Language and etymology

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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

The most common words in English

  1. the
  2. be
  3. to
  4. and
  5. a
  6. in
  7. that
  8. have
  9. I
  10. 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"

"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