What’s in a Word: History and Culture as Reflected

in English Vocabulary

Timothy Taylor

22nd March 2014

Introducing Etymology

Part I – Words as the DNA of Meaning

Part II – The History of English: One Language

or Many?

Part III – The Evolution of Words: How Words

are Born, Grow, Change and Die

Whose Words?

―We seldom realize that our most private

thoughts and emotions are not actually our

own. We think in terms of languages and

images which we did not invent, but which

were given to us by our society.‖

~ Alan Watts

Etymology = Word History

When did we become human?

When did we begin to speak?

When did we begin to write?

What were early languages like?

How are human languages related?

What were the earliest recorded words?

How does one language change and evolve?

Infinite Stars – Infinite Words

―If the stars should appear one night in a

thousand years, how would men believe and

adore; and preserve for many generations

the remembrance of the city of God which

had been shown! But every night these

envoys of beauty come out, and light the

universe with their admonishing smile.‖

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

What does the fox say?

Foxes have about 40 distinct calls, including:

―Danger!‖

―I‘m hungry!‖

―You‘re attractive!‖

―Where are you?‖

http://youtu.be/k_DVvNK7mRA

A Simple Idea

Wealth and power

are not what they

appear to be.

Richard Cory by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Intersubjectivity

Zhuangzi and Huizi were strolling

along the dam of the Hao Waterfall when

Zhuangzi said, "See how the minnows come

out and dart around wherever they please!

That's what fish really enjoy!"

Huizi said, "You're not a fish — how do you know what fish enjoy?―

Zhuangzi said, "You're not me, so how do you know I don't know

what fish enjoy?―

Huizi said, "I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. On

the other hand, you're certainly not a fish — so that still proves you don't

know what fish enjoy!―

Zhuangzi said, "Let's go back to your original question, please. You

asked me how I know what fish enjoy — so you already knew I knew it when

you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao."

+ Digital infinity

Ten symbols can denote any number:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0

But even two symbols can denote any number. In base two:

0=1, 1=1, 10=2, 11=3, 100=4, 101=5, 110=6, 111=7, 1000=8

Phonemes are the smallest discreet, distinguishable sound in

a language, and the number of phonemes varies widely in

different languages.

These few sounds can be rearranged to represent an infinite

variety of sound patterns (words). The sound patterns can

be rearranged to represent an infinite number of ―patterns

of patterns‖ (phrases, clauses, sentences)

Symbols are used to represent phonemes, multiple

phonemes, or whole words.

In English 26 letters represent 44 – 46 phonemes

Words as DNA ~

DNA as Words

From an Introduction to DNA:

We use codes everyday; alphabets are also codes. Let's take the word

"koala". In English, the letters 'k', 'o', 'a', 'l' and 'a' in that particular order

mean an animal that lives in Australia and eats eucalyptus leaves.

If you didn't know any English, you wouldn't be able to guess what

the word means from the letters that are in it. The letters 'k', 'o', 'a', and 'l'

appear in lots of other words where they don't have anything to do with

koalas. Different languages use different alphabets to convey meaning.

DNA's code is written in only four 'letters', called A, C, T and G. The

meaning of this code lies in the sequence of the letters A, T, C and G in

the same way that the meaning of a word lies in the sequence of alphabet

letters. Your cells read the DNA sequence to make chemicals that your

body needs to survive.

http://www.yourgenome.org/dgg/general/code/code_1.shtml

American DNA Sample

Tracking human migration

through DNA

Tracking human migration

through language families

PIE (Proto-Indo European) Chart

The Evolution of Words –

From the article:

―Languages change as

they are handed down from generation

to generation.

In a large population,

languages are likely to be relatively

stable - simply because there are

more people to remember what

previous generations did, he says.

But in a smaller population

- such as a splinter group that sets off

to find a new home elsewhere - there

are more chances that languages will

change quickly and that sounds will be

lost from generation to generation.

Professor Mark Pagel, an

evolutionary biologist at Reading

University, said the same effect could

be seen in DNA.

