English Lexicology

4th Year,7th Semester

Practical class № 7
The Etymological Background of the English Vocabulary
Practical Assignment
1. Determine the origin of the words in bold (Greek, Latin, Scandinavian, or French origin). First try to identify
the origin of words based on the phonetic, grammatical, or lexical criteria and only then consult Merriam-
Webster Dictionary / Online Etymological Dictionary to see if you were right:
1. Benn specialized in the anatomy and morphology of plants (S. Bellow).
 specialized – Latin
 anatomy – Greek
 morphology – Greek
2. His father played second violin in the orchestra there (H. Robbins).
 violin – Latin (Italian)
 orchestra – Greek
3. Sure she ought to take a vacation and skip to New York, he said (K. Norris).
 take – Scandinavian
 skip – Scandinavian
4. There is not a single cloud in the sky (O. Wilde).
 single – Latin
 sky – Scandinavian
5. The best sort of book to start with is biography. If you want to make a success of it, choose as a subject someone very
famous who has had plenty of books written about him quite recently (E. Waugh).
 biography – Greek
 subject – Latin
 famous – Latin
 plenty – Latin
6. Something scuffled in the yard, and she started (D.H.Lawrence).
 scuffled – Scandinavian
7. We were both feeling the euphoria which follows the safe deliverance from danger (D. Francis).
 Euphoria – Greek
8. She had wanted a great many things in her life; she had them all now. Wealth and position, a kind husband, two dear
little girls, beauty, youth (K. Norris).
 wanted – Scandinavian
 things – Scandinavian (Germanic)
 them – Scandinavian
 husband – Scandinavian
9. There was a limousine waiting in front of the building, a chauffeur stood holding the door open (H. Robbins).
 Limousine – French
 chauffeur – French
10. The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight (F.S. Fitzgerald).
 silhouette – French

2. Rearrange the loan words listed below into eight groups according to their source language: Arabic, Chinese,
German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish. Find examples of words assimilated phonetically and
grammatically. Indicate if any Barbarisms:
barricade, caravan, delicatessen, frankfurter, guitar, giraffe, geisha, glasnost, hamburger, harem, judo, ketchup, mosque,
motto, noodle, perestroika, prima donna, quartz, sauerkraut, studio, tea, tornado, tsunami, violin.

Arabic Chinese German Italian Japanese Russian Spanish Barbarisms

caravan ketchup delicatessen motto geisha glasnost barricade prima donna
giraffe tea Frankfurter prima donna Judo perestroika tornado motto
сосиска
harem guitar studio tsunami guitar quartz
mosque hamburger violin Sauerkraut
мечеть
noodle
quartz
 Sauerkraut

