Synonym Etymologies Y

Continuing the look at synonyms through the eyes of the etymologist, this time it is the letter Y and young. This came to English through the Germanic group of languages, Proto-Germanic junga coming from Proto-Indo-European yuwn-ko 'vital force, youthful vigor'. The noun, used to refer to offspring, is first recorded in the 15th century.

Youth is, unsurprisingly, from the same root as 'young'.

Juvenile is from the Latin iuvenilis and iuvenis the latter meaning 'young man'. Note for the Romans a juvenile came after adolescence, thus anything from 21 up to as old as 40.

Junior, as with young, saw the noun, first recorded in 1520, coming from the adjective. Again this is of Latin derivation, where iunior meant 'younger'. Used to mean the younger generation from 1620s, and of lesser standing from 1766, the Proto-Indo-European root is the same as for 'young'.

Adolescent, unlike 'junior' and 'young', had the adjective taken from the noun. Unchanged since coming to English from French, with the same meaning and spelling, and Latin adolescentem meaning 'young man or woman', we can trace it back further to the Proto-Indo-European al 'to grow, nourish'.

Teenage is unrecorded before 1911 when it is first seen in records of Sunday School classes. The 'age' suffix is obvious and it follows a syllable which comes from 'ten'.

Immature is the opposite of mature and shares an origin with it. As an adjective it comes from the verb, itself used for plantlife for most of recorded history. It is traceable back to Proto-Indo-European meh-tu 'ripeness'.

Child comes from Proto-Germanic kiltham, which has given words in many Germanic languages with such meanins as 'womb', 'pregnant', 'litter', 'of gentle birth', and even simply 'girl child'. It has so far proven impossible to trace it back further than Proto-Germanic.

Baby is a diminutive of 'babe', the earlier form of the word. This came from the 13th century word baban, itself imitative of baby talk. Note, the term might mean infant, but related words in other languages have the rather different meaning or 'old woman', such as in the Russian babushka and baba 'peasant woman'.

Progeny came to English in the 14th century from the French progenie. We can trace this back to Proto-Indo-European pro 'forth' and gignere 'produce, beget' and related to gene 'birth, beget'.

Heir came to English from Old French oir and Latin heredem, all from the same root as 'heredity' in the Proto-Indo-European ghe 'to be empty, left behind' and the reason we see words such as the Greek khera 'widow'.

Descendants shares an etymology with 'descend' and the Proto-Indo-European root skand 'jump'.

Successors shares an etymology with 'succeed' in the Proto-Indo-European ked 'to go, yield'.

Kids was not used for human children until the later 16th century, prior to that simply referring to the young of goats. As the latter we can trace the etymology to Proto-Germanic kidjom with the same meaning. Unfortunately, the trail ends there.

Synonym Etymologies K

Continuing the look at synonyms through the eyes of the etymologist, this time it is the letter K and kid. Hardly any surprise to find this began as the young of the goat, its etymology is uncertain, and later applied to children, first recorded in 1590.

Child is first seen in Old English cild where it referred to the unborn infant or foetus. It came from Proto-Germanic kiltham, a word which also gave Gothic kilpei 'womb' and inkilpo 'pregnant'. Note the Old Swedish kulder was used to mean 'litter', while Old English cildhama may have been defined as 'womb' but actually was literally 'child home', and in the 15th and 17th centuries 'child' was nearly always referring to a girl.

Baby is a diminutive of 'babe', itself short for the 13th century word baban and likely imitative of baby talk (as is 'babble').

Toddler is derived from 'toddle', a word first seen in Scotland and northern England and of unknown origin.

Infant is an interesting word which is a combination of 'in' and 'fari'. Here 'in' is used as a prefix meaning 'not', while 'fari' is the verb 'to speak'. A pretty good description of a young infant.

Minor began as a Latin word meaning 'small', and is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root mei also meaning 'small'.

Juvenile is from the Latin iuvenilis meaning 'youthful'. It came from iuvensis 'young man, one in the flower of his age'. Note this did not refer to one who was just maturing, or approaching maturity, for the Romans this was a man aged between 21 and 40 - there's hope for us yet.

Youth is, unsurprisingly, from the same source as 'young' and yet 'youth was the earlier word. Another of Germanic origins, it was more often used to refer to young warriors and even the young of cattle in its earliest times.

