The Terminology Tales

Roots

Start from the root, not the episode.

Six roots and what became of each. Some of the descendants are obvious once you see them and some are not obvious at all — glamour is grammar, a bridegroom is an earthling, and porphyria is the disease that turned the urine of kings the colour of their robes.

γράμμα grámma

Greek

a letter — a thing drawn or scratched

  • grammarthe art of letters
  • glamourScots for grammar — learning, then occult learning, then enchantment
  • grimoirea book of spells; the same word again, through French
  • diagramdrawn across
  • telegramwritten from afar
  • programmewritten beforehand
  • hologramwritten whole, in light
  • anagramwritten back up again
  • epigramwritten upon
  • graphitethe writing stone

Beekes 2010, OED

*gʰóstis

Proto-Indo-European

a stranger — and no word yet on whether that is good news

  • guestGermanic took the hopeful branch
  • hostthe one who receives
  • hostileLatin took the wary one: hostis, an enemy
  • hospital*gʰos-pot-, the stranger-master
  • hospitalitythe same
  • hotelhospital, worn down by French
  • hostagea stranger held
  • xeniaGreek ξένος, the guest-friend — a different root, the same policy

Watkins 2011, de Vaan 2008, Kroonen 2013

*ḱlew-

Proto-Indo-European

to hear

  • loud*ḱlutós — heard
  • listenOld English hlysnan
  • kleosGreek κλέος — fame, what is heard of you; the Iliad runs on it
  • Cliothe muse of history — the one who is heard of
  • clientLatin cluēre — one who listens to a patron
  • Slavic slovoword; Slověne, the people of the word
  • Urdu sunnāto listen — Sanskrit śru-
  • Sanskrit śrávasfame, glory

Watkins 2011, Turner 1962–66, Beekes 2010

*dʰéǵʰōm

Proto-Indo-European

earth

  • humanLatin homō — the earthling
  • humusthe soil itself
  • exhumeout of the ground
  • humbleclose to the ground
  • bridegroomOld English guma, man — the r is a sixteenth-century intruder
  • chameleonGreek khamai-léōn — the ground-lion
  • chthonicGreek khthṓn, the earth beneath
  • Persian zamīnearth — and Urdu zamīn, the same

Watkins 2011, de Vaan 2008, Beekes 2010

πορφύρα porphýra

Greek

the murex shell, its dye, and the standing of whoever wore it

  • purpleOld English purpure, via Latin purpura
  • porphyrythe imperial purple stone
  • porphyriathe disease that turns urine the colour of wine
  • Porphyrogenitaborn in the purple — a child of a reigning emperor
  • Tyrianof Tyre, where the murex was boiled
  • PhoeniciaGreek phoînix, possibly the purple people — disputed
  • murexLatin, the snail itself
  • Bosporusunrelated — and put here so you check

Beekes 2010, OED

terminus

Latin

a boundary stone — and the god who guarded it

  • terma limit; a word with its edges filed
  • terminologythe study of terms — this show
  • terminalat the end of the line
  • determineto fix the boundary of
  • exterminateto drive beyond the boundary
  • Terminaliathe Roman festival of boundary stones, 23 February
  • termiteNOT here — Latin termes, a woodworm
  • Greek térmathe turning post in a race — the cognate

de Vaan 2008, OED

The Terminology Tales

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