Modern-day Africans have

a much greater genetic diversity than

white Europeans who are descended

from a relatively small splinter group

that left 70,000 years ago.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1377150/Every-language-evolved-single-prehistoric-mother-tongue-spoken-Africa.html

Gaga to Water

Word changes occur in cycles that

sometimes occur across centuries and

thousands of miles… and sometimes across

a few months or years in one lifetime.

http://youtu.be/RE4ce4mexrU (from 4:00)

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/

news/queens-english-no-longer-

so-posh/

Earliest Recordings

of the Human Voice

French song recorded in 1860

Robert Browning, reciting a poem

May 6th 1889

125 years ago

http://youtu.be/OYot5-WuAjE

Part II – A Brief History of English

http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/media/services/thechildrensuniversityofmanchester/flash/timeline.swf

English – etymology of the word

English "people of England; the speech of England," Old

English Englisc (contrasted to Denisc, Frencisce, etc.),

from Engle (plural) "the Angles," the name of one of the Germanic

groups that overran the island 5 c., supposedly so-called

because Angul, the land they inhabited on the Jutland coast,

was shaped like a fish hook (see angle (n.)).

The term was used from earliest times without distinction for all the

Germanic invaders -- Angles, Saxon, Jutes (Bede's gens

Anglorum) -- and applied to their group of related languages by

Alfred the Great. After 1066, of the population of England (as

distinguished from Normans and French), a distinction which lasted

only about a generation.

In pronunciation, "En-" has become "In-," but the older spelling has

remained. Meaning "English language or literature as a subject at

school" is from 1889. As an adjective, "of or belonging to England,"

from late 13c. Old English is from early 13c.

Angle Land

Angle Land = “Hook Land”

English

In 730 a monk wrote that three tribes of Germany: Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrived in the British Isles in the 5th century

Angli Saxones meant the ―English Saxons‖ as opposed to the ―Old Saxons‖

English meant the people and the language

Engla land later referred to the country

Before the 14th century it appeared as:

Engle land; Englene londe; Engle lond; Engelond; Inglad

Highlights in the History of English

Romans leave Britain, taking Latin with them, around 500 a.d.

Angles, Saxons and Jutes arrive soon afterwards

Vikings raids begin about 800 a.d., English absorbs some 2000 words

Norman conquest 1066, English absorbs 10,000 French words, while

French rules for four hundred years

Latin is used in church for centuries

The Great Vowel Shift, 15th Century

Shakespeare introduces 2000 words, 16th Century (1564 – 1616)

King James Bible English translation, 1611

Scientific revolution, 17th century

English Empire (1583 – 1914) spreads English around the world

Samuel Johnson‘s dictionary 1746 – 1755 (14,773 entries)

Oxford English Dictionary 1857 (first edition finished in 1928)

American English, World Englishes, science, popular culture, and

multimedia (television, BBC, the Internet) and technologies continue to

spread English

The First English Dictionary ~

Samuel Johnson (1755)

Some of Johnson‟s less serious definitions:

Cough: A convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp

serosity.

Distiller: One who makes and sells pernicious and inflammatory

spirits.

Dull: Not exhilaterating; not delightful; as, to make dictionaries

is dull work.

Far-fetch: A deep stratagem. A ludicrous word.

Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that

busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification

of words.

Oats: A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in

Scotland appears to support the people.

The Oxford English Dictionary

The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious academic

projects ever undertaken.

As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray,

discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand

entries. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light:

Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the

criminally insane.

Over the next several decades work on the Dictionary continued and new editors joined the

project. In April, 1928, the last volume was published, 70 years after the start of the

project. Instead of 6,400 pages in four volumes as originally anticipated, the Dictionary

published under the imposing name A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles –

contained over 400,000 words and phrases in ten volumes. The Dictionary had taken its

place as the ultimate authority on the language. The latest ediction contains over

600,000 words.

