Grandmother Smarati
The Sanskrit word smarati,
or remember, is the grandmother of
many words. Here are a few.
The word memory
came to English in the 1300s, from the French word memoire, which came from
the Latin word memoria, all meaning pretty much the same thing. And memoria
came about after the Sanskrit word, smarati made its convoluted way
across a continent, through Proto-Indo-European, losing its last two syllables,
shifting a vowel from a to e, to become smer, then losing its initial
consonant to become mer.
It’s pretty easy to see the
resemblance between memory, memoir & remember, but smarati
also managed to be the impetus for the word mourn, which came from
the Proto-Germanic murnan or mearn, to remember sorrowfully, which came from smer, which started out,
of course, as smarati.
Though not all etymologists agree,
it’s very likely smarati is the unlikely root for tirade. It seems tirade, which appeared in
English in the early 1800s, from French, initially meant a volley of words, which comes from the Old French, martirer,
to endure martyrdom. Isn’t it delicious
that putting up with a verbal tirade is etymologically equated with being
burned at the stake?
Of course, the word martyr
also originated with the Sanskrit smarati, as did the even more
unlikely word, retire. It seems reasonable that retire would have something
to do with being tired, however, there appears to be no etymological support for
that. Instead, retire entered
English in the 1530s as a military term,
to withdraw to some place for the sake of seclusion, which came from the
Old French tirer, which has its roots
in that wonderful grandmother of a Sanskrit word, smarati, who, let’s hope
– after all that good work – has finally withdrawn
somewhere for the sake of seclusion.
Followers – have any of you
felt martyred
to someone’s tirade? Do any of you take heart that the root of mourn
is more fundamentally about remembering
than it is about sadness? Any other
thoughts about smarati & its offspring?
Also, my audiobook
narration of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first published short story is up on
audible! Check it out here.
I love the idea of being martyred with words! And what about smart? A lot of what makes people seem "smart" is a great memory. Could samarati have been condensed into "smart"?
ReplyDeleteHi Anne,
ReplyDeleteThat would be tres cool, but it looks as though SMART comes straight from Old English, originally having to do with cutting - thus, a cutting wit, not unlike the author of those Camilla Randall mysteries!
Following up on Ms. Anne R. Allen's comment, what about the Sanskrit "samati" which means lying face-up like you're dead (also called the "corpse pose"). I know some possums smart (or samara or maybe samarti-pants enough) to use it in appropriate situations.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, have you ever wondered how languages became different? I mean, at the start, when people began making sounds which became words. Iike the word "leg." Did somebody in, say, Tibet, point at his buddie's lower extremity and say, "Hey, Bilbo, that's yoom's leg," which, of course, is the source of legume, which somehow came to be known as two peas in a pod or whatever. Whereas, over in South Central Icantstanditistan, the word for...oh, forget it.
I hardly know what to say.
Delete