Parts of Speech

As a schoolboy I struggled to remember the names of parts of speech and which was what and why. After I left school and when I started writing I found it a simple task. I recently discussed this with someone and, as I did so, began wondering if an etymologist's view would have helped. Let's see:

Verb, always said to be a 'doing word', came to English from France where the word verbe was used in the sense of 'word' and also 'word of God'. This is derived from the Proto-Indo-European were meaning 'to speak', which has also given us Avestan urvata 'command'; Sanskrit vrata 'command, vow'; Greek rhetor 'public speaker'; Hittite weriga 'call, summon'; Lithuanian vardas 'name'; and both the Gothic and English words for 'word'.

Noun is another from French, where nom has long meant 'name'. Interestingly, Old English name was used to mean 'name'. All can be traced back to Latin nomen and Proto-Indo-European no-men both meaning 'name'.

Adjective, as I recall it said to be the 'describing word', it also comes from French, where adjectif came from Latin adjectivum, the latter meaning 'added' - in this sense added to the noun. Note from around 1851 'adjective' was used as a euphemism for the mild oath 'bloody'.

Preposition is from the Latin praepositionem 'a putting before, a prefixing', and a fairly accurate description of how a preposition is used.

Conjunction is from French, where conjonction not only meant 'union, joining' but was also used in the sense of 'sexual intercourse', as was the Latin root of coniunctionem.

Pronoun has the same etymology as 'noun' but with the addition of the prefix 'pro' to mean 'in place of'.

Adverb also shares an etymology, this time with 'verb', with the prefix 'ad' meaning 'to'.