festival of Christ's resurrection, is derived
from eastron which was the name of an
old pagan festival, called after Austro, a goddess of spring. It is one of
those OE. words which were, after the introduction of Christianity in England,
turned to account to express Christian ideas, the sense only being more or less
modified.
50. EDITOR-
The Latin word editor (from Latin
verb édere) passed un changed into
English in the sense of “the person who gives to the world a book or other
literary work of which he is not the author". The editor has an ending which coincides in form with that of English
agent-nouns, so that it has naturally suggested the coinage of a verb to edit
(meaning to prepare for publication as an editor does) by subtracting the
ending -or(-er). So the verb to edit
is an example of back-formations.
51. EDUCATION -
The word is formed from Latin edicatio
meaning 'brining up’ (of the young) by adding the French suffix-ation. The Latin educatio is not derived from the Latin verb edúco meaning to draw out; so education
does not mean "drawing out of the child's faculties". In their book
"Wonde and their Ways in English Speech" Greenough and Kittredge say
that "nothing could be more erroneous" than to take education as
derived from Latin edaco and in the
sense of drawing out of the child's faculties. They say that when educo came to be employed in many other
senses than the original sense of bringing up from the egg to the chicken or
from infancy to mature years, a special verb edúco which is only possible as a denominative verb from a real or
supposed noun edur one who brings up or rears was made for this special meaning
(i.e. bringing up), and this educo
with its derivative noun edacatio was
applied especially to training of children". To quote Greenough and
Kittredge, "We may believe that the proper method of education is to draw
out the latent faculties of the pupil, but we can find no suggestion of that
method in the etymology of the word itself".
52. EGG
- It is a Scandinavian loan word. The Old English forms of the word were ey, eyren.
For a long time there was a struggle between the native (English) ey and the Scandinavian egg, and ultimately the intruder (Scandinavian)
succeeded in ousting the legitimate heir (ey).
Caxton has given, in a well-known passage, a graphic description of this
struggle between the English ey and
the Scandinavian egg.
53. EKE -
The word illustrates the fact that many adverbs had, in the Elizabethan period,
another signification than their present one. The adverb eke has been a comic expression in the Elizabethan period. It
occurs only three times in Shakespeare (twice in "Merry Wives of
Windsor", where it is used by Pistol and the Host, once in "A
Midsummer Night's Dream" where it is used by Flute). As an adverb the word
is of disputed origin; perhaps it is cognate with Old High German ouh, and Old Norse auk.
54. ENORMOUS -There
are many words in English which have undergone a peculiar kind of semantic
change which consists in the addition of emotional connotation to their primary
sense. Enormous is an example of this
kind of semantic change. In its etymological sense it merely expresses the fact
that something passes the ordinary or prescribed limits". (H. Bradley). In
the English of former times it often occurs in this matter-of-fact use. Thus
"an enormous appetite formerly meant what we should now call an abnormal
appetite. But now-a-days the word has taken on emotional connotation. Thus when
we use the word enormous, we mean to indicate not only what is abnormal or
unusual, “but that it is so in such degree as to excite our wonder, indignation
or contempt".(H. Bradley).
55. EQUAL-
It is derived from Latin equalis. The
French derivative egal of he original
Latin was for more than two centuries the commoner form. Equal which is now the only recognised form, was apparently a more
learned form and Chaucer used it in Astrolabe,
though in his poems he uses egal.
Shakespeare generally uses equal, but
egal is found a few times in some of
the old editions of his plays.
[F]
56. FAD
- The word is derived from fadaire by
the process of what is known as Shortening
or clipping. It is a case of shortening in which the end of long foreign
words is clipped and the beginning is retained. It is one of those shortened
words which have become so firmly established as to make the full words pass
completely into oblivion.
57. FOLK
-It sometimes happens that when both the native and its foreign synonym have
survived in the English language, the latter has become the more popular, the
former being relegated to the higher or poetical style. Folk is the native (English) word, while people is a French loan word. None will deny that people is a more
popular, more expressive and more natural term than folk. So far as folk and
people are concerned, it is hard to agree with Jespersen's observation that
"The former (the native word) is always nearer the nation's heart than the
latter (the French word), it has the strongest associations with everything
primitive, fundamental, popular, while the French word is often more formal,
more polite, more refined and has a less strong hold on the emotional side of
life." People is neither formal, nor refined nor polite and is much more
popular than folk. Folk may have
primitive associations, and emotional connotation, but this is because of its
association with the poetical compositions. A great and popular poet dramatist
like Shakespeare rarely uses folk. He has used folk only four times and folks
ten times. Shakespeare evidently looked upon the word as a low-class word, Folk
is rare in the Authorized Version of the Bible and Milton never uses it.
