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Word History: The English word husband, even though it is a basic kinship term, is not a native English word. It comes ultimately from the Old Norse word hsbndi, meaning “master of a house,” which was borrowed into Old English as hsbnda. The second element in hsbndi, bndi, means “a man who has land and stock” and comes from the Old Norse verb ba, meaning “to live, dwell, have a household.” The master of the house was usually a spouse as well, of course, and it would seem that the main modern sense of husband arises from this overlap. When the Norsemen settled in Anglo-Saxon England, they would often take Anglo-Saxon women as their wives; it was then natural to refer to the husband using the Norse word for the concept, and to refer to the wife with her Anglo-Saxon (Old English) designation, wf, “woman, wife” (Modern English wife). Interestingly, Old English did have a feminine word related to Old Norse hsbndi that meant “mistress of a house,” namely, hsbonde. Had this word survived into Modern English, it would have sounded identical to husbandsurely leading to ambiguities.

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Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000  |  IP: Logged | 

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In the 1980's ketchup was declared a vegetable by the government for school lunch menus. Suddenly Del Monte's Catsup, because of its spelling, was not on the approved list. Shortly afterward Del Monte changed the product's name to Del Monte Ketchup. So ketchup it is.

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Heinz trying to play up their spelling and new plastic bottle was ridiculed by English teachers everywhere for their promotion "You don't need to 'ketch' it when it drops!" forcing Heinz to make huge donations to the "Erase Illiteracy in America" program.

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The regular ME. descendants of OE. wífman, -men, viz. wimman, wimmen (cf. OE. léofman, ME. lemman, LEMAN) continued in use until the 15th century. By c 1200 the rounding of wi- to wu- is clearly established, and is at that time characteristic of western ME. texts. The form womman appears in the late 13th century (first in western texts), and the corresponding pl. wommen in the late 14th. The simplification of mm in womman, -en and wimman, -en, and the consequent conversion of the first syllable into an open syllable gave rise to forms with ō and ē, which, continuing to the early modern period, provided the occasion for punning analyses of wōman and wēmen (see 1k below). From c1400 woman and women became regular spellings for sing. and pl., and have been retained as a properly corresponding pair to man and men; but in the standard speech the pronunciation (wu-) was ultimately appropriated to the sing. and (wi-) to the pl., probably through the associative influence of pairs like foot and feet.

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Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged | 

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You know, it's a bit off-topic, but I've realized that guys who profess themselves to be chivalrous always really annoy me. They imply that women can't take care of themselves and are hopelessly useless. I'm not really a feminist, but that really bugs me. Anyone else feel the same way?

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Sanskrit root gar, "transport", became in Greek gerôn, "old man" and in Latin granum, "seed". From there came the adjective granatus, "having many grains", and granatum: "pomegranate", which has red seeds. It is by comparison with the fruit that garnet gained its name.

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