A readable history of the OED can be found in: The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/

The OED is the single best source for amateur etymologists. Availabe at most public libraries, and HKIEd:

http://80-www.oed.com.edlis.ied.edu.hk/

English Uses Words

from over 350 Languages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Origins_of_English_PieChart.svg

From Chinese

ketchup possibly from Cantonese or Amoy

茄汁, lit. tomato sauce/juice

kowtow from Cantonese 叩頭

(Mandarin, kòu tóu), lit. knock head

kumquat or cumquat from Cantonese name of

the fruit 柑橘 (gamgwat)

Cantonese

canton (n.) 1530s, "corner, angle," from Middle French canton "piece,

portion of a country" (13c.), from Italian (Lombard dialect) cantone "region,"

especially in the mountains, augmentative of Latin canto "section of a

country," literally "corner" (see cant (n.2)). Originally in English a term in

heraldry and flag descriptions; applied to the sovereign states of the Swiss

republic from 1610s. Related: Cantoned.

cantonment (n.) 1756, "military quarters," from French cantonnement,

from cantonner "to divide into cantons" (14c.), from canton (see canton).

Meaning "action of quartering troops" is from 1757.

Cantonese

Cantonese (n.) 1816, from Canton, former transliteration of the name of the

Chinese region now known in English as Guangzhou. The older form of the

name is from the old British-run, Hong Kong-based Chinese postal system.

Used as an adjective from 1840.

The changing sounds of English:

Old English ~ Beowulf Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,

þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,

hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum,

monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,

egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð

feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,

weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,

oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra

ofer hronrade hyran scolde,

gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs god cyning!

Ðæm eafera wæs æfter cenned,

geardum, þone god sende

Folce to frofre; fyrenðearfe ongeat

þe hie ær drugon aldorlease

lange hwile. Him þæs liffrea,

wuldres wealdend, woroldare forgeaf;

Beowulf wæs breme (blæd wide sprang),

Scyldes eafera Scedelandum in.

http://youtu.be/Y13cES7MMd8

Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in days of yore

Of those folk-kings the glory have heard,

How those noblemen brave-things did.

Often Scyld, son of Scef, from enemy hosts

from many people mead-benches took,

terrorized warriors. After first he was

helpless found, he knew the recompense for that,

grew under the sky, in honors thrived,

until to him each of the neighboring tribes

over the whale-road had to submit,

tribute yield. That was a good king!

To him an heir was then borngeong in

young in the yards, him God sent

the folk to comfort; distress he had seen

that they before suffered leaderless

a long while. Them for that the Life-Lord,

of-glory ruler, honor-on-earth granted;

Beowulf was famed (renown wide spread),

Scyld's heir in northern lands.

http://youtu.be/v9qpqyO_dmU

The changing sounds of English:

Middle English ~ The Canterbury Tales

When April with his showers sweet with fruit

The drought of March has pierced unto the root

And bathed each vein with liquor that has power

To generate therein and sire the flower;

When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath,

Quickened again, in every holt and heath,

The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun

Into the Ram one half his course has run,

And many little birds make melody

That sleep through all the night with open eye

(So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)-

Then do folk long to go on pilgrimages,

And palmers to go seeking out strange strands,

To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.

http://youtu.be/QE0MtENfOMU

SONNET 116 (Original Pronunciation)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

http://youtu.be/Qabr7nyHpVc (0:45)

The changing sounds of English:

Early Modern English ~ Shakespeare

Part III – The Evolution of Words ~

How do words change?

Borrowing

Loan words

Semantic changes

Generalization

Transformation

Functional Shift or

Conversion

Modifications

Doublets

Folk Etymology

Generation

Baby talk

Onomatopoeia

Coinages

The are many ways that words change. Here are just a few:

How do words change?

1. Borrowing

Loan words – Words „borrowed‟ from other

languages to fill a gap in English. The British

and American global reach was the source of

massive borrowing. Most of the words have not

been returned.

English Empire

From the Caribbean:

cannibal

canoe

barbeque

English Empire

From India:

yoga

bungalow

English Empire

From Africa:

zombie

chimpanzee

banana

English Empire

From Australia:

nugget

boomerang

English Empire

Words entered English in America from both the native

people as well as new immigrants:

From native American languages:

raccoon, moose, skunk

tobacco, tomato, squash

From Dutch:

coleslaw, cookies, boss

From German:

pretzels, hamburger, poodle

From Italian:

pizza, spaghetti, lasagna

From Hawaiian

wiki, taboo

English Empire

New words would immigrate to England from America:

cool

movies

groovy

jazz

And old(er) English words survived in America and went

on to a life in other countries, including China

fall (not autumn)

diapers (not nappies)

candy (not sweets)

World Englishes Emerged

Hinglish

Chinglish

Singlish

Spanglish

Untranslatable?