[G]
58. GAIN
- The modem gain (noun and verb) was
borrowed in the fifteenth century from French, but it curiously coincided with
an earlier noun gain meaning
"advantage, use, avail, benefit, remedy' and a verb to gain meaning "to be suitable, or useful, to avail', and
both the noun and the verb are from Old Norse.
59. GET-AT-ABLE
-This is one of the derivatives which are formed by adding the English suffix -able to composite verbal expressions- get at+able. Though get-at-able,
like come-at-able is pretty
frequently heard in conversation, most people shrink from using it in writing.
60. GENTEEL
- There are many French words which appear in English in more than one form.
These words, which go back, by diverse courses, to the same original form,
constitute what is known as doublets and triplicates. The words gentle, genteel, jaunty, all of
which were borrowed from French at different times constitute an interesting
triplicate. They represent three layers of borrowing from the same word, but
all of them have the same initial sound.
61. GET -
Get is a Scandinavian loan word. The
corresponding OE word was yete. Get and yete were in use in England for a long time after the Scandinavian
settlement. Ultimately yete fell out
of use, but the Scandinavian get remained in circulation. Ger illustrates one
of the most important tendencies of semantic development. There are many words
in English which have undergone so much generalisation of meaning that they
mean little or nothing but may stand for almost anything. Get is one of these words which have gradually faded into their
present vague and shadowy condition. Thus say: 'He gets tired'. His chariot
wheels get hot by driving fast. It is peculiarly idiomatic in certain phrases
such as ‘to get rid of', 'to get angry'. 'to get the better of etc. But
originally to get meant simply to ‘acquire'.
62. GIFT-
The OE form of the word was yift, and
the word meant “the price paid by a suitor in consideration of receiving a
woman to wife" and in the plural marriage, wedding". The Scandinavian
word 'gift' modified the word not
only with regard to pronunciation but also with regard to meaning, for the
modern meaning of the word has come from the Scandinavian word. "No subtler
linguistic influence can be imagined than this, where a word has been modified
both with regard to pronunciation and meaning, and curiously enough has by that
process been brought nearer to the verb from which it was originally
derived." (Jespersen).
63. GOSPEL
- The Old English godspell literally
'good tiding' (which early became godspel
through misreading the first element as 'God' instead of 'good' ) is now
gospel. So gospel is an example of the obscuration
of Compound that is, the loss of
identity of the separate parts of a compound as a result of the loss of stress.
Gospel also illustrates the phenomenon of assimilation - in gospel as in gossip
d has heen assimilated to s.
64. GOSSIP
- Gossip is an example of the obscuration of compound. Middle English godsip 'godfather intimate friend' has
become gossip on account of the loss of stress, which has caused the
obscuration of the separate parts of the compound The word has also undergone
pejorative sense-development, because now it means simply "idle
talker", "idle talk'. Like gospel gossip is an illustration of
assimilation--in gossip d has been
assimilated to s. The word also
exemplifies that grammatical phenomenon which goes by the name of conversion,
that is, the transfer of a word from one grammatical category to another. The
verb to gossip is formed from the noun gossip in the sense of 'to talk idly.
Thus gossip presents a curious oscillation between noun and verb: gossip (a)
noun: godfather, intimate friend, idle talker, (b) verb: to talk idly. (c) new
noun: idle talk.
[H]
65. HALE (WHOLE)
- Whole (formerly hool) is an English word, while hale is the Scandinavia word. These two
words-whole and hale were in the Old English period, the two different forms
for the same word. They existed side by side for a long time, and ultimately
both the forms survived, though they have developed slightly different
meanings. There is an old phrase which both the forms were united- “hail and hool".
66. HAWK
(vb) - It is an example of back-formations. The er in hawker: though an
integral part of the word, was mistaken for a derivative suffix, and as such
was dropped to get the new verb to hawk.
67. HANDBOOK
- The Old English form of the word was handboc
which was used for the one kind of handy books the clergy were in special need
of But in the Middle English period handboc
came to be disused and the French/ (Latin) manual took its place. In the
sixteenth century the Greek enchiridion (meaning a small handy book) found its
way into the English language. In the nineteenth century the old compound word
handbook made its reappearance, but the English had grown so accustomed to
using strange and exotic words that such a natural and expressive word as
handbook was treated as an unwelcome intruder. Of late the word has gained much
ground and is preferred to enchiridion and manual. Enchiridion might be said to
have fallen out of use.
