5 Jun
2006
5 Jun
'06
9:57 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <cowan(a)ccil.org>
To: "Andrzej Popielewicz" <vasco(a)icpnet.pl>
Subject: Re: [TUHS] Unix, eunuchs?
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2006 11:02:26 -0400
English has always had an appetite for borrowed words,
ever since we
replaced huge amounts of our native vocabulary with borrowed French,
Latin, and Greek words.
I would rather say "augmented" than "replaced", and of course one
should
not neglect the other languages from which there have been significant
borrowings, such as Hindi, which are not, of course, as extensive as from
the languages you mention.
(There is, however, just to get *completely*
off-topic, the curious
case of the English word "spruce", which means any of various coniferous
evergreen trees of the genus _Picea_. Most of this word is unquestionably
from "Pruce", the older English name for Prussia, now obsolete.
But Wikipedia suggests, perhaps rightly, that the initial s- comes
from a misinterpretation of the Polish phrase _z Prus_ 'from Prussia'.
English dictionaries are not conclusive.)
Well, the definition of Spruce in the OED has several quotations from
the 17th century and before, which seem to indicate that one of the
names for Prussia was in fact "Spruce", which suggests that the
Wikipedia article may not be in fact accurate. The "z Prus" etymology,
without any supporting evidence, is tenuous...
1378 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 47 In xxiiij piscibus de sprws empt.,
ijs. 14.. Chaucer's Dethe Blaunche 1025 (MS. Bodl. 638), She wolde
not..send men yn-to Walakye, To Sprewse & yn-to Tartarye. 1521 in
Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. II. I. 292 The expedition of the Gentlemen
of Spruce. c1550 BALE K. Johan (Camden) 9 In Sycell, in Naples, in
Venys and Ytalye, In Pole, Spruse and Berne. 1639 FULLER Holy War
V. iii. 233 They busied themselves in defending of Christendome,..as
the Teutonick order defended Spruce-land against the Tartarian.
1656 G. ABBOT Descr. World 69 On the east and north corner of Germany
lyeth a country called Prussia, in English Pruthen or Spruce.
5 Jun
5 Jun
10:28 p.m.
New subject: Unix, eunuchs?
James Petts scripsit:
I would rather say "augmented" than
"replaced",
Only about 15 to 30 in every 100 of the words that Old English speakers
knew, and that were written down before 1066 in books that haven't been
lost or burned, are still being spoken and written in 2006. You can,
if you work at it, write English today with only those words, but it
isn't so straightforward -- and it couldn't be done at all if the words
kept from Old English times were not also the most often seen words in
today's English. All of the other Old English words have been dropped and
French, Latin, or Greek words taken instead. You're right that many new
words for new things were also put into English over the years as well.
(I had to work on that a great deal to weed all the old French words out
of it.)
and of course one should not neglect the other
languages from which
there have been significant borrowings, such as Hindi, which are not,
of course, as extensive as from the languages you mention.
Indeed.
Well, the definition of Spruce in the OED has several
quotations from
the 17th century and before, which seem to indicate that one of the
names for Prussia was in fact "Spruce", which suggests that the
Wikipedia article may not be in fact accurate. The "z Prus" etymology,
without any supporting evidence, is tenuous...
As you say. But where did the S- at the beginning of the name "Spruce"
come from, then? No book of words tells us.
1378 Durh. Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 47 In xxiiij piscibus
de sprws empt.,
ijs. 14.. Chaucer's Dethe Blaunche 1025 (MS. Bodl. 638), She wolde
not..send men yn-to Walakye, To Sprewse & yn-to Tartarye. 1521 in
Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. II. I. 292 The expedition of the Gentlemen
of Spruce. c1550 BALE K. Johan (Camden) 9 In Sycell, in Naples, in
Venys and Ytalye, In Pole, Spruse and Berne. 1639 FULLER Holy War
V. iii. 233 They busied themselves in defending of Christendome,..as
the Teutonick order defended Spruce-land against the Tartarian.
1656 G. ABBOT Descr. World 69 On the east and north corner of Germany
lyeth a country called Prussia, in English Pruthen or Spruce.
Thanks for this helpful piece of the OED.
--
Do what you will, John Cowan
this Life's a Fiction cowan(a)ccil.org
And is made up of http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Contradiction. --William Blake
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