1 | German: Waldeinsamkeit

A feeling of solitude, being alone in the woods and a connectedness to nature.

This poem titled waldeinsamkeit

was written in the 19th century:

Waldeinsamkeit

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do not count the hours I spend

In wandering by the sea;

The forest is my loyal friend,

Like God it useth me.

In plains that room for shadows make

Of skirting hills to lie,

Bound in by streams which give and take

Their colors from the sky;

Or on the mountain-crest sublime,

Or down the oaken glade,

O what have I to do with time?

For this the day was made…

English borrows new words not only for unfamiliar animals and food,

but for concepts more precisely captured in another language

Untranslatable?

2 | Inuit: Iktsuarpok

The feeling of anticipation that leads you to go outside and check if anyone is coming, and probably also indicates an element of impatience.

Untranslatable?

3 | Indonesian: Jayus

Slang for someone who tells a joke so badly, that is so unfunny you cannot help but laugh out loud.

Untranslatable?

4 | Hawaiian: Pana Po’o

You know when you forget where you've put the keys, and you scratch your head because it somehow seems to help your remember? This is the word for it.

Untranslatable?

5 | Urdu: Goya

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, but is also an official language in 5 of the Indian states. This particular Urdu word conveys a contemplative 'as-if' that nonetheless feels like reality, and describes the suspension of disbelief that can occur, often through good storytelling.

How do words change?

2. Semantic changes

Generalization – When a particular word meaning is

generalized:

bread – from the word for piece or bit… to bit of bread… to bread.

nausea – from seasick… to sick in the stomach

thing – from OE assembly (cf OGerman ding)… to a matter before the

assembly… to any matter / any thing

Transformation – When the meaning of a word changes

nice – stupid/ignorant… fussy… precise… good/agreeable

Shift – A change from one part of speech to another

out – (see following)

Out, 9th century (Functional shift)

Out (t. verb) expel something

Out (preposition) out the door

Out (exclamation) Out! Alas!

Out (adjective) The out crowd.

Out (a person) (t. verb) – a transformation in meaning; to

publicly declare a previously undisclosed sexual

orientation

The OED lists the following number of definitions for

―out‖: nouns (22); adjectives (8); verbs (15);

adv./prep./int. (98); prefixes (465). Total = 608!

Career (transformation)

chariot – carrus (Latin)

carriera – course (Italian)

carriere – course (French)

career – a course (English, 16th century)

career – a job or profession

Food

pork (n.) c.1300 , "flesh of a pig as food," from Old French porc "pig,

swine, boar," and directly from Latin porcus "pig, tame swine," from

PIE *porko- "young swine" (cf. Umbrian purka; Old Church

Slavonic prase "young pig;" Lithuanian parsas "pig;" and Old

English fearh, Middle Dutch varken, both from Proto-

Germanic *farhaz).

Body Parts

calf (n.1) "young cow," Old English cealf (Anglian cælf) "young

cow," from West Germanic *kalbam (cf. Middle Dutch calf, Old

Norse kalfr, German Kalb, Gothic kalbo), perhaps from PIE *gelb(h),

from root *gel- "to swell," hence, "womb, fetus, young of an animal."

Elliptical sense of "leather made from the skin of a calf" is from

1727.

calf (n.2) fleshy part of the lower leg,

early 14c., from Old Norse kalfi; possibly

from the same Germanic root as calf (n.1).

Body Parts and Food

knuckle (n.)

mid-14c., knokel "finger joint; any

joint of the body, especially a

knobby one; morbid lump or

swelling;" common Germanic (cf.

Middle Low German knökel,

Middle Dutch cnockel,

German knöchel), literally "little

bone," a diminutive of Proto-

Germanic root *knuck- "bone" (cf.

German Knochen "bone).

gnocchi (n.)

1891, from Italian gnocchi,

plural of gnocco,

from nocchio "a knot in wood,"

perhaps from a Germanic

source akin to knuckle. So

called for their shape.