68. HEATHEN
- Heathen the Old English form of which was haethen
is derived from Germanic haith
'heath'. The word is derived in close imitation of Latin pagarrus which is from pagus
'a country district".
69. HELPMATE
- This word offers a striking example of word-making through misunderstanding.
In the Bible of 1611, the Hebrew words of Genesis ii., 18 were literally
rendered "an help meet (i.e. fit, suitable) for him." Readers mistook
the two words help meet for a compound
with the result that help meet became
current as a synonym for one's "partner in life'. "People have been
known to suppose that it meant 'one who helps to make ends meet, but commonly when the word has been analysed at all, the
second element has been imagined to be synonymous with mate, or perhaps an
incorrect form of it. This notion suggested the formation of helpmate which is
a very good and correctly made compound, though it did originate in a
blunder" (H. Bradley)
70. HENPECK
- It is an example of back formations. The ed
in henpecked, though an integral part
of the word, was mistaken for a derivative suffix, and as such was dropped to
get the new verb to henpeck. Henpeck is not a compound made of a verb
as the second (i.e. peck), and an
object as the first (i.e. hen), part,
because to form compounds with a verb as the second, and the object or a
predicative as the first part is not usual in Germanic languages.
71. HODGE-PODGE - Hotchpot (from French hocher'shake
together' and por) was made hotch-potch for the sake of rime;
then the final ich was changed into dge: hotch-podge was
thus changed into hodge-podge.
72. HOUSEWIFE
- The Old English form of the word was huswif
(hus + wif). OE huswif in course
of time lost w, both vowels were
shortened, s was sounded (z) and f became v or even lost. The changes in pronunciation were followed by those
in meaning. In the derived meanings 'needle-case' and 'jade' we find the forms huzzif, huzzive and huzzy (hussy). But in the original sense the word was constantly
revived: housewife.
73. HUSSY
- The word is an example of what is known as the obscuration of compound, that is, the loss of identity of the
separate parts of a compound as a result of the loss of stress. OE. compound hus-wif 'house wife' has now become hussy through
phonetic change. We now hardly suspect that the word is a compound, so great
has been the obscuration of the parts. The word was once a respectable word,
but it has now undergone degeneration of meaning and has come to mean simply ‘a
pert girl' or 'woman of light character’.
[I]
74. INNINGS -
In some words the s of the plural has
become fixed, as if it belongs to the singular. Innings illustrates this
philological phenomenon. The use of innings which is plural in form as a
singular is due to the fact that “the logical idea of a single action or thing
has proved stronger than the original grammar". Means is another Word which is plural in form, hut often singular
in use.
75. INCH - It is a Latin loan word which the Germanic
forefathers of the English had adopted before they left their continental homes
to settle England. The Old English form of inch
was ynce, which came from Latin uncia, 'twelfth part'. I-mutation points
to very early borrowing- u>y (i) :
uncial>ynce>inch
76. INTERNATIONAL
- The word was coined by Bentham in 1780 “It marks linguistically the first
beginning of the era when relations between nations came to he considered like
relations between citizens, capable of peaceful arrangement according to right
rather than according to might Jespersen).
77. ISLAND - The word, the OE. and ME. forms of which
were respectively iegland and iland is from Old Norse ieg. The intrusion of s into ME. iland due to its association with the French isle (Now ile) which was
adopted later on. We should note that the French word affected the spelling,
and not the pronunciation.
78.
ITS - Before 1600 A.D., his was neuter as well as masculine.
After that time its came to be used
for the neuter. Florio who was a foreigner first uses in 1998 and several times
in his later works. In Shakespeare its
occurs a few times only in those plays which exist only in editions published
after his death. The Bible of 1611 has no its. "The use of its became general in the seventeenth
century, but for a long time there seems to have been a feeling that the older his or her was more dignified" (H.Bradley).
[K]
79. KANGAROO
- It is an Australian word, taken by the English settlers of Australia.
80. KINDERGARTEN-
English has taken over the German word 'kindergarten’ unchanged. The word
illustrates the English tendency to swallow foreign words raw instead of
translating the foreign expression into some native equivalent.
