Adventures in Etymology
Nov. 17th, 2007 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowA letter to the editor in this morning's Post-Dispatch used the phrase "false witness", which got me to wondering about the precise meaning of that phrase. A visit to the dictionary didn't quite resolve my question, but led to some interesting byways.
The "wit-" in "witness" is the same root as in the modern word "wit"; both originally concerned knowledge. ("wit" is cognate to Latin "videre", to see, and to the Sanskrit word "veda".) "Wit" was also a verb, meaning to know; compare "unwitting". Those with a taste for archaism might recognize the phrase "I wot".
The past tense of "wit" was "wist". "Wistful" comes from that; one older meaning of "wistful" was intent, which ties again into the theme of vision. It's a short enough step from gazing intently at something to gazing at it longingly, whence the current meaning of "wistful". The word "wish" may have had some influence there.
(One of Lois McMaster Bujold's characters uses the back-formation "wist" as a present-tense verb of longing: "I wist it real bad." Bujoldists need to get cracking, to get that meaning into commoner use.)
"Wish" is actually unrelated to "wit"; it's more closely connected with "win", ultimately from a root meaning to strive. Latin "venus", sexual desire, is another cognate. This gave rise to an older English word "venery", sexual activity. The same Indo-European root also gave rise to Latin "venari", to hunt, whence "venison" - and another word "venery", hunting. The obvious pun between the two words appears predictably often in Early Modern English poetry.
I love a good dictionary.
The "wit-" in "witness" is the same root as in the modern word "wit"; both originally concerned knowledge. ("wit" is cognate to Latin "videre", to see, and to the Sanskrit word "veda".) "Wit" was also a verb, meaning to know; compare "unwitting". Those with a taste for archaism might recognize the phrase "I wot".
The past tense of "wit" was "wist". "Wistful" comes from that; one older meaning of "wistful" was intent, which ties again into the theme of vision. It's a short enough step from gazing intently at something to gazing at it longingly, whence the current meaning of "wistful". The word "wish" may have had some influence there.
(One of Lois McMaster Bujold's characters uses the back-formation "wist" as a present-tense verb of longing: "I wist it real bad." Bujoldists need to get cracking, to get that meaning into commoner use.)
"Wish" is actually unrelated to "wit"; it's more closely connected with "win", ultimately from a root meaning to strive. Latin "venus", sexual desire, is another cognate. This gave rise to an older English word "venery", sexual activity. The same Indo-European root also gave rise to Latin "venari", to hunt, whence "venison" - and another word "venery", hunting. The obvious pun between the two words appears predictably often in Early Modern English poetry.
I love a good dictionary.
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Date: 2007-11-19 02:45 am (UTC)