3. Consult Merriam-Webster Dictionary / Online Etymological Dictionary and identify the origin (the same root)
of the following etymological doublets. Comment on their different formation and the difference in meaning if
any:
1) ;
Abbreviate \əˈbriːvɪeɪt\ – to make a word, phrase, name or text shorter, especially by leaving out letters or using only the
first letter of each word – from late Latin abbreviat- ‘shortened
Abridge\əˈbrɪʤ\ – to make a book, play, etc. shorter by leaving parts out – from late Latin abbreviare ‘cut short’
Cart \kɑːt\ – a vehicle with two or four wheels that is pulled by a horse and used for carrying loads – from Old Norse
kartr
Chart \ʧɑːt\ – a diagram, lists of figures, etc. that shows information – from French charte
2) ;
Hospital \ˈhɒspɪtl\ – a large building where people who are ill or injured are given medical treatment and care - Latin
hospitalis ‘hospitable’, from hospes, hospit- ‘host, guest’.
Hostel \ˈhɒstəl\ – a building that provides cheap accommodation and sometimes meals to students, workers or travelers –
Latin hospitalis ‘hospitable’, from hospes, hospit- ‘host, guest’.
Canal \kəˈnæl\ - a long straight passage dug in the ground and filled with water for boats and ships to travel along; a
smaller passage used for carrying water to fields, crops, etc. – Latin canalis ‘pipe, groove, channel’
Channel \ˈʧænl\ – a television station – from Latin canalis ‘pipe, groove, channel’,
3) ;
Route\ruːt\ – a particular way or direction between places – from Old French rute "road, way, path" (12c.), from Latin
rupta (via) "(a road) opened by force
Rout \raʊt\– to defeat an enemy completely and force them to run away – from French route "disorderly flight of troops,"
literally "a breaking off, rupture,
Suite \swiːt\ – a set of connected rooms, especially in a hotel – from Old French suite, sieute "act of following,
attendance" (see suit (n.), which is an earlier borrowing of the same French word).
Suit\sjuːt\ – a set of clothes or a piece of clothing to be worn in a particular situation or while doing a particular activity –
sute, also suete, suite, seute, "a band of followers; a retinue, company;" also "set of matching garments" worn by such
persons, "matching livery or uniform;" hence " kind, sort; the same kind, a match;" also "pursuit, chase," and in law,
"obligation (of a tenant) to attend court; attendance at court," from Anglo-French suit, siwete, from Old French suite,
sieute "pursuit, act of following, hunt; retinue; assembly"
4) ;
Skirt \skɜːt\ – a piece of clothing for women and girls that hangs from the waist and does not have legs – early 14c.,
"lower part of a woman's dress," from Old Norse skyrta "shirt, a kind of kirtle;" see
Shirt \ʃɜːt\ – a piece of clothing worn on the upper part of the body, made of cloth and often having a collar and buttons at
the front – Old English scyrte "skirt, tunic," from Proto-Germanic *skurtjon "a short garment" (source also of Old Norse
skyrta, Swedish skjorta "skirt, kirtle;" Middle Dutch scorte, Dutch schort "apron;" Middle High German schurz, German
Schurz "apron"), related to Old English scort, sceort "short," from PIE root *sker- (1) "to cut," on the notion of "a cut
piece."
Screw \skruː\ – a thin, pointed piece of metal with a raised edge twisting round along its length and a flat top with a cut in
it, used to join things together, especially pieces of wood – "cylinder of wood or metal with a spiral ridge round it; hole in
which a screw turns," c. 1400, scrue, from Old Frenchescröe, escroue "nut, cylindrical socket, screwhole,"
Shrew \ʃruː\ – an animal like a small mouse but with a longer pointed nose and small eyes – small insectivorous mammal,
Old English screawa "shrew-mouse," unknown outside English, and "the absence of evidence for the word between the
OE. period and the 16th c is remarkable"
5) ;
Shade \ʃeɪd\ – an area that is dark and cool under or behind something, for example a tree or building, because the sun’s
light does not get to it – Middle English schade, from late Old English scead "partial darkness; shelter, protection," also
partly from sceadu "shade, shadow, darkness; shady place, arbor, protection from glare or heat
Shadow \ˈʃædəʊ\ – the dark shape that somebody/something’s form makes on a surface, for example on the ground, when
they are between the light and the surface – Old English sceadwe, sceaduwe "the effect of interception of sunlight, dark
image cast by someone or something when interposed between an object and a source of light
Of \ɒv\ – belonging to somebody; relating to somebody – Old English of, unstressed form of æf (prep., adv.) "away, away
from," from Proto-Germanic *af (source also of Old Norse af, Old Frisian af, of "of," Dutch af "off, down," German ab
"off, from, down"), from PIE root *apo- "off, away."
Off \ɒf\ – used to say that something has been removed or become separated – by c. 1200 as an emphatic form of Old
English of (see of), employed in the adverbial use of that word. The prepositional meaning "away from" and the adjectival
sense of "farther" were not firmly fixed in this variant until 17c., but once they were they left the original of with the
transferred and weakened senses of the word. Meaning "not working" is from 1861.
 6) ;
Ward \wɔːd\ – a separate room or area in a hospital for people with the same type of medical condition – Old English
weard (originally referring to ‘the action of keeping a lookout for danger’, also ‘body of guards’), weardian ‘keep safe,
guard’, of Germanic origin; reinforced in Middle English by Old Northern French warde (noun), warder (verb) ‘guard’.
Guard \gɑːd\ – a person, such as a soldier, a police officer or a prison officer, who protects a place or people, or prevents
prisoners from escaping – late Middle English (in the sense ‘care, custody’): from Old French garde (noun), garder (verb),
of West Germanic origin. Compare with ward.
Wage\weɪʤ\ – a regular amount of money that you earn, usually every week or every month, for work or services – c.
1300, "give (something) as surety, deposit as a pledge," from Old North French wagier "to pledge" (Old French gagier,
"to pledge, guarantee, promise; bet, wager, pay," Modern French gager), from wage (see wage (n.)). Meaning "to carry
on, engage in" (of war, etc.) is attested from mid-15c., probably from earlier sense of "to offer as a gage of battle, agree to
engage in combat
Gage \geɪʤ\ – an instrument for measuring the amount or level of something – "a pledge, a pawn, something valuable
deposited to insure performance," especially "something thrown down as a token of challenge," c. 1300, from Old French
gage "pledge (of battle), security, guarantee; pay, reward" (11c.), from Frankish *wadja-, from Proto-Germanic *wadi-
(see wed). Italian gaggio, Spanish and Portuguese gage are French loan-words.

