Etymologies

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Okay,.. this is one of my big things. ⚡
I. Love. To learn about the origin of things.
I'm not studying up each and every possible word or subject night and day, no, but if I do discover a word (especially) or topic I'd like to understand more about, I find it exciting to study its roots and formations.

What's a topic, of which you *Love* (not hate!), that you enjoy learning about?

Also, is there a word whose etymology you've learned and found fascinating? I'd love for you to share!

This isn't a specific word but it's something that I learned once about the English language specifically and I notice it all the time.

That is, in English we tend to have 3 different words for the same things and their etymological roots can be traced back to various invasions of England. For example we have the word Dog, which is Nordic in origin and is typically Norse in its harsh consonant sounds and monosyllabic nature. Then we have canine, which is of course Latin and arrived with our Roman conquerors. Then we also have hound which has its roots in Germanic languages.

So one of the reasons English is such a rich language is because England kept getting invaded.

Let me do this again... (could have sworn I submitted this but maybe not...)

Food and drink, and all the ways it's all grown, harvested, processed, stored, prepared, and eaten.

English has triplets and couplets because of its composed of two Germanic sources plus French/Latin.

The Norse were a separate offshoot of the Germanic tribes from the Anglo/Saxon/Frisians

Norwegian Vikings over ran (be failed to conquer) Scotland, and trickled down into England. Norway is one big naked boulder in the sea because the glaciers scraped away all of the soil during the Ice Age so Norwegians were happy to take the worst farm land in Scotland and in England because it was better than the best in Norway.

Danish Vikings raided and then finally conquered and ruled the whole eastern shank of England above the Thames called "The Danelaw". So England had both Danes and Norwegian invaders which is why English often has pairs of words from both Norse and continental Germanic origin. And often they are similar sounding words (because the two branches of Germanic are similar). Like you can raise (Norse) a child, or you can rear (Anglo Saxon) a child in English. Shirt and skirt are another Anglosaxon/Norse couplet that meant the same thing originally before they evolved into meaning slightly different garments.

And then on top of that you have the Norman French influence, and church Latin. So you have those couplets as well...like value (French) and worth (Germanic).

The only other language I know anything about is Spanish.

In most Romance languages the word for "dog" is quite similar to the Latin word "canis".

Italian "cane" (Ka-nay), French "chien", Portugese "cao", and Rumanian "caine".

But in Spanish it's "perro".

So apparently the Spaniards also plucked their word for "dog" out of thin air one day just like the English did!

My kitten is named Hester, to honour Hester Jonas from the Salem witch trials.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hester_Jonas


For short I call her Hex, or sometimes Hexe: two different meanings and etymologies.