Common Errors in Etymology

15 January 2001

The fact is, man is an etymologizing animal. He abhors the vacuum of an unmeaning word. If it seems lifeless, he reads a new soul into it, and often, like an unskillful necromancer, spirits the wrong soul into the wrong body.

�The Reverend A. Smythe Palmer, Folk-Etymology, 1890

Popular wisdom often adopts tales about the origins of words. Sometimes these tales are correct, but more often they are not. These popular etymologies suffer from several recurring errors.

Superficial Resemblances

“Because two words look the same, they must come from the same source.” This is a very common error. To be fair, many, if not most, similar words are etymologically related, but this is not always the case. In fact, there are so many exceptions to this rule, that it is a very poor guide.

Often the error is that one word has a Latin root, while its similar-looking neighbor comes from a Germanic root. In these cases, the two words are often distantly related in that they share an Indo-European root, but they entered the English language through entirely different routes. An example of this is butterscotch, which has nothing to do with Scotland or with whisky. Scot, as in Scotland, comes originally from Scoti, the Roman word for the Gaelic people of Ireland who later (6th century A.D.) migrated to north Britain and gave that name to what is now known as Scotland. From this comes the adjective Scotch that is used to refer to things Scottish, including the whisky. On the other hand, the scotch in butterscotch comes from the Middle English scocchen, and from there probably from the Old French coche and the Latin Vulgate cocca, meaning a notch or nick. The candy was notched, or scored, to make it easier to break into pieces.

Such errors also arise because a foreign word bears a superficial resemblance to an English word. So a ten-gallon hat is often thought to be large enough to hold ten gallons of water. This is not true, unless you have an exceptionally large head. The gallon in ten-gallon hat derives from the Spanish gal�n, meaning braid. So a ten-gallon hat is a hat with braiding around the brim.

False Eponyms

People often ascribe word origins to famous people. This is complicated because many words are, in fact, eponyms; Amelia Bloomer gave us the name for a type of undergarment and William Bowdler was quite a censor of literary works. But, harlot does not come from Arlette, the unmarried mother of William the Conqueror, crap does not derive from Thomas Crapper, nor did a New Orleans gambler nicknamed Johnny the Toad (Crapaud in French) give his name to a certain game of dice, and General “Fighting Joe” Hooker did not bequeath us the word for a camp follower.

Acronymic Origins

There is [...] an unhappy tendency among amateur etymologists to derive words from the initials of proper names.

�H.L. Mencken, The American Language

Acronymic word origins are often posited for words like fuck (Fornication Under Consent of the King) and posh (Port Out; Starboard Home). both of these claims are incorrect.

There are only one or two pre-twentieth century words with acronymic origins. If in doubt as to a word’s origins, the first place to look is a good dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary is the most authoritative source, but Merriam-Webster’s Third New International and The American Heritage Dictionary are excellent, less expensive, and easier-to-find sources. A list of good etymological sources can be found on this site.

What is an acronym? The term itself only dates from the 1940s and is from the Greek akros, meaning point, and onuma, meaning name. An acronym is an abbreviation formed from the first letters of a series of words. Some authorities insist that an acronym must be pronounced as one word (e.g., NATO is an acronym; AAA, for American Automobile Association, is not), but not all agree with this. Those that use the limited definition generally distinguish between word acronyms (e.g., NATO) and initialisms (e.g., BBC).

There are some modern words with acronymic origins (e.g., radar, scuba). But acronyms, as opposed to initialisms, came into English usage during the First World War (e.g., ANZAC for Australia-New Zealand Army Corps, AWOL for Absent WithOut Leave). At most, there are only one or two words with acronymic origins from the latter half of the 19th century, and none earlier than that.

Initialisms existed, but were not common, prior to WWI. Mencken does not cite a single example of an initialism dating earlier than the nineteenth century, and he dates the widespread use of initialisms to the 1920s, with a usage explosion during the 1930s with the New Deal.

Although almost no pre-twentieth century examples of acronymic word origins exist, the concept of the acronym, while rare, was not unknown in earlier times. Occasionally, phrases would be made where the first letters of each word in the phrase spelled out an existing word.