81. KINE
- It is an instance of double plural formed from the original plural ky (still preserved in the Northern
dialect). When ky came to be used
collectively for the herd of a single owner, a second plural (ky-en>kine) was formed by adding-en ending to the existing plural ky to express the ky emot many owners. To quote Emerson. The archaic plural kine comes from OE. cy, the mutated form of cü 'cow' to which has been added the -en(ne)
ending of such a word as oxen. Kine is therefore a double plural.
82. KIRK
- Church and kirk are doublets - they both go back, by diverse courses, to the
same original form (i.e. Greek kuriakon),
kirk is a Scandinavian and church an English, form for the same
word. For a long time they were lo use in English side by side, but ultimately kirk has come to survive in dialects
only. It is interesting to see that Coleridge has used kirk for church in his “Rime
of the Ancient Mariner" a number of times :
"To
walk togсther to the kirk And all together pray" (Line 606-7) and
"Is
this the hill? is the kirk?" (line 466)
83. KISS
- The OE. form of the word was cyssan
(Old Norse kyssa) which is from
Germanic kussjan. The word is an
example of conversion, that is, the transfer of a word from one grammatical
category to another, for example from verb to noun or from adjective to noun. Kiss which was originally only a verb is
now used unchanged also as a noun: “Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses”
(Wordsworth's Ode on Intimations of Immortality, line 88).
84. KITCHEN-
It is a Latin loan-word which the
Germanic forefathers of the English had adopted before they left their
continental homes to see in Britain. The Old English form of the word was cycene which came to Latin coquina. The adoption of such words as byden (barrel), kitchen, scule (dish), orc
(pitcher), cook(OE coc from Latin coquus), suggests a complete revolution in the art of cooking of
the forebears of the Anglo-Saxons. So kitchen is a milestone of general
history.
[L]
85. LANGUAGE-
The ME. form of the word was langage
which was from French langage. The
Latin form of the word is lingua 'the
tongue". The French form langage
was used in England for centuries, then after the Renaissance it became language by a curious crossing of French
and Latin forms.
86. LOOT-
It is one of those words which the English owe to India. Loot, a Hindi word,
was learnt by the English soldiers in India, and has now found its way into the
English vocabulary in the sense of "goods taken from enemy, spoil, booty,
illicit gains made by official" (C.O.D.). The word is also used as a verb.
[M]
87. MACHINE-
It is a French word which is from Latin machina.
The word is an illustration of the linguistic maxim. "everyman is his own
specializer." Special senses of words depend mainly on our business,
profession, or chief interest in life, but in some cases they come from
accidental associations of ideas or from obscure habits of thought. Machine is a term which applies to all
kinds of mechanical contrivances. But to the bicycle-rider it suggests at first
the particular kind of mechanical contrivance on which he rides. To the tailor,
on the other hand, it suggests at first the sewing machine by means of which he
earns his livelihood. So, machine, like wheel, engine etc. illustrates a
peculiar tendency of semantic development.
88. MICE
- Mice is one of those irregular
plurals in English which were formed in old English by mutation (e.g. man-men, foot-feel, mouse-mice, louse-lice),
and which have not gone out of use even after-es has become the universal plural ending.
89. MINT-
Mint, the OE. form of which was mynet, is from Latin moneta ‘money'. It is one of those
pre-Christian Latin loan-words which the Germanic forefathers of the English
(i.e. the Angles and Saxons) adopted from the Romans while they were still in
their continental home.
90. MOB
- It is an example of shortening,
and of that type of shortening where the end of a whole phrase is lopped off.
The Latin phrase mobile vulgus has
thus been shortened into mob.
91. MUTTON
- Mutton is a historically significant word. It throws a flood of light on the
reciprocal relations between the Normans and the English. Mutton is a French loan word.
After the Norman Conquest the living animals like sheep continued to bear their
English names, but their flesh as used for food was denoted by French words
like mutton. The point is explained
by the fact that the English servants were in change of the sheep when alive
but when killed they were eaten by their French masters.
[Note:
the similar significance informs such words as beef (ox) veal (calf), pork
(swine) venison (deer)]
[N]
92. NEWS
- Middle English formed its plural news
by adding - (-es) to the singular new
after Old French noveles (French nouvelles) or medieval Latin novus, the neuter plural of Latin novus 'new'. It belongs to the class of
plural forms such as means, pains, where the s of the plural has been fixed as
if it belonged to the singular. So these nouns (news, means etc.) are usually
followed by singular verbs.
