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stoutfellowI was going to write a "things I didn't know" post, briefly discussing three or four things I've learned or noticed lately. Unfortunately, while working on the very first item I found myself deep in the thickets of etymology, so....
The quotation marks on the title are there for a reason. If you're curious, it's because I'll be talking about the word "outrage".
First, a few words about borrowed words. I tend to classify words of foreign origin into three categories. When a foreign word first starts appearing in English, it's a tourist. Everybody who hears it, everybody who uses it, knows that it's not English; it's often pronounced in an un-English fashion, and it'll probably be written in italics. Nobody says arrondisement in English unless they're specifically talking about French local government, for example. Later on, a word starts to become naturalized; its pronunciation may shift and, though most people will recognize that it isn't of English origin, they won't regard its use as being hoity-toity. The transformation of chaise longue into "chase lounge" is an example; the shift in stress from the second to the first syllable of "chauffeur" is another. (I remember, in my youth, hearing a dirty joke which punned on "chauffeur" and "shofar"....) Eventually, the word becomes a full citizen, and only those of a linguistic bent will remember that it didn't start that way.
So, consider the word "outrage", which is in the third category. Its French origin has been wiped away, with the help of a false etymology - what some call an "etymythology" - connecting it with "rage". Originally, there was no connection; it was derived, in French, from the adjective "outré", together with the suffix "-age", turning it into a noun. An outrage, then, was originally something which was outré. Contamination from "rage", though, has shifted its base meaning towards "something which makes people mad". (The word "outrageous" still can carry the older meaning; you might call a comedian "outrageous" without being angry, for example.)
The "-age" suffix is still highly productive in French; not so in English, despite the efforts of Buffy fans ("slayage") and 133t-speakers ("pwnage"). Still, there are quite a few English words which incorporate it, like "garage". "Gare", in French, originally referred to setting something out of the way; it eventually came to name things like docks or railway stations. "Garage" was the act of storing something, and later a place for doing so.
"Gare" is itself interesting. There are a number of originally Germanic words in the Romance languages that originally began with a "w", which was replaced with a "g" or "gu"; for example, the names "Guillaume/Guillermo/Guglielmo", all cognate to our "William". "Gare" is related to an Old English word "waer", which had to do with attention and protection; our words "aware" and "wary" come from that root. So does "ward" - which pairs with "guard", from the same root, but entering English from French. (There are a lot of pairs like that: "warden/guardian", "warranty/guarantee", and so on.) The English word "wares" (and the related "warehouse") may also be related.
Off on a tangent: the Spanish word "guerra" is another of those w/g words, directly cognate to our "war". "Guerrilla" means "little war"; it originally referred to the actions of Spanish irregulars against Napoleon's armies in the Peninsular War.
Other relatives of "waer" include the somewhat old-fashioned word "weir", a fence or dam, and - perhaps surprisingly - "very". That word began life as the Latin "verus", "true"; it passed into French with the same meaning, and crossed the Channel with the Normans. Its lineal descendant in standard French is "vrai", still with the original meaning. Of course, "very" is a superb example of the naturalization process I spoke of above: not one English-speaker in a hundred, I daresay, realizes that it's a French import!
I've got to stay away from that dictionary for a while....
Note: The song below was, in fact, what was playing as I finished this post.
The quotation marks on the title are there for a reason. If you're curious, it's because I'll be talking about the word "outrage".
First, a few words about borrowed words. I tend to classify words of foreign origin into three categories. When a foreign word first starts appearing in English, it's a tourist. Everybody who hears it, everybody who uses it, knows that it's not English; it's often pronounced in an un-English fashion, and it'll probably be written in italics. Nobody says arrondisement in English unless they're specifically talking about French local government, for example. Later on, a word starts to become naturalized; its pronunciation may shift and, though most people will recognize that it isn't of English origin, they won't regard its use as being hoity-toity. The transformation of chaise longue into "chase lounge" is an example; the shift in stress from the second to the first syllable of "chauffeur" is another. (I remember, in my youth, hearing a dirty joke which punned on "chauffeur" and "shofar"....) Eventually, the word becomes a full citizen, and only those of a linguistic bent will remember that it didn't start that way.
So, consider the word "outrage", which is in the third category. Its French origin has been wiped away, with the help of a false etymology - what some call an "etymythology" - connecting it with "rage". Originally, there was no connection; it was derived, in French, from the adjective "outré", together with the suffix "-age", turning it into a noun. An outrage, then, was originally something which was outré. Contamination from "rage", though, has shifted its base meaning towards "something which makes people mad". (The word "outrageous" still can carry the older meaning; you might call a comedian "outrageous" without being angry, for example.)
The "-age" suffix is still highly productive in French; not so in English, despite the efforts of Buffy fans ("slayage") and 133t-speakers ("pwnage"). Still, there are quite a few English words which incorporate it, like "garage". "Gare", in French, originally referred to setting something out of the way; it eventually came to name things like docks or railway stations. "Garage" was the act of storing something, and later a place for doing so.
"Gare" is itself interesting. There are a number of originally Germanic words in the Romance languages that originally began with a "w", which was replaced with a "g" or "gu"; for example, the names "Guillaume/Guillermo/Guglielmo", all cognate to our "William". "Gare" is related to an Old English word "waer", which had to do with attention and protection; our words "aware" and "wary" come from that root. So does "ward" - which pairs with "guard", from the same root, but entering English from French. (There are a lot of pairs like that: "warden/guardian", "warranty/guarantee", and so on.) The English word "wares" (and the related "warehouse") may also be related.
Off on a tangent: the Spanish word "guerra" is another of those w/g words, directly cognate to our "war". "Guerrilla" means "little war"; it originally referred to the actions of Spanish irregulars against Napoleon's armies in the Peninsular War.
Other relatives of "waer" include the somewhat old-fashioned word "weir", a fence or dam, and - perhaps surprisingly - "very". That word began life as the Latin "verus", "true"; it passed into French with the same meaning, and crossed the Channel with the Normans. Its lineal descendant in standard French is "vrai", still with the original meaning. Of course, "very" is a superb example of the naturalization process I spoke of above: not one English-speaker in a hundred, I daresay, realizes that it's a French import!
I've got to stay away from that dictionary for a while....
Note: The song below was, in fact, what was playing as I finished this post.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-02 03:50 pm (UTC)Just as at events featuring Puerto Ricans we wait for the inevitable presenting of the plaques.
Love, C.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 05:04 pm (UTC)