The earliest example of this, although not an English one, is the Greek word ichthys, meaning fish. It was used by early Christians to mean Iesous Christos Theou Huios Soter, or translated Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior. Fish were associated with Christ as the fisher of men and the fish symbol was a common hieroglyph used by the early church to stand for Christ and Christians (and still found on the the backs of many modern automobiles). Ichthys, which dates as far back as Homer (i.e., c. 8th century, B.C.E.), is one of several Greek words for fish. The use of ichthys as an acronym by the early Christian church appears as early as the second century A.D., but possibly has earlier roots.

A later English acronym is cabal, which entered the language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in 1646 from the French cabale and derives ultimately from Hebrew. The acronym has cabal standing for Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale, five ministers of Charles II who made an alliance with France in 1672. Since cabal was in English usage prior to this, this is clearly not the word’s English origin.

It’s important to note that neither of these acronyms are the origins of the word in question. Rather, those who coined the acronyms were being clever by using letters to form an existing word.

Irresistible Stories

Finally, many supposed word origins remain popular because of the tales attached to them. We can gleefully recount the camp followers around General Hooker’s headquarters or the intrigues of Charles II’s ministers. Imagining that the children’s rhyme Ring Around the Rosie is a tribal memory of the Black Death is more fun than the fact that it is simply nonsense verse. The stories, whether they are true or false, are entertaining, and it is fun to associate word origins with them.

While the stories may be fun, we should not delude ourselves by assigning false origins to words. In the words of Goethe:

A false hypothesis is better than none at all. The fact that it is false does not matter so much. However, if it takes root, if it is generally assumed, if it becomes a kind of credo admitting no doubt or scrutiny�that is the real evil, one which has endured through the centuries.

(Special thanks go to my brother The Rev. Dr. Carlos Wilton for the research behind the origin of the ichthys acronym. Two sources that he used were:

• Bauer, Arndt, & Gingrich; Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament; University of Chicago Press; 1957; p. 385.

• Raymond E. Brown; Anchor Bible Commentary on the Gospel of John, vol. 1; Doubleday; 1966; p. 246.)

Etymological Tools

15 January 2001

What are the various tools and methods for finding and validating the origins of words and phrases? Where can one go to find information and common mechanisms of word and phrase formation.

Standards of Evidence

By far, the most common methodological error I find that amateur word sleuths make regards standards of evidence. Someone comes up with a hypothesis that sounds plausible, but fails to back it up with any evidence. Explanations for words or phrases like the whole nine yards are interesting, but without actual evidence to support them they cannot be considered correct.

The gold standard for etymological evidence is a citation of usage. You must find a written instance of the word being used that is both earlier than any other known usage and that supports the hypothesis. If for instance you want to prove that the whole nine yards is a reference to the length of a formal Scottish kilt, you need to find someone using the phrase prior to the mid-1960s in reference to kilts, or since all the early known uses are American, at least from a Scottish source.

Of course this provides a bias toward written works and against oral traditions, but this is unavoidable even if we include letters, diaries, and other unpublished works. Oral traditions simply don’t survive intact. Even words and phrases that arose within living memory need written documentation because memory is malleable and subject to change.

The best research tools are those that include citations of usage. Dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary, The Historical Dictionary of American Slang, and the Dictionary of American Regional English all include verifiable examples of usage through the decades and centuries.

Types of Tools

Standard Dictionaries

The most common and useful etymological tool is a standard dictionary. Most good dictionaries include etymological information about the entries. Usually, this can be found at the beginning of the entry, immediately following the pronunciation and part of speech classification. The exact format and abbreviations used will vary from dictionary to dictionary. For example:

IN-FAN-TRY \’inf&n-trE, -ri\ n -ES [MF & OIt; MF infanterie, fr. OIt infanteria, fr. infante infant, boy, footman, foot soldier (fr. L infant-, infans infant) + -eria -ry—more at INFANT] 1a: soldiers trained, armed, and equipped to fight on foot b: a branch of the army composed of such soldiers c: an infantry regiment (the 8th Infantry ) d: MOONLIGHT BLUE 2: [influenced in meaning by 1infant] a body of children

So, in this entry (taken from Merriam Webster’s Third New International Dictionary), we first find the entry, the word infantry, which is followed by the pronunciation, the classification of the part of speech�in this case a noun, the plural form, and then the etymology. The etymology is then followed by the definitions, in this case there are two main senses, with the first sense having four sub-categories. The order of the components of the entry and the abbreviations used will vary from dictionary to dictionary. Look in the front of the dictionary to find the style and abbreviations used by that particular set of editors.