93. NOT-
The long development which not has undergone is an interesting study. The
earliest English negative adverb is ne
which was placed before the verb, as in OE. ic
ne secge (I do not say). But frequently he was strengthened by the addition
of noht (from nawiht, nowiht, meaning 'nothing') after the verb: noht became not, and the typical ME. construction was I ne seye not (I do not say). But ne was pronounced with so little stress that it was apt to be
dropped altogether, and in the fifteenth century the construction came to be I
say not. This construction had survived for some centuries before the dummy
auxiliary do was yoked to the service of making negative sentences. Now not is used immediately after dummy do,
as in I do not say.
[O]
94. ORANGE-
The word is derived from Arabic naranj
through Old French.
95. OXEN
- Oxen is an interesting word from the
philological point of view. One of the plural
endings in Old English was an. It was added to a very great number of nouns
to form the plural from the very beginning. It showed great powers of expansion
and at one time seemed as likely as (e)s
become the universal plural ending. But finally (e)s carried the day, probably
because it was the most distinctive ending and possibly under the Scandinavian
influence. In the beginning of the modern period eyen, shoon and hosen, housen, peasen still existed, but
they soon died, and now ox only real plural in n surviving, for children as well as the biblical kine and brethren are too irregular to count as plurals made by the addition
of n." (Jespersen)
[P]
96. PANDER
- There are a certain number of proper
names in works of literature which have been so popular as to pass into
ordinary language as appellatives. Thus Pander
(Pandarus), a character of Chaucer's "Troilus
and Criseyde", has passed into ordinary language as pander meaning
'go-between in clandestine amours.
97. PEA -
It is an example of words that lose the s originally belonging to their stem,
because it (s) is mistakenly
apprehended as the sign of the plural. Latin pisum became in Old English pise,
in Middle English pese (plural pesen). Butler (1633) has used peas as singular and peasen as plural, but he writes
"the singular is most used for the plural: as.... a peck of peas, though the Londoners seem to make
it a regular plural, calling peas a pea.
In such compounds as peablossom, peaseporridge and peasesoup the old form was preserved long after pea had become the recognised singular.
98. PERFECT
- The ME. forms of the word were parfit,
and parfet we were derived from the
Old French parfit, parfet (modern parfait). Theo French parfit or parfet was derived from Latin perfectus.
During and after the Renaissance many French words in English were remodelled
into close resemblance with their Latin originals and the result was the
introduction into the word (parfer)
from the Latin. At first the introduction of c affected the spelling only, but in time, however, the
spelling carried the pronunciation with it and we have the modern word
(perfect).
99. PERKS - The word is derived from perquisites by the process of what is
known as Shortening. It is a case of
shortening in which the end of long foreign words is clipped and the beginning
is retained. It is one of those shortened words which have never passed beyond
slang.
100. PET
- The word is an example of what Dr. Murray has termed as backformations which
owe their origin to one part of a word being mistaken for some derivative suffix
(or rarely prefix) The ty of petty was mistaken to some derivative
suffix and as such was subtracted to get the new word per meaning favourite.
The editors of The Concise Oxford Dictionary are of the opinion that the origin
of pet is unknown.
101. PETTY
- It is a French loan word and is from Old French petir. It was introduced in England by jurists in such combinations
as petty jury, petty larceny, petty constable, petty treason etc., at a time when legal procedure was
conducted in England entirely in French, (i.e. before 1362). Though originally
a legal term, it has got, for long, into the ordinary vocabulary of everyday
life.
102. PICK-POCKET-
This word exemplifies a special type of compounds in English. This type of
compounds made up of verbs and objects seems to have originated in Romanic
languages (i.e. French, Italian, Spanish etc.) but has, in recent years, proved
very fertile in English. Pick-pocket
is made up of pick (vb) and pocket (object). (Other examples of this
type of compounds are know-nothing, break-water, cut-purse, stop-gap etc.)
103. PICTURE
- The word is derived from Latin pictura.
In Middle English peynture was the
normal form, and Chaucer has peynture,
as in French (peinture). But after
the Renaissance peynture was
remodelled into closer resemblance with its Latin original (i.e. pictura) with the result that the c was introduced into the ME. word. So
we have picture instead of peynture.
104. PLOUGH
- It is one of those English words which
have adopted the signification attached in Scandinavian to the corresponding
word. Old English ploh meant "a
measure of land." This meaning still survives in Scotch pleuch. In Middle English it came to
mean the implement plough as in Old
Norse plógr.
105. PREMISES
- The word is derived from Old French premisse
which is from medieval Latin praemissa.
