Histories Of Words

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 3

Histories Of Words

Origins. A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English. By Eric Partridge. Routledge and Kegan Paul. 970 pp. A pestering child wants to know why things have the names they have. Why is a chair called a “chair?” He might be told that it is connected with the French , word “chaise” (which gives us our word for a kind of carriage with its false singular “chay” or “shay”). The “s” in the French word is an innovation and our word is closer to the French of Norman times “chaiere.” He might leave it at that, but it is natural to ask why the French used this word and ndt another. So he finds that in Latin “cathedra” was a special kind of chair, as a bishop’s chair (whence “cathedral”). Repeated less and less exactly the word has become “chair.” Latin had the word from Greek, from “kata” (“down”) and “hedra” from a word meaning “to sit.” One sits down in a chair; a polyhedron can “sit” or rest on many sides. If we ask why “hedra” had its “sitting” meaning in Greek, we must penetrate back beyond the earliest written languages, ft is known that many Latin words beginning with “s” correspond with words beginning with “h” in Greek, and it is assumed that in a prehistoric phase of Greek, “s” sounds at the beginning of words came to be pronounced as “h.” “Hedra” is therefore related to Latin “sedeo” (the source of our “sedentary” occupation) and to our English word “sit.” Why “sed-” meant “sit” originally cannot be known until some method of seeing further into the past is devised. But to see “sit” and “chair” as variants of one ancient Indo-European word at least reduces a little the arbitrariness of language. Such word histories belong to the study of etymology; an etymological dictionary traces the origin and relationships of words in this way. We feel that if we get to the origin of a word we penetrate its real meaning and though linguistic science does not entirely support us in this, we undoubtedly do learn a lot about the workings of the human mind and human history from the life histories of words. Schoolchildren who are still acquiring words daily, especially if learning foreign languages, are particularly likely to be fascinated by etymological studies, and school librarians should not over-look Eric Partridge’s “Origins.” It is written for the general -reader, without assuming that foreign words will be known or have to be looked up elsewhere, and without using abbreviations and shorthand formulas known only to specialists. The plan of arrangement is one to encourage browsing. Related words are gathered under one heading so that, for example, “chair,” “chaise” and “cathedral” are all listed under “chair” with references from the other words. Not all words, of course, have relations in this .way. To explain “sandwich.” for mstance, it is only necessary to refer to the fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792) who managed to stay at the gaming table for twenty-four hours by snatching a lunch of cold beef held between slices of toast. Not all word histories are as simple as “sandwich,” nor are all as certain. When words are traced back into prehistory, there is necessarily a certain amount of conjecture. Words change mean-

ings, and the meanings of words in prehistoric times are likely to be difficult to recover. Scholars therefore must be cautious and it is perhaps this lack of certainty that has kept general readers from etymology. One needs a scholar’s patience to accept histories without a satisfactory end, or, rather, beginning. In few subjects is there such a temptation for a populariser to seem more certain than he is entitled to be. Eric Partridge has resisted such temptation and uses “probably” and “possibly” when he should and quotes authorities, though his occasional attempts to go beyond Indo-Euro-pean to a Mediterranean prehistoric language take him into very uncertain ground. Perhaps the phrase “probably echoic” should be replaced here and there by a simple “not known,” since it is always a conjecture hardly capable of proof. Certainly some words do seem to echo animal and other sounds; “cuckoo” is an example, and perhaps “kiwi,” “kaka” and “kea” have this origin. But it is a conjecture to be used sparingly lest it discourage further investigation prematurely. The main dictionary is extended by lists of suffixes and prefixes with their origins and a list of the elements commonly used to build up scientific and technological words. This last list would be of great value to scientists, especially in subjects such as biology where the technical vocabulary is so large that any shortcut to mastering it must be welcome.