Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: T

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

T is for trip, as in to stumble and to make (usually a short one) a journey. The loss of footing is only seen from the middle of the 15th century, prior to that 'trip' was used in a positive sense as in to 'step lightly, to dance, caper, skip'. It is thought to come from Proto-Indo-European dreb meaning 'step, walk'.

Around the same time as the stumbling meaning came into use, the word also began to describe a journey, which would also link it to the 'step, walk' meaning.

What both show is that the so-called oldest pub in England, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham, does not date from 1189 as is claimed. The claim could well be partially correct, the premises occupy (at least in part) the brewhouse for Nottingham Castle, but a date isn't possible as no documented record exists. The story goes that those wanting to travel to the Holy Land for the Crusades would meet here before setting out. At the time 'trip' did not mean a journey, and would not for another three hundred years, the journey was certainly not a short one, and - which for me is the absolute clincher - why would anyone heading to Jerusalem meet in Nottingham of all places? I have nothing against Nottingham, but if I'm going abroad in the 12th century, I think my point of departure might be the coast.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: S

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

S is for spring, be it the coiled metal or the season. The coiled metal, or any spring material, is seen in Old English springan 'to leap' and, along with related words in other languages, is derived from Proto-Indo-European sprengh 'to move, hasten, spring'.

The season following winter was named for the same reason. In the early 16th century it was said to be 'the spring of the year' and when the plants began to rise from the earth. But surely, I hear you ask, there were seasons before 1520? Of course, these were simply known by another name. Old English this was lencten 'Lent'; other Germanic languages used 'fore-year'; and French and Latin (the latter tempus primum) meaning 'first time, first season'.

Some spring expressions include 'spring fever', first recorded in 1843; spring upon, is first recorded in 1878; spring (used in freeing from imprisonment) not seen until 1900; spring chicken, first seen in 1780, really did refer to a chicken cooked in spring, and nobody was known as such until 1906 (and today is mostly used as a negative ie 'no spring chicken'). Spring cleaning, first recorded in English in 1843, began in Ancient Persia as Adukanaisa, literally 'irrigation-canal-cleaning month'.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: R

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

R is for right, which is either correct, the opposite of left, or morally correct. All three have a common root in Proto-Indo-European reg, meaning 'move in a straight line'. The first is the reason we still say that someone honest (or right) is straight; the second is simply a reflection on how the majority of people are right-handed, those left-handed were seen as suspicious (or worse) for much of history; and the moral right is the same as the correct right.

Homonyms, Etymologically Speaking: Q

Many words have two meanings, sometimes more, which are often very different. Such words have identical spelling and pronunciation, they are known as homonyms. Here I continue an A to Z list of such words and look at how that word came to have two different meanings.

Q is for quarry, which is either a place where something is dug out or the target on a hunt. Considering these two activities would have been among the earliest for mankind, the words describing them are remarkably late. The quarrying of stone would have happened later, but certainly earlier than the first record of the word in the late 14th century. It came from Latin quareia 'place where stones are squared', and is itself from Proto-Indo-European kwetwer 'four' - thus describing the place where stone was cut prior to dressing.

The earlier sense is the hunt, and an Anglo-French word quirreie which referred very specifically to 'the entrails of a deer placed on the hide and offered to the dogs as a reward for their role in the hunt'. Old French coree 'entrails'; Latin corium 'hide'; and Proto-Indo-European kerd 'heart' are all root words.