Originally it meant things set forth or mentioned in the beginning. But the
current popular use of premises in the Sense of a house with the outbuildings
and the land belonging to it is a striking example of the development of a new
meaning through misunderstanding" (H.Bradley).
106. PUNY
- It is one of those French juridical terms which have found their way into the
ordinary vocabulary of everyday life. The French legal term puis né has passed into the ordinary
vocabulary as puny, though in its
legal sense of ‘younger or inferior in rank' it remains puisne in English.
[R]
107. REFEREE - The word is formed by adding French ending-ee
to refer which is from Old French referer or Latin re (ferrelatum
"bring).
108. RAISE
- This word is imported from Scandinavia. This word and the native word rear
existed side by side in the English language for a long time as the two
slightly different forms for the same word. Both the forms her ultimately
survived in standard language though they have developed slightly different
meaning. Rear-raise.
109. RICHES
- It is one of those words the s of which, though belonging the stem of words,
is taken by the popular instinct to be a plural ending. The ME. form of the
word was richesse which is from Old
French (riche 'rich' ess). Chaucer
lays stress on the second syllable (richesse)
as in French, and uses the plural richesses.
But as subsequently the final e disappeared and as the word occurred very often
in such a way that the context did not show its number, riches came to be conceived as a plural, as in "riches are a source of
unhappiness". The singular use, as in the riches of the ship is come on
shore (Shakespeare's Othello, II, 1,83) has now become wholly obsolete.
[S]
110. SANDWICH
- Sandwich illustrates the philological phenomenon that names of persons are a
fruitful source of new words in English. The noun sandwich is derived from the
name of the first Earl of Sandwich who is said to have eaten slices of bread
and meat while gaming for twenty four hours. It means "two or more slices
of bread with meat cheese etc, between". It is also used as a verb in the
sense put somebody/something between two other people or things, especially in
a restricted space." So it is a case of conversion, that is, the transfer
of a word from one grammatical category to another (from noun to verb and vice
versa).
111. SAUNTER
- It is from French s’auntrer, another form for s'aventurer:
'to adventure oneself. According to Jespersen, "There is a curious
parallel to the Norse bask and busk in saunter, where the French reflective pronoun has become fixed as an
inseparable element of the ward."
112. SCIENTIST
- Scientist has often been branded as
an 'ignoble Americanism' or 'a cheap and vulgar product of trans-Atlantic
slang', but Fitzedward Hall has pointed out that it was fabricated and
advocated in 1840, together with physicist by Dr. Whewell. Whoever objects to
such words as scientist. Jespersen
says, on the plea that they are not correct Latin formations, would have to
blot out of his vocabulary such well established words as suicide, telegram,
botany, sociology etc.
113. SEAT
– It is a Scandinavian loan-word. It
comes from the Scandinavian saete. It
was adopted because it was at once associated with the verbs to sit and to set.
Though it was taken over as a noun we have now the new verb to seat (to place on a seat).
114. SHIRT-
OE. scyrte has now become shirt. It is wrong to suppose that the
word comes from Old Norse skyrta ‘shirt'
which has given birth to the word skirt, OE scurte
as well as Old Norse skyrta is from
Germanic skurtjon, and so the modern
words shirt and skirt are doublets.
115. SILLY
- The word illustrates the well-known semantic fact that the ironical use of a
word generally leads to its degeneration of meaning. Silly is from OE. saelig. It once meant 'blessed' or
'happy' like its equivalent German selig.
"In Middle English it was often used satirically in a tone of mock envy or
admiration, and hence acquired the disparaging sense which it now has" (H.
Bradley). According to G.L. Brook the stages in its sense development have been
'innocent', then 'harmless', then 'weakly foolish'.
116. SISTER
- The word is from Old Norse swuster,
and not from OE sweoster. For a longtime
the OE.word and the old Norse word were in use in England side by side as the
two slightly different forms for the same word. Ultimately, however, the native
form (i.e. sweaster) went out of use,
and the Norse word (i.e. swuster)
continued in use as the only form. So in sister we have now a Scandinavian
loan-word.
117. SLOGAN
- It is one of the specimens of the Celtic contingent in English. It has got
into the English language through Scotch Gaelic. Originally meant
"highland war-cry". But now the word has undergone generalization of meaning,
and has come to mean also “party cry'' watchword' motto, so catchy phase used
in advertizing.'
118. SPINSTER
-It is the feminine gender of bachelor. But curiously enough bachelor is
French, while spinster (also maid) is English.
119. SPORT
- It is an instance of word-making by the process of shortening i.e. popular
clipping of foreign words. The French word disport has been shortened into
sport.
