Thursday, October 25, 2018

Speak up!

Speak up!

Etymologists work hard studying languages. This study involves the proposal of languages that appear to have existed & can be built based on the products of these languages’ progeny. One such proposed source language is Proto-Indo-European, & one of the root words etymologists believe came from this proposed language is a word meaning speak. Though this root word was never written when this proposed language was spoken (assuming it was spoken), we write the root *wekw-. It appears to have given birth to a steaming heap of English words.

After passing through Latin:
vociferous - 1600s
vocabulary  - 1500s
avocation  - (we also refer to an avocation as a calling — & isn’t a calling voiced?) 1400s

After passing through Latin, Old French & Anglo-French:
vouch  - 1300s

After passing through Latin & Old French:
voice  - late 1200s
vowel - 1300s
vocal - late 1300s
invoke, revoke, provoke, & evoke — 1400-1600s
convocation - 1300s 
advocate - 1300s
equivocate - late 1300s

And after passing through Greek & Latin:
epic - 1500s

All that from the idea of speaking up.

Voting day is soon upon us. Speak up.



My thanks go out to this week’s sources, Etymonline.com, Merriam-Webster.com, Wordnik, Collins Dictionary, & the OED.

4 comments:

  1. All those vocal words make sense. I know Indians tend to interchange "v" and "w" sounds. But I can't figure out how the word morphed into "epic." But I can imagine that the Greeks and Romans tarted up the word a bit to make it important enough to mean a heroic tale of historic grandeur.

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    1. I had that same thought, Anne. I have no evidence of it, but I wonder whether there's any way that whatever led to equivocate might have also led to epic -- who's to know?

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  2. Wonderful words. And yes...now is the time to speak up!
    Invoke, revoke, provoke, & evoke!

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    1. Hey Christine - I agree -- this may even be a time for epic vociferosity!

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