Teenager is named from those in their teens (thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, etc.). Teenager has only ben used since 1922, prior to that it was 'teener', and earlier still simply 'teen'.Note the element 'teen' is from 'ten' - this fourteen is four-ten, sixteen is six-ten, and so on.

Palau Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time I cast my net a little wider. As English place names share some links to other tongues it would be interesting to see if any of the elements contributing to our place names could be found elsewhere. Continuing an alphabetical tour of the world and a look at the a few of Palau's names.

Ngerchoki was held to be where the waters of youth could be found, Jumping in the waters would result in one looking many years younger. But don't bother going today as the waters have lost their powers ever since a woman and her child came along to drink the water. However it was a hot day and she jumped in with the expected result. Unfortunately her child no longer recognised her and cried until she jumped back in and reversed the process. Since then the waters have proven useful only as water.

Kabekel is also the name of a war canoe.

Ngiwal is named for being the stomach of Uab, hence the people have very big appetites and in particular the local dish of soup, pumpkin, rice and coconut milk.

Koror was known as Los Arrecifes by the Spanish, it simply means 'the reefs'.

Helen Island was first charted by the Spanish naval officer Felipe Tompson, who referred to it as the San Felix shoal.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.

Nobility

I first began tracing my ancestry more than thirty years ago. Oral family history spoke of an ancestor being 'the Honourable' and I began a long search.

It turned out to be half right but did make me wonder just where these titles came from.

Earl is possibly the most likely to be known, this being of Saxon or Old English origins where eorl originally coiuld be used to mean 'brave man, warrior, leader, chief' and contracted with the peasant or churl.

Baron came to English from Old French, and ultimately from Latin baro or simply 'man'. Note the Franks used the same word to mean 'freeman', which may well have helped develop the idea of a higher ranking. Clearly both 'baronet' and 'baroness' are derivations.

Count is another coming to English from Old French. Here conte is from the Latin comitem meaning 'companion, attendant', and used as the title for a provincial governor. The feminine 'coountess' is first seen in the middle of the 12th century.

Duke, once again, came from Old French where duc and the earlier Latin dux both meant 'leader'. All these terms can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European deuk meaning 'to lead'. Interestingly the rank od duke, or indeed duchess, is unrecorded before the end of the 12th century.

Lord comes from Old English hlaford 'master of the house' and is itself from the earlier Old English hlafweard, quite literally 'one who guards the loaves'. This dovetails quite nicely with the origins of 'lady' or hlafaeta meaning 'bread kneader'.

Marquis, and therefore marchioness, is from Old French marchis, quite literally 'ruler of a border area' and taken from Old French marche and Latin marca both meaning 'frontier'.

Viscount and viscountess can be traced to Old French visconte and ultimately from the Latin vice 'deputy' and comes 'nobleman'.

Dame is from Old French dame, 'lady, mistress, wife' and genrally referring to 'the woman of the house' as this comes from the Latin domus 'house'. Both Spanish and Portuguese 'don' share the same origin.

Hidalgo is unrecorded before 1590, this thought to be a shortened form of filho de algo or 'son of someone'. Late Iberian usage probably points to an Arabic origin of ibn nas or 'son of the people' which was used as an honorary title.

Knight came from Old English cniht meaning 'boy, youth, servant, attendant'. Not until the Normans arrived did it become any sort of title or standing.

Noble is a collective term first seen at the end of the 12th century. Coming to English from Old French noble and Latin nobilis, it simply means 'of high birth' just as it does in English today. Interestingly this can be traced to Proto-Indo-European gno 'to know' and used in the sense of 'well known'.

Seneschal is an Old French term meaning 'steward, majordomo' in its simplest terms. Despite coming to English from French, the term is Proto-Germanic where sini-skalk 'senior servant' is related to modern words such as 'senile' and 'marshal'.

Squire may not have been the highest of ranks but proved to be the first step on the ladder for many. This comes from Old French esquier or 'shield carrier' and most often seen today in the form of address 'esquire'.

Honourable was the one which started all this and is recorded in English from the end of the 13th century. Clearly a word used as an adjective and derived from 'honour', the latter coming from Old French onor, which is why we do not pronounce the 'h', and from Latin honorem 'dignity, reputation'.