How do words change?

3. Modifications

Doublets – A pair of words with a common origin.

mouse/muscle – From Latin, mus (mouse) and musculus (little mouse).

Some muscles are shaped like mice?

cloak/clock – Both from Old French cloque, meaning ‗bell‘. Cloaks were

‗bell-shaped‘ and clocks sounded each hour with a bell.

tradition/treason – From Latin traditio, meaning to hand over. Tradition

came to English from Old French and treason from Latin.

Folk Etymology – New meaning from popular

misunderstanding.

spitting image – From spirit-in-image… spit ‗n image

plummet the depths – Actually plumb the depths; from plumb line

How do words change?

4. Generation

Baby talk – wee-wee, pee-pee, poo-poo, doo-doo,

doody, bunny, icky, jammies, teddy, tummy, wawa,

yummy

Onomatopoeia – haha, hohum, boo-hoo, bark, buzz,

moo, hiss, thump, wow, bang, boom, wham

Coinages – The creation of a new meaning from a

new or familiar sound.

Coinage ~

Celebrity Wordsmiths

William Shakespeare

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/14/shakespeare-words_n_4590819.html

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Gloomy

Definition: Somewhat dark: not bright or sunny

Origin: "To gloom" was a verb that existed

before Shakespeare converted the word into an

adjective in a number of his plays.

Quote: "Forced in the ruthless, vast, and gloomy

woods?" - Titus Andronicus

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Lonely

Definition: Sad from being apart from other

people

Origin: "Alone" was first shortened to "lone" in

the 1400s.

Quote: "Believe it not lightly – though I go alone/

Like to a lonely dragon that his fen –Coriolanus

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Hurry

Definition: Move or act with haste; rush

Origin: Likely derived from the verb "harry―

Quote: "Lives, honors, lands, and all hurry to

loss." - Henry VI Part 1

Thank you Shakespeare for…

Critical

Definition: Expressing criticism or disapproval

Origin: From the Latin "criticus," which referred

specifically to a literary critic.

Quote: "For I am nothing if not critical." – Othello

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

George Washington

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

George Washington

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

Thomas Jefferson

Coinage ~

U.S. Presidents –

George Bush

―I‘m the decider.‖

http://youtu.be/irMeHmlxE9s

My daughter –

Jessica

―I‘m wild awake.‖

―You unabled me from

finishing my homework.‖

―Is the line

unworthitly long?‖

Oxymorons ~ Interesting!

Self-contradictory collocations

pretty bad

awfully good

now then

seriously funny

These examples are from the film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:

http://youtu.be/WQQ1oGmCoeE

deafening silence

found missing

student teacher

clearly confused

Google

From the word for 1 + 100 zeros: googol

Semantic shift from proper noun to verb in less

than 4 months in 1998.

And other words coined for technology:

• firewall, download, blog, reboot

Phubbing = phone snubbing

The birth of a new word

http://youtu.be/ZSOfuUYCV_0

Lessons from Etymology

Words are organic; they are forever being

born, growing, changing, dying.

A dictionary is a photograph of a word; some

meanings and uses at one moment in time

The true meaning of a word is exactly what

we understand and agree that it means:

―Those fish are __________ .‖

You are as much an authority as anyone else

on the meaning of words!

Further Study:

Google ngram viewer Google‘s Ngram tool allows you to chart the frequency of the

use of particular words in published books over a period of

more than 200 years: https://books.google.com/ngrams

Try entering these words, separated by commas:

Food Example: sushi, ketchup, catsup, pizza, hamburger

Cities Example: Hong Kong, Canton, Peking, Guangzhou,

Beijing

Clothes Example: sunglasses, jeans, brassiere, umbrella,

wristwatch

Ethnicities Example: Chinese-American, African-American,

Italian-American, negro

Further Study:

Recommended Reading

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English by David Crystal

The English Language by David Crystal

How to Read a Word by Elizabeth Knowles

The Life of Language by Sol Steinmetz and Barbara Ann Kipfer

The Miracle of Language by Richard Lederer

The Story of English by Joseph Piercy

The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal

Word Routes: Journeys through Etymology by Alexander Tulloch

The Words We Use by Robert Lord