{"id":1091,"date":"2012-04-01T14:13:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T19:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideasillustrated.com\/blog\/?p=1091"},"modified":"2021-02-24T19:59:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T19:59:00","slug":"visualizing-english-word-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideasillustrated.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/01\/visualizing-english-word-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"Visualizing English Word Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been reading a book on the development of the English language recently and I’ve become fascinated with the idea of word etymology<\/a> — the study of words and their origins. It’s no secret that English is a great borrower of foreign words but I’m not enough of an expert to really understand what that means for my day-to-day use of the language. Simply reading about word history didn’t help me, so I decided that I really needed to see <\/em>some examples.<\/p>\n

Using Douglas Harper’s online dictionary of etymology<\/a>, I paired up words from various passages I found online with entries in the dictionary. For each word, I pulled out the first listed language of origin and then re-constructed the text with some additional HTML infrastructure. The HTML would allow me to associate each word (or word fragment) with a color, title, and hyperlink to a definition.<\/p>\n

The results look like this:<\/p>\n

The <\/a>quick <\/a>brown <\/a>fox <\/a>jump<\/a>s <\/a>over <\/a>the <\/a>lazy <\/a>dog<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This simple sentence is constructed of eight distinct words and one word suffix. Six of the words are from Old English (colored in pink<\/span>) while the others are from Gallo-Roman and Middle Low German (both colored in gray<\/span>). Hovering over each word provides the exact source and clicking the word takes you to the full origin description.<\/p>\n

A second example shows more variety:<\/p>\n

Supreme <\/a>executive <\/a>power <\/a>derive<\/a>s <\/a>from <\/a>a <\/a>mandate <\/a>from <\/a>the <\/a>mass<\/a>es<\/a>, not <\/a>from <\/a>some <\/a>farc<\/a>ical <\/a>aquatic <\/a>ceremony<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a surprisingly complex Monty Python quote where the colors represent Old English (pink<\/span>), Middle English (red<\/span>), Anglo-French (orange<\/span>), Old French (light orange<\/span>), Middle French (pale orange<\/span>), and Classical and Medieval Latin (both yellow<\/span>). I suspect that both the complexity and variety of word sources is intentional — standing in humorous contrast to the appearance of the speaker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What follows are five excerpts taken from a spectrum of written sources. The intent was to investigate each passage and see if word origin varied significantly based on the intended purpose of the passage.<\/p>\n

(This process was pretty involved and my initial dream of creating an app that would allow me to convert any paragraph to this format faded when I realized that much of the word matching process needed manual intervention. I definitely suggest digging in to the full etymology site to explore the full history of each word. I have probably made plenty of translation mistakes as I developed my paragraphs but I certainly had fun.)<\/p>\n

Passage #1: American Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first paragraph I looked at was an excerpt from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer<\/em>. I chose this text because I thought it would have a good mix of English and American words.<\/p>\n

Tom <\/a>gave <\/a>up <\/a>the <\/a>brush <\/a>with <\/a>reluctance <\/a>in <\/a>his <\/a>face<\/a>, but <\/a>alacrity <\/a>in <\/a>his <\/a>heart<\/a>. And <\/a>while <\/a>the <\/a>late <\/a>steam<\/a>er <\/a>Big <\/a>Missouri <\/a>work<\/a>ed <\/a>and <\/a>sweat<\/a>ed <\/a>in <\/a>the <\/a>sun<\/a>, the <\/a>retire<\/a>d <\/a>artist <\/a>sat <\/a>on <\/a>a <\/a>barrel <\/a>in <\/a>the <\/a>shade <\/a>close <\/a>by<\/a>, dangle<\/a>d <\/a>his <\/a>leg<\/a>s<\/a>, munch<\/a>ed <\/a>his <\/a>apple<\/a>, and <\/a>plann<\/a>ed <\/a>the <\/a>slaughter <\/a>of <\/a>more <\/a>innocent<\/a>s<\/a>. There <\/a>was <\/a>no <\/a>lack <\/a>of <\/a>material<\/a>; boy<\/a>s <\/a>happen<\/a>ed <\/a>along <\/a>every <\/a>little <\/a>while<\/a>; they <\/a>came <\/a>to <\/a>jeer<\/a>, but <\/a>remain<\/a>ed <\/a>to <\/a>white<\/a>wash<\/a>. By <\/a>the <\/a>time <\/a>Ben <\/a>was <\/a>fagg<\/a>ed <\/a>out<\/a>, Tom <\/a>had <\/a>trade<\/a>d <\/a>the <\/a>next <\/a>chance <\/a>to <\/a>Bill<\/a>y <\/a>Fisher <\/a>for <\/a>a <\/a>kite<\/a>, in <\/a>good <\/a>repair<\/a>; and <\/a>when <\/a>he <\/a>play<\/a>ed <\/a>out<\/a>, Johnn<\/a>y <\/a>Miller <\/a>bought <\/a>in <\/a>for <\/a>a <\/a>dead <\/a>rat <\/a>and <\/a>a <\/a>string <\/a>to <\/a>swing <\/a>it <\/a>with<\/a> — and <\/a>so <\/a>on<\/a>, and <\/a>so <\/a>on<\/a>, hour <\/a>after <\/a>hour<\/a>. And <\/a>when <\/a>the <\/a>middle <\/a>of <\/a>the <\/a>after<\/a>noon <\/a>came<\/a>, from <\/a>be<\/a>ing <\/a>a <\/a>poor <\/a>poverty-<\/a>stricken <\/a>boy <\/a>in <\/a>the <\/a>morning<\/a>, Tom <\/a>was <\/a>literal<\/a>ly <\/a>roll<\/a>ing <\/a>in <\/a>wealth<\/a>. He <\/a>had <\/a>beside <\/a>the <\/a>thing<\/a>s <\/a>before <\/a>mention<\/a>ed<\/a>, twelve <\/a>marble<\/a>s<\/a>, part <\/a>of <\/a>a <\/a>jews-<\/a>harp<\/a>, a <\/a>piece <\/a>of <\/a>blue <\/a>bottle-<\/a>glass <\/a>to <\/a>look <\/a>through<\/a>, a <\/a>spool <\/a>cannon<\/a>, a <\/a>key <\/a>that <\/a>would<\/a>n’t <\/a>un<\/a>lock <\/a>anything<\/a>, a <\/a>fragment <\/a>of <\/a>chalk<\/a>, a <\/a>glass <\/a>stopp<\/a>er <\/a>of <\/a>a <\/a>decant<\/a>er<\/a>, a <\/a>tin <\/a>soldier<\/a>, a <\/a>couple <\/a>of <\/a>tad<\/a>pole<\/a>s<\/a>, six <\/a>fire-cracker<\/a>s<\/a>, a <\/a>kitten <\/a>with <\/a>only <\/a>one <\/a>eye<\/a>, a <\/a>brass <\/a>door-knob<\/a>, a <\/a>dog-<\/a>collar <\/a> — but <\/a>no <\/a>dog <\/a> — the <\/a>handle <\/a>of <\/a>a <\/a>knife<\/a>, four <\/a>piece<\/a>s <\/a>of <\/a>orange-<\/a>peel<\/a>, and <\/a>a <\/a>dilapidated <\/a>old <\/a>window <\/a>sash <\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n