120. SCAPEGOAT
- Tyndale, one of the Bible translators of the sixteenth century coined this
word while he was translating a Hebrew term which he had not fully understood.
Though the word originated in a misinterpretation of a Hebrew term, the word
is, as Dr. H. Bradley says, "a singularly felicitous expression of the
intended meaning, and in figurative use has proved a valuable addition to the
language."
[T]
121. TRANSPIRE
- The word is from medieval Latin trans
(spirare 'breathe') or from French transpirer. Etymologically, the word
means "breathe through and a circumstance may be correctly said to have
transpired in the sense of having become known in spite of efforts to keep it
secret. But the use of the word in the sense of 'happen' (as in the events
which transpire now-a-days are unprecedented in history'), so frequent in the
newspapers is objectionable. This current sense of the word is not due to any
deviation from Latin usage, but due to a vulgar misunderstanding of the word.
122. THEM
- The word was imported from Scandinavia. The OE, dative was hem which still
survives in the form 'em (as in "take 'em") which is now taken to be
a shortened them by people ignorant of the history of the language. The
Scandinavian them and the OE. hem were in use side by side for a long time; but
them was felt to be more distinct than the native form which it supplanted.
123. THENCE
- The OE. form of the word was thanon
and the Scandinavian form was thethen.
Both these forms existed in English side by side for a long time, and it is
generally supposed that the Scandinavian form was discarded ultimately in
favour of the native form (thanon) to
which an adverbials was added. But Jespersen is of the opinion that thence may
just as well be due to the Scandinavian one, th being lost as in since.
124. THEY
- The word was taken from Scandinavia. The OE. form of the pronoun was tho, and the corresponding Scandinavian
pronoun was they Both the English and the Scandinavian forms were in use side
by side for a long time, but ultimately the English pronoun tho) dropped from use, and the
Scandinavian they continued in use, because they agreed well with other
pronouns, and was felt to be more distinct than the native form which it
supplanted.
125. THURSDAY
- The English owe this word to the Scandinavians. The corresponding OE. word
was thunresdoei. The OE. word as well
as the Scandinavian one continued in use side by side for a long time, but ultimately
the Scandinavian word Thursday came
to supplant the native word Thursday
was originally a day of Thor, the God of Thunder.
126. TIDINGS
- The CE. form of the word was tidung. The English often modified the
Scandinavian words they adopted. Old Norse nithindi,
though unchanged in Orrms' titheunde
was generally changed into tiding (s).
127. TOWN
- It is a native Germanic word. Old English tun meant "en closure,
yard", "enclosed land round a dwelling". But after the influence
of the Celts had disappeared, the word acquired its modern meaning of village
or town. "The word points to the stockaded settlements of a time long
before the Angles and Saxons saw Britain." (Greenough and Kittredge.)
128. TRUSTEESHIP
- The word is a grand example of hybridism
of words formed from elements derived from two or more different languages. It
is made up of parts derived from three different languages—Scandinavian, French
and English. It contains Scandinavian trust,
a French suffix-ee and English suffix
-ship: (trust+ee + ship)=trusteeship. Jespersen says: "Such a word as
trusteeship is eminently characteristic of the composite character of the
language." And English is perhaps the most composite of all languages.
129. TYPEWRITE
- It is an example of back-formations. The -er
has been subtracted from typewriter to get the verb to typewrite, because the-er though an integral part of the word
typewriter was mistaken for the derivative suffix. It is not wise to take the
word as a compound with the verb (write) as the second, and the object (type)as
the first part because it is not usual in Germanic languages to form compounds
with a verb as the second and an object or a predicative as the first
part" (Jespersen).
[V]
130. VERDICT
- The ME. form of the word was verdit which was derived from the Old French voirdit (veir 'true' + dit past
participle of dire' say) After the Renaissance verdict was remodelled after its
Latin counterpart veredictum with the
result that the c of the Latin word
was introduced into verdict. So ME verdit has now become verdict. To remodel the French words
into closer resemblance with their Latin originals was a lingustic fashion in
England during and after the Revival of Learning.
131. VILLAIN
- The word is a grand example of degeneration
of meaning or pejorative sense-development. It is derived from the Latin villa 'farmhouse through villanus which
means 'a slave attached to one's counrty-place'. Originally it meant 'a farm
labourer' replacing the English word chur/ which originally meant
"peasant, boor'. Soon, however, it became a term of contempt for one who
did not belong to the gentry. Gradually there clustered round villain a set of
ideas associating with it all the qualities opposed to the comprehensive word
courtesy. Thus villain was applied to a 'low fellow' in general and villainy
was used for low conduct. From this to the present meaning is a short step: the
implied moral reprobation has simply been intensified" (Greenough and Kittredge).