4. Consult Merriam-Webster Dictionary / Online Etymological Dictionary and comment on the so-called folk
etymology of the following words:
Sandblind Also sand-blind, "half-blind," c. 1400, probably altered (by influence of sand) from Old English
\ˈsændblaɪnd\ *samblind, the first element from West Germanic *sami-, from PIE *semi- (see semi-); compare Old
English samlæred "half-taught, badly instructed," samstorfen "half-dead."
Shamefaced "modest, bashful," 1550s, folk etymology alteration of shamefast, from Old English scamfæst
\ˈʃeɪmfeɪst\ "bashful," literally "restrained by shame," or else "firm in modesty," from shame (n.) + -fæst, adjectival
suffix (see fast (adj.)). Related: Shamefacedly; shamefacedness.
Shamefaced, -fast. It is true that the second is the original form, that -faced is due to a mistake, & that
the notion attached to the word is necessarily affected in some slight degree by the change. But those
who, in the flush of this discovery, would revert to -fast in ordinary use are rightly rewarded with the
name of pedants ....
sparrow-grass Plant cultivated for its edible shoots, late 14c., aspergy; late Old English sparage, from Latin asparagus
\ˈspærəʊgrɑːs\ (in Medieval Latin often sparagus), from Greek asparagos/aspharagos, which is of uncertain origin;
perhaps with euphonic a- + PIE root *sp(h)er(e)g- "to spring up," but Beekes suggests "it is rather a
substrate word," based in part on the p/ph variation.
In Middle English, asperages sometimes was regarded as a plural, with false singular aspergy. By 16c.
the word had been Englished as far as sperach, sperage. The classical Latin form of the word is attested
in English from mid-16c., but was limited at first to herbalists and botanists; the common form from
17c.-19c. was the folk-etymologized variant sparrowgrass, during which time asparagus had "an air of
stiffness and pedantry"
Primrose late 14c., prymrose, a name given to several plants that flower in early spring, earlier primerole (early
\ˈprɪmrəʊz\ 14c.), from Old French primerose, primerole (12c.) and directly from Medieval Latin prima rosa,
literally "first rose" (see prime (adj.)). As the name of a pale yellow color, by 1844.
The parallel name primula (c. 1100) is from Medieval Latin primula "primrose," shortened from
primula veris "firstling of spring," thus properly fem. of Latin primulus, diminutive of primus; but
primerole was used in Old French and Middle English of other flowers (cowslips, field daisies). The
primrose path is from "Hamlet" I, iii.
Rosemary evergreen shrub native to southern Europe and widely cultivated for its fragrance, late 14c., rose-marie,
\ˈrəʊzməri\ earlier rosmarine (c. 1300), from Latin rosmarinus, literally "dew of the sea" (compare French romarin),
from ros "dew" + marinus "of the sea, maritime," from mare "sea, the sea, seawater" (from PIE root
*mori- "body of water").
Perhaps it was so called because it grew near coasts. The form was altered in English by influence of
unrelated rose and Mary.
Latin ros is from a PIE noun probably from *ers- "to be wet" (source also of Lithuanian rasa, Old
Church Slavonic rosa "dew," Sanskrit rasah "sap, juice, fluid, essence," Hittite arszi "flows," and
perhaps also Rha, Scythian name of the River Volga (see rhubarb)).
Walnut Old English walhnutu "nut of the walnut tree," literally "foreign nut," from wealh "foreign" (see Welsh)
\ˈwɔːlnʌt\ + hnutu (see nut). Compare Old Norse valhnot, Middle Low German walnut, Middle Dutch walnote,
Dutch walnoot, German Walnuss. So called because it was introduced from Gaul and Italy,
distinguishing it from the native hazel nut. Compare the Late Latin name for it, nux Gallica, literally
 "Gaulish nut." Applied to the tree itself from 1600 (earlier walnut tree, c. 1400).
Crayfish "small, freshwater lobster," early 14c., crevis, from Old French crevice "crayfish" (13c., Modern French
\ˈkreɪfɪʃ\ écrevisse), probably from Frankish *krebitja or a similar Germanic word that is a diminutive form of the
root of crab (n.1); compare Old High German krebiz "crab, shellfish," German Krebs. Modern spelling
is a 16c. folk-etymology, under influence of fish (n.).
Pantry early 14c., panterie, pantre, "a storeroom or closet, especially for bread," from Anglo-French panetrie
\ˈpæntri\ (late 13c. in surnames; Old French paneterie) "bread room" and directly from Medieval Latin panataria
"office or room of a servant who has charge of food" ("bread"), from Latin panis "bread," from PIE root
*pa- "to feed." The sense in English soon evolved so that the word's roots in "bread" were no longer felt
and it came to be used of any closet for provisions generally or where plates and knives are cleaned.
Reindeer c. 1400, also raindere, reynder, rayne-dere, genus of deer inhabiting the arctic regions of Europe, from a
\ˈreɪndɪə\ Scandinavian source such as Old Norse hreindyri "reindeer," with dyr "animal" (see deer) + hreinn, the
usual name for the animal in Old Norse, from Proto-Germanic *khrinda- (source also of Old English
hran "reindeer;" German Renn "reindeer," which was altered by folk etymology influence of rennen "to
run;" and Swedish renko "female reindeer," with ko "cow" (n.)).
Watkins has this from PIE *krei-, from root *ker- (1) "horn; head," with derivatives referring to horned
animals (both male and female reindeer have horns; those of the male are remarkable), and thus perhaps
cognate with Greek krios "ram" (see kerato-). Older sources connect it to words in Lapp or Finnish
(raingo). French renne, Spanish reno, Italian renna ultimately are from Germanic.
Larwood & Hotten ("History of Signboards") write that the 1670s London tavern sign of the ranged
deer "was simply intended for the Reindeer, which animal had then just newly come under the notice of
the public; their knowledge of it was still confused, and its name was spelled in various ways, such as:
rain-deer, rained-deer, range-deer, and ranged-deer."