So, we can see that infantry comes into English from the Middle French infanterie, which in turn comes from the Old Italian infanteria. This Old Italian military term comes from the word infante, which can mean a foot soldier in addition to the sense of a baby. This Old Italian word derives from the Latin root infant- or infans. Finally the dictionary tells us that there is more information to be found under the entry for infant.

Etymological Dictionaries

An etymological dictionary is simply one that focuses on the etymological portion of the entry. It will include more details on the origins, such as the dates when various word forms appeared in the language or extended notes on the origins. This is usually done at the sacrifice of other information. Pronunciations, plural and other forms, and sometimes even definitions are left out.

Slang, Jargon,& Dialectical Dictionaries

These are dictionaries that focus on certain subsets of the language. Their advantage is that they include words and phrases that cannot be found in standard dictionaries because they are not widely used. The chief disadvantage is that they are not comprehensive. A slang dictionary focuses on non-standard words and phrases. A jargon dictionary, often called a technical dictionary by title, concentrates on words used in certain professional or technical fields, such as the sciences or engineering. A regional or dialectical dictionary attempts to capture the language used in one particular region or in one dialect.

Often these dictionaries omit etymological information, concentrating on the definition.

Popular Press Books

Popular press books are simply those that are created for the general reader. The quality of research and the information presented varies widely. Some are complete trash, containing wildly inaccurate information. Others are of superb quality. They tend to focus on slang or “interesting” words and phrases and are rarely useful for most ordinary words (but that is what we have dictionaries for).

The chief drawback of popular press books is that they rarely contain source information. This makes them nearly useless as research tools. It is also difficult to quickly gauge the quality of popular press books. They may have the veneer of sound scholarship, but be filled with inaccuracies that only come to light after extended checking against other sources.

One good way to gauge the quality of a book while you are standing in the bookstore or library is to have a standard set of words to check. Ones I often use are posh, wog, and the whole nine yards. Using these known words and phrases, you can quickly evaluate the accuracy, quantity, and presentation of the information.

Methods of Word Formation

15 January 2001

The formation of new words is not a random process. There are several distinct patterns and paths by which new words come into the language. These fall into four major categories, which in turn can be subdivided.

New Root Formation

Root formation is the creation of new words. Roots come from one of three sources: they are inherited from Old English, they are adopted from other languages, or they are coined by an individual to express a particular idea.

Inherited roots are those native to the language, dating back to antiquity. For English, this means roots that are found in Old English. Of all the words in the English language, relatively few (one or two percent) have Old English roots. But this number is deceptive. About half of the most commonly used words are Old English in origin. So the bulk of everyday English speech and writing is rooted in Old English.

Borrowed roots are taken from another language. In English, the largest group of borrowed terms came from Norman-French and together with Old English became what we call Middle English. There are several reasons for borrowing and each displays its own patterns and “rules”:

• Domination by another culture. The best example is the Norman domination of England. Norman-French became the language of the courts and the aristocracy.

• Close contact between speakers of different languages. This can be seen in the American West with adoption of Spanish words, through the use of pidgins and other trading languages, and in the adoption of words from India and other areas of the British Empire.

• Need. Often a foreign word expresses an idea or a nuance better than existing words. Nouns are frequently adopted for this reason, but not all such words are nouns. Words and phrases such as lassez-faire express ideas that couldn’t be easily expressed without adopting the words into English.

• Prestige. Often people use foreign words to show a sophistication and worldliness. Foreign words can be a status symbol. Also, certain technical disciplines follow a practice of adopting words from Latin or Greek, because these were once the languages of educated people.

Root creation is the coining of a new word. This process is relatively rare compared to the number of roots from inheritance or borrowing. There are basically two types of root creation, motivated and ex nihilo. The distinction is that in motivated root creation there is some discernible logic behind the new word; in ex nihilo root creation there is not.

