English
is filled with words that appear to be related, but, as Ira Gershwin suggested,
“It ain’t necessarily so.”
For
instance, shouldn’t taut have some sort of relationship with taught? Taut
showed up in the 1200s, spelled tohte. All this time it has meant stretched or pulled tight. Chances are
good it came from on Old English word meaning to pull or drag, which also eventually led to the words tie,
tow & duke (no kidding). The word taught also came from Old
English, but its root word was spelled tahte, the past tense of
taecan, to teach. As much as
these two homonyms sound identical, it turns out the commonalities they share
are 1) they both originated in Old English, & 2) neither one has changed
meaning for centuries.
Another
pair of confusion-creating homonyms is immanent & imminent. The first came from Latin through French in
about 1530 and means indwelling or
inherent. Its root word immanere meant to dwell in. Imminent, which came from Latin through French
about the same time, means near at hand
or impending. Imminent was formed by adding im- (meaning in) to minere (jutting out).
Principle seems as though it should be related to principal. Showing up in
the 1200s, principle meant origin,
source, or elemental aspect. It came from the Old French word, principe,
which started off as the Latin word principium, meaning beginning, origin or foundation. And
surprise, surprise, our modern word principal actually did come from the
same Latin source, but while travelling through French it became principal,
meaning dominant, main, or most important.
Heading further back into that particular Latin family tree we also find words that
have grown to become our modern words prince & prime.
And
what’s up with violet & violate? Those two words together
hardly seem appropriate. Showing up around 1300, the word violet came through Old
French from the Latin word viole, which referred both to the
flower we call the violet & its distinctive color. On the other hand, the word violate
appeared about a century later from the Latin word violatus, meaning to treat with violence, dishonor or outrage.
And while we’re on that note, how about the violin, the viola
& the bass viol? These words all came from Latin through French, too, but
the Medieval Latin grandmother word was vitula meaning a stringed instrument, probably inspired by the Roman goddess of
joy, Vitula
(whose name also provided the beginnings of the word fiddle).
Good
readers, what other pairs of words do you think ought to be related? Please, mention them in the comments section. I’m hoping to do
a second post featuring your suggestions.