Language and etymology
Language and Etymology
communication, words, and word origins and evolution
Page purpose:
- study of purposes and forms of language
- study of the origin of words
- study of change in meaning of words over time
Language quirks and facts
- for more on the English, see: English Language
The most common words in English
- the
- be
- to
- and
- a
- in
- that
- have
- I
- it
- of the top 20 most common words, 7 are prepositions
English synonymous & part of speech word use
- the English language has a huge number of words that have multiple definitions
- other languages may be more explicit with distinct words that English will cover with a single word.
"Love" in Greek
- >> to do .
- see John 21:15
"Thanks to" and "because of" in Russian
- Russian uses a distinct word for the positive and negative connotations of "because of" or "thanks to"
- благодаря = positive connotation
- as in "Thanks to hard studying, I aced the test"
- из за = negative connotation
- "I lost points on my paper because of having forgotten about the due date"
- благодаря = positive connotation
"Curry a favor"
- excellent demonstration of how language morphs across space and time
- in Old English, "curry" means "to cook"
- after British colonization of India, the word became synonymous with the common Indian cooking spice, called today, "curry"
- "Curry a favor" has no relation to the spice
- "curry" came from the Old French "torcher" for "groom" as in to wipe down and clean a horse
- origin of "curry a favor":
- from the 14th century French satirical poem,Roman de Fauvel ("roman" = romance story or verse)
- in the story:
- Fauvel was a horse or ass
- the goddess Fortuna answers Fauvel's request to move into the palace and become a lord
- priests and other lords visit Fauvel and "curry" (groom) him in order to gain his favor
- "fauvel" refers to the brownish color of fallow (un-planted) field, and was a color symbolic of vanity
- fauvel may also have been a play on the words, "false veil"
- the expression "curry fauvel" was picked up by English speakers
- but as memory of the story of Fauvel faded, the use of the word morphed into the more recognizable "favor"
- thus, "curry favor" means to hypocritically flatter a vain person for some favor or advantage
- see