One fairly common form of motivated root creation is echoic or onomatopoetic words. Hence cuckoo sounds like the call of the bird. Sometimes the creator attempts to summon connotations present in other words, like Tolkien’s hobbit summons the image of a rabbit.

Ex nihilo root creation has no logic behind it. Examples are grok, invented by Robert Heinlein in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land, or googol, which was invented on request by a mathematician’s nine-year-old nephew.

Modification

Modification is where an existing word is changed to form a new one.

Some people use the term folk etymology to describe a fanciful story behind a word’s origin. But etymologists use this term in a very specific, and different, way. Folk etymology is when an unfamiliar word is altered through common use to resemble a more familiar word. Hence, through the process of folk etymology cater corner becomes kitty corner.

Functional Shift. Words often shift their grammatical function over time. Nouns become verbs, verbs become nouns, nouns become adjectives, etc. Run was originally a verb, dating back to about the year 800, but in the 15th century people started using it as a noun, as in to go for a run. Some prescriptivists decry functional shifts as improper English, but it is a natural process.

There are four distinct sub-classes of word formation through abbreviation. These are initialisms, acronyms, clipped forms, and back formations.

• In initialisms and acronyms, the initial portions of the words or syllables of a phrase are used to form a word. Hence British Broadcasting Corporation yields BBC, to overdose becomes to OD, and White Anglo-Saxon Protestant becomes WASP. The difference between an initialism and an acronym is that an acronym can be pronounced as a single word instead of being spelled out by letter (many people use the term acronym to mean both). Note that acronymic word origins are a twentieth century phenomenon. This method of word formation is unknown in earlier periods.

• A clipped form is simply one where elements of a word have been dropped in common use. Hence, telephone yields phone.

• A back formation is a clipped form of a longer word that also undergoes a functional shift. Thus the noun liaison gives birth to its back formation, the verb to liaise. The shift in part of speech distinguishes a back formation from an ordinary clipped word. Unlike derivation or combination, a back formation occurs when components of the original are cut off. The only way to distinguish a back formation from the other two types is by dating. The older term is the original, even if it is the more complex form.

Generation

Generation is the creation of new words through combinations of roots and affixes.

Derivation is the formation of new words by adding affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to a root. Unwisely is derived from the root wise.

Compounding or composition is the use of two or more roots to form a word. Egomania is the compound of ego and mania.

One particular type of compounding is the phrasal verb. It is a type of compund where several words combine to form a verb, but instead of combining into a single word they combine into a phrase. Over time, the spaces between the words in the phrase are often lost, forming a single word. Examples are turnabout and takedown.

A blend or portmanteau word is the result from a specific type of compounding, one where several words are fused into one. Thus breakfast and lunch blend to become brunch.

Semantic Change

This isn’t the formation of new words per se, but is the formation of new senses for existing words.

Specialization occurs when a word originally referred to a broad category, but over time narrows in scope to refer only to a once was what a subcategory. An example is liquor; it originally meant any liquid. Mete once referred to any type of food, not just animal flesh. Sometimes the original, general sense is lost. Deor once meant any type of animal, but the general sense was replaced by the French beast, leaving us with deer. Other times, multiple meanings continue to coexist, as in pill, meaning both a method of delivering a drug and, with the definite article, a specific drug for birth control.

Generalization, obviously, is the opposite of specialization. To sail once meant specifically to travel waters via windpower. It lost the specificity of windpower, as in to set sail on a submarine, and eventually came to mean any effortless travel�even if it isn’t physical, as in to sail through the exam.

That last example for sail leads us to metaphorical changes. Sail can be used metaphorically for anything effortless, not just travel, as in to sail through the exam. A metaphorical change is one where a word can serve as a metaphor for something else. So grasp, originally referring to holding something in the hand has come to mean to comprehend. Nitpick, the removal of louse eggs, has come to mean detailed and precise criticism.

Finally, a semantic shift is when a word attaches itself to an associated object. A bureau was once a woolen covering used to cover a desk. It eventually came to mean the desk itself and then the office that used the desks.