1. Mogador

    Mogador Senior Member

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    Surprisingly unrelated pairs of words

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Mogador, May 31, 2023.

    This ought to interest some of us, from the excellent and always pedantic John Rentoul, of The Independent:

    2014: Surprisingly Unrelated Pairs of Words

    Not for the first time, I didn’t think there would be as many as 10 of these. The Twitter wisdom proved me wrong.

    1. Female, male. Female is from the Latin femella, a diminutive of femina, a woman; while male is from the Old French masle, from the Latin masculus, masculine.

    2. Island, isle. Old English iegland, ieg, from a base meaning watery, according to the Oxford Dictionary. The “s” came by association with isle, from the Latin insula via Old French.

    3. Outrage, rage. From Old French ou(l)trage, based on Latin ultra, beyond.

    4. Uproar, roar. Middle Dutch oproer, from op, meaning up, and roer, meaning confusion.

    5. Jubilee, jubilant. The first comes from Hebrew yōḇēl, which means trumpet blast, with which the year of emancipation and restoration in Judaism was proclaimed every 50 years. The second comes from Latin, originally in the sense “making a joyful noise, calling, hallooing”. The words seem to have converged in Latin.

    6. Pickaxe, axe. Middle English pikoys, from Old French picois, related to pike. The change in the ending was influenced by axe.

    7. Gingerbread, bread. Originally meant preserved ginger used to make the biscuit, from Old French gingembrat, from medieval Latin gingibratum, from gingiber.

    8. Belfry, bell. Originally a watchtower, from French berfrei, but because some had warning bells, it acquired an “l”.

    9. Muskrat, musk. The animal does produce a musky smell, but the word is actually from Algonquin for “red”.

    10. Crayfish, fish. From Old French crevice, related to German Krebs, crab. The ending altered by association with “fish” in about the 16th century.
    I can particularly recommend his mea culpa pieces each week about mistakes made in the paper, usually in defence of older standards of word-meanings or grammar rules.
     

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