5. The semantic similarity of words with different root-morphemes is known as semantic affinity of words, e.g.:
sun (Germ.) – solar (Lat.), lip (Germ.) – labial (Lat.). Consult the Online Etymological Dictionary and give
adjectives of Latin origin corresponding to the following nouns of Germanic origin:
1. Mouth – oral \maʊθ\ – \ˈɔːrəl\ 
eye – ocular \aɪ\ – \ˈɒkjʊlə\ 
tongue – lingual \tʌŋ\ – \ˈlɪŋgwəl\ 
kidney – renal \ˈkɪdni\ – \ˈriːnəl\ 
tooth – dental \tuːθ\ – \ˈdɛntl\ 
head – cephalic \hɛd\ – \kɛˈfælɪk\
2. House – domestic \haʊs\ – \dəʊˈmɛstɪk\ 
town – municipal \taʊn\ – \mju(ː)ˈnɪsɪpəl\ 
sight – visual \saɪt\ – \ˈvɪzjʊəl\
mind – mental \maɪnd\ – \ˈmɛntl\ 
egg – ovate \ɛg\ – \ˈəʊveɪt\
sea – marine \siː\ – \məˈriːn\
island – insular \ˈaɪlənd\ – \ˈɪnsjʊlə\
spring – vernal \sprɪŋ\ – \ˈvɜːnl\ 

6. Group these lexical units into a) true international words; b) pseudointernational words:
True international
I'm taking antibiotics for a throat infection.
It’s our last football match of the season.
Pseudointernational
Monet is one of my favourite artists.
As a young person, he had more catholic tastes than he does now
The conservatory is light and airy, but remains sufficiently shaded to
prevent summer temperatures of getting out of hand.
Both operas are very much in the modern idiom.
There was a film of dust on the furniture.
I bought some magazines for the trip - Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair.
A bare conductor was running along the platform.
We had estimated about 300 visitors, but the actual number was much
higher.