Monthly etymology gleanings for July 2014
By Anatoly Liberman
Given that I’ll be out of town at the finish of July, I was not guaranteed I would be ready to produce these “gleanings.” But the concerns have been a lot of, and I could remedy some of them forward of time.
Autumn: its etymology
Our correspondent miracles regardless of whether the Latin word from which English, by using French, has autumn, could be identified with the name of the Egyptian god Autun. The Romans derived the phrase autumnus, which was equally an adjective (“autumnal”) and a noun (“autumn”), from augere “to boost.” This verb’s ideal participle is auctus “rich (“autumn as a rich season”). The Roman derivation, however not implausible, appears like a tribute to folk etymology. A far more severe conjecture allies autumn to the Germanic root aud-, as in Gothic aud–ags “blessed” (in the linked languages, also “rich”). But, much more possibly, Latin autumnus goes back again to Etruscan. The most important argument for the Etruscan origin is the resemblance of autumnus to Vertumnus, the title of a seasonal deity (or so it appears to be), about whom small is acknowledged besides the tale of his seduction, in the shape of an old woman, of Pomona, as advised by Ovid. Vertumnus, or Vortumnus, may well be a Latinized kind of an Etruscan title. A definite conclusion about autumnus is hardly feasible, even however some resources, whilst tracing this phrase to Etruscan, add “without doubt.” The Egyptian Autun was a generation god and the god of the placing solar, so that his relationship with autumn is distant at best. Nor do we have any proof that Autun had a cult in Historical Rome. Everything is so uncertain listed here that the origin of autumnus will have to desires continue to be unfamiliar. In my view, the Egyptian hypothesis retains out minimal assure.
The origin of so lengthy
I acquired an interesting letter from Mr. Paul Nance. He writes about so long:
“It seems the variety of expression that should really have derived from some fuller social nicety, these kinds of as I regret that it will be so very long right before we meet up with all over again or the like, but no a single has proposed a crystal clear antecedent. An oddity is its sudden overall look in the early nineteenth century there are only a handful of sightings prior to Walt Whitman’s use of it in a poem (such as the title) in the 1860-1861 version of Leaves of Grass. I can, by the way, supply an antedating to the OED citations: so, great bye, so extensive in the tale ‘Cruise of a Guinean Man’. Knickerbocker: New York (Month-to-month Magazine 5, February 1835, p. 105 obtainable on Google Textbooks). Supplied the absence of a fuller antecedent, solutions as to its origin all propose a borrowing from another language. Does this appear fair to you?”
Mr. Nance was kind enough to append two articles or blog posts (by Alan S. Kaye and Joachim Grzega) on so very long, both of which I experienced in my folders but have not reread because 2004 and 2005, when I identified and copied them. Grzega’s contribution is primarily detailed. My database has only one particular a lot more very small remark on so very long by Frank Penny: “About 20 many years ago I was informed that it [the expression so long] is allied to Samuel Pepys’s expression so home, and must be written so alongside or so ’long, this means that the individual making use of the expression ought to go his way” (Notes and Queries, Sequence 12, vol. IX, 1921, p. 419). The team so house does turn up in the Diary much more than when, but no citation I could discover looks like a system. Maybe Stephen Goranson will ferret it out. In any situation, so very long appears to be like like an Americanism, and it is unlikely that this kind of a preferred phrase need to have remained dormant in texts for virtually two generations.
Be that as it may well, I concur with Mr. Nance that a formula of this sort probably arose in civil conversation. The many attempts to discover a international resource for it have small conviction. Norwegian does have an virtually identical phrase, but, considering that its antecedents are not known, it might have been borrowed from English. I suspect (a most loved convert of speech by aged etymologists) that so prolonged is in fact a curtailed edition of a as soon as a lot more comprehensible parting method, except if it belongs with the likes of for auld lang sine. It may possibly have been introduced to the New World from England or Scotland and later abbreviated and reinterpreted.