Villain has now lost its association with
any particular rank of life with the result that a peasant as well as a prince
may be called a villain if he is morally wicked.
132. VICTUALS -The Middle English form of the word was vittles which is from French vitailles. After the Renaissance vittles
was remodelled after its Latin original victualis
(pl. victualia) with the result that
the c of the Latin word was
introduced into vittles. So ME vittles has now become victuals. To remodel the French words
borrowed in the Middle English period into close resemblance with their Latin
originals was a linguistic fashion in England after the Revival of learning.
133. VIXEN
- It is supposed to have been borrowed from the Southern dialect of England and
is one of the three Teutonic words with initial v which Modern English contains (these three words being vane, vat, vixen). The OE.com of the
word was fyxen which became vixen by the shifting off into vin Southern English an original f generally shifted into v).
[W]
134. WAR
- The Middle English form of the word was werre
which is from Old North French werre
(Central French guerre). This word is
a linguistic evidence that after the Norman Conquest the French were the
powerful class that took into their hands the management of military affairs.
Though it was introduced purely as a military word, it is now extensively used
outside the military affairs.
135. WEIRD
- The OE. form of the word was wyrd
which meant fate, and wyrd is from warth meaning to become to take place'.
Originally it was a noun meaning 'destiny, fate'; the three weird sisters means the fate sisters or Norns. Shakespeare
found this expression in Holinshed and has used it in speaking of the witches
in Macbeth. From Macbeth it entered into the ordinary language, but without
being properly understood. It is now generally used as an adjective and means
'supernatural, uncanny unearthly.'
136. WINE
- It is one of the pre-Christian Latin
loan-words which the Angles and Saxons had acquired from the Romans before
they went to Britain. The OE. form of the word was win, and is from Latin vinum.
137. WOMAN
- Woman is pregnant with great
philological significance. In woman
are concentrated a number of important linguistic, phonetic and grammatical
developments. In the first place, woman
is an example of what is known as the obscuration
of compounds, that is, the loss of identity of the separate parts of
compounds as a result of the loss of stress. OE. compound wifmann has now become woman through phonetic change. Secondly,
though the OE. short u sound to be
heard in such modern words as full, pull,
bull has regularly become the sound of modern but there are a few modern
words which preserve the old u sound
and woman is one of these words.
Though the examples of complete assimilation
(i.e. changes in consonants, by assimilation to one another) are not numerous,
woman is one of these few words - woman
(also women) <wifman through wimmen illustrates the assimilation of f to m.
But the greatest philological charm of woman lies in the fact that in the days
of grammatical gender-system (that
is, in Old English) woman (OE. wif-mann) was masculine.
The
plural of woman (e.g, women) is one of those irregular plurals in English, which were formed in Old English by
mutation, and which have not gone out of use even after -es has become the universal plural ending.
[Y]
138. YANKEE
- The term was originally applied to the inhabitants of the Dutch colonies in
North America. Now Jan Kees is a
nickname which is still applied in Flanders to people from Holland proper. Jan is the common Dutch name which
corresponds to English John, and Kees may be either the usual of the
Christian name Cornelis or a dialectical variation of kaas or a combination of both. “Jankees,
in English became Yankees, where the s was taken as the plural ending and eventually disappeared, and Yankee became the designation of any inhabitant of New England and
even sometimes of the whole of the United States." (Jespersen).
139. YOU—
The old declension of ye (nominative)
and you (accusative and dative) has given way to the modern use of you in all
cases.
[Z]
140. ZERO
- cipher, O, XVII c.; temperature denoted by this symbol, XVIII c.; nought,
nothing, XIXI c. It is 'zero' in Fr., 'zero' in It. (the source of Fr.), O.Sp.
'zero' (mod. 'cero') and Arab. 'cifr' (cpher).
141. ZIGZAG
- having the form of twisted or crooked XVIII c. Earliest forms being 'Ziczac',
Zig-zac': Fr. 'Zigzag'; G. 'Zickzack,' of symbolic formation of direction,
applied first to fortifications'. Hence 'Zigzag' vb. (Burns), 'Zigzagged'
(Goldsmith), "Zigzag-gery' (Sterne).
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