Grandmother Pau
What
do Sanskrit, Hindi, Lithuanian, Yiddish, Dutch, Spanish, French, Latin, English
& Norse have in common? Hard working etymologists working in the basements
of ivory towers have determined these & dozens more all came from one
parent language. And since it never got written down & no modern person
speaks that parent language, those diligent etymologists have recreated the
parent language based on the qualities of the progeny and have called that
parent Proto-Indo-European.
One
of the many proposed bits of Proto-Indo-European is the word pau,
meaning few or little, & for an
imagined word in an imagined language, our friend pau was a fertile parent.
This week’s post takes a look at some of pau’s offspring, which interestingly
tend to refer to horses or poverty.
The
word few,
meaning not many, a small number, or a
little arrived in Old English early enough that it appears to have come
straight from Proto-Indo-European. It arrived so early we don’t even know its
birth year.
Foal, meaning foal or colt. came to
Old English equally early through Proto-Germanic from Proto-Indo-European.
Poor showed up in the 1200s, meaning lacking
money or resources, indigent, small or scanty. Its path took it from
Proto-Indo-European through Latin & French to English.
In
the 1400s filly showed up, meaning young
mare, female colt or foal. It arrived in English from Proto-Indo-European
via Old Norse.
In
the late 1400s the word paucity came to English, meaning smallness of number or quantity. In turn,
paucity
gave birth to the musical term poco, meaning a little or slightly. These words made their way from
Proto-Indo-European through Latin & French before arriving in English.
The
word pauper
arrived in English in the 1510s, meaning destitute
of property or means of livelihood. It also came to English through Latin
& French.
Pony came to English in the
1650s through Latin, French & Scottish, and refers to a little foal.
All
these words from pau. I’m hoping some of you will leave brilliant theories in
the comments section as to what the deal is with horses & poverty.