“Heavy rain” in languages other than English
At the time I wrote a put up titled “When it rains, it does not automatically pour.” There I pointed out quite a few German and Swedish idioms like it is raining cats and canines, and, instead than recycling that textual content, will refer our previous correspondent Mr. John Larsson to it.
Ukraine and Baltic position names
The remark on this issue was welcome. In my reaction, I chosen not to chat about the items alien to me, but I puzzled whether or not the Latvian place title could be of Slavic origin. That is why I reported cautiously: “If this is a native Latvian word…” The issue, as I understand, continues to be unanswered, but the recommendation is tempting. And sure, of study course, Serb/Croat Krajna is an correct counterpart of Ukraina, only without a prefix. In Russian, tension falls on i in Ukrainian, I think, the first a is pressured. The very same holds for the derived adjectives: ukrainskii ~ ukrainskii. Pushkin reported ukrainskaia (feminine).
Slough, sloo, and the rest
Lots of many thanks to individuals who knowledgeable me about their pronunciation of slough “mire.” It was new to me that the surname Slough is pronounced in different ways in England and the United States. I also gained a dilemma about the background of slew. The earlier tense of slay (Outdated Engl. slahan) was sloh (with a long vowel), and this kind created like scoh “shoe,” though the verb vacillated in between the 6th and the 7th class. The fact that slew and shoe have this kind of dissimilar published varieties is owing to the vagaries of English spelling. One particular can think of too, who, you, group, fruit, cruise, rheum, truth, and true, which have the exact same vowel as slew. In addition, take into consideration Bruin and ruin, which search deceptively like fruit, and insert maleoeuver for fantastic measure. A delicate spelling reform appears to be like a good thought, does not it?
The pronunciation of February
In a person of the letters I been given, the writer expresses her indignation that some men and women insist on sounding the 1st r in February. Everybody, she asserts, suggests Febyooary. In these types of matters, most people is a harmful word (as we will also see from the future item). All of us have a tendency to believe that what we say is the only accurate norm. Words with the succession r…r tend to eliminate a person of them. But library is more generally pronounced with each, and Drury, brewery, and prurient have withstood the tendency. February has changed its form quite a few situations. Hence, very long in the past feverer (from Previous French) grew to become feverel (probably underneath the impact of averel “April”). In the older language of New England, January and February turned into Janry and Febry. Nevertheless potent the phonetic forces may have been in affecting the pronunciation of February, of excellent value was also the actuality that the names of the months typically take place in enumeration. With no the to start with r, January and February rhyme. A equivalent condition is well-acknowledged from the etymology of some numerals. Despite the fact that the pronunciation Febyooary is similarly frequent on equally sides of the Atlantic and is identified as typical through the English-speaking entire world, not “everybody” has recognized it. The consonant b in February is thanks to the Latinization of the French etymon (late Latin februarius).
Who vs . whom
Dialogue of these pronouns missing all desire very long back, simply because the confusion of who and whom and the defeat of whom in American English go again to outdated times. Still I am not sure that what I stated about the educated norm is “nonsense.” Who will marry our son? Whom will our son marry? Is it “nonsense” to distinguish them, and must (or only can) it be who in the two situations? Despite the rebuke, I think that even in Modern American English the girl who we visited will not put up with if who is replaced with whom. But, as opposed to my opponent, I acknowledge that preferences differ.
Wrap
A further issue I acquired was about the origin of the verb wrap. This is a alternatively very long tale, and I determined to devote a particular write-up to it in the foreseeable long run.
PS. I notice that of the two concerns questioned by our correspondent last thirty day period only copacetic captivated some interest (study Stephen Goranson’s reaction). But what about hubba hubba?
Anatoly Liberman is the writer of Phrase Origins And How We Know Them as effectively as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears on the OUPblog every Wednesday. Mail your etymology question to him treatment of [email protected] he’ll do his ideal to keep away from responding with “origin unidentified.” Subscribe to Anatoly Liberman’s weekly etymology posts via email or RSS.
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