Words of Origin

7/24/2019 Words of Origin

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The Originof

Words



Where Words Come From

•

The English language has developedfrom an Anglo-Saxon base of commonwords such as household words, parts ofthe body, common animals, natural

elements, most pronouns, prepositions,conjunctions and auxiliary verbs.

• ther modern words in English havedeveloped from !ve sources. These are

discussed below"• Words Created From Nothing• Words Created In Error• Borrowed and Adopted Words• Changes In Words



#ords $reated %rom &othing

• Examples of words that have just appeared inthe language out of nothing are byte dog'replacing the earlier hund(, don!ey "am!ic! and #og.

• Sha)espeare coined over *+ words includingcount#ess critica# e$ce##ent #one#yma"estic obscene.

• %rom en ohnson we got damp, from /saac&ewton - centrifuga# and from Thomas 0ore- e$p#ain and e$act.



#ords $reated /n Error

• The vegetable pease was thought tobe a plural so that the individual itemin the pod was given the name pea.

• The verb #a%e was erroneouslycreated from the adjective #a%y.

• The word buttonho#e was a mis-hearing of button&ho#d.



orrowed and Adopted #ords

• English has borrowed words from avariety of sources and other languages.

• Example" Orange – The name of the fruit was NA'AN( in

Sans)rit. #ords ending in are not commonin English so the spelling 2uic)ly changed toa NA'AN)E. The initial & moved to the a

because of mis-hearing to give an A'AN)E 'this is called metanalysis(. ver time, theinitial A became an O to give an O'AN)E.



• The word silly meant blessed or happy in the **thcentury going through pious, innocent, harmless,pitiable, feeble, feeble minded before !nally endingup as foolish or stupid.

• 3retty began as crafty then changed via clever,s)ilfully made, !ne to beautiful.

• The word nice meant stupid and foolish in the late*4th $entury. /t went through a number of changes

including wanton, extravagant, elegant, strange,modest, thin, and shy. y the middle of the *5th$entury it had gained its current meaning ofpleasant and agreeable.

$hanges /n #ords



Word Origina# *eaning

awful deserving of awe

brave cowardice 'as in bravado(

counterfeit legitimate copycute bow-legged

girl young person of either sex

guess ta)e aim

)night boyluxury sinful self indulgence

nec)parcel of land 'as in nec) of the

woods(

notorious famous

nuisance injury, harm

2uic) alive 'as in 2uic)silver(

sophisticated corrupted

tell to count 'as in ban) teller(

truant beggar



• #ords can be created by adding su6xes"&ab#e &ness &ment. They can also becreated by adding pre!xes" dis& anti&.

•

Examples include" se##ab#e brightnesspa+ement disestab#ish antimatter.

• #ords can be combined to form new words'air and port gave airport7 #and and mar! to

give #andmar! (. Sometimes the combinationcan go in more than one way 'houseboatboathouse, boo!case caseboo! (.

#ords $reated y Subtraction r

Addition



0any common words have beenshortened from the original term as in

the table below*odern Word Origina# Form

busomnibus '8atin" for

everyone(

exam examination

gym gymnasium

)nic)ers )nic)erboc)ers

lab laboratory

mobmobile vulgus

'8atin" !c)le crowd(

petrolpetroleum '9ree)" roc)

oil(



0etanalysis is the process where aletter is added or subtracted because

of a nearby word. Examples below.

*odern WordOrigina#

Form

a nic)name an e)enamea newt an ewt

an adder a nadder

an apron a napron

an orange a narange

an umpire a nonper

Words of Origin

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