Things Gotten Wrong (in Shakespeare) and a Couple Interesting Etymologies

Have you ever noticed that the weather forecasts on television always show us the "futurecast"? Whoever coined that term futurecast either did not know, or did not think about, the fact that the fore- in forecast means 'future'.

Everybody knows the famous quotation from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?" Most people seem to think that wherefore means 'where'--and actresses play the line as if this were the case.

Well, wherefore does not mean 'where', it means 'why'. Think of the old phrase "the whys and wherefores." Anyone who goes on to read that passage from Romeo and Juliet can see that the sense of it is, "Romeo, why must you be Romeo, and a Montague, and therefore a member of a family that is enemies with my family?" And note, no comma after "thou," in accordance with what I am saying is the correct sense.

Another misunderstanding from Shakespeare: early on in the play Hamlet (sorry, I was too lazy to dig out my volume of Shakespeare, so this is simply from memory), Hamlet and his buddies are talking about the custom of late-night carousing, and Hamlet says he never does that, "though I am to the manner born." Note, "to the manner"--that is, the custom--and not "to the manor."

 

This is not Shakespeare, but another common misunderstanding, due to a word having become obsolete: In the expression "Time and tide wait for no man," tide here does not mean the surging of the ocean in and out; it means 'season', as in Yuletide, Easter tide, Whitsuntide, etc.

Note: If you have read, or are going to read,  my post on interesting word origins, stop reading right here because this is going to be repetitive.

Okay, now some real etymology: The holes in your nose are called nostrils, right? That's from Old English (Anglo-Saxon) for nose; okay, that's the first syllable. And then, there was an Old English word thirl, meaning 'hole'. So nostril is, literally, simply, and reasonably enough, 'nose hole'.

Now another cute O.E. etymology: the word neighbor. The first  part means 'near' (if you know German, think of nahe). The second part--again, if you know German, think of the word Burg (as in the hymn Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott, in English A Mighty Fortress is Our God. So the word, in German at least, means 'castle', 'fortress', 'fortification'. So your neighbor is the next or nearest fortress--or house, more commonly.

More to come.

Copyright © 2020

First, a Little Background

This may, to some extent, be my view of this and not necessarily in agreement with anyone else's take, or even the mainstream.

Many people may be aware that English has many words that were in some way derived or borrowed from Latin or Greek. I'd like to explain why that is.

First, many scientific words, including medical terms, were coined from Latin and Greek roots. These terms are going to be very similar across many languages (an exception is German, which stubbornly insisted on coining new technical and scientific terms from native roots. For example, hydrogen may be that or something quite similar in many languages, but in German 'hydrogen' is Wasserstoff (the "stuff" water is made of) and 'television' is Fernseh ("far seeing").

Medical terms tend to be Latin. This may be because at one time Latin was the international language of learning, scholarship, and science. (If you want to be a bit paranoid, then you may believe that doctors use Latin terms to keep the patient from understanding, particularly when one doctor talks to another doctor.)

But here's the scoop on why we have so many Latin and Greek words outside of the scientific, medical, and technical vocabulary. In England, particularly around the 17th century, writers and scholars complained that the vocabulary of English was impoverished, that it did not have words for many intellectual concepts. So they were coining new words at a great pace. Usually any leaned person who knew Greek and particularly Latin could understand those new words because he could see and understood the classical roots they were formed from. (Latin was part of any person's advanced education and was, and still is, used in the great universities of Oxford and Cambridge.)

Now: Were these 17th century men correct in believing English needed to have its vocabulary improved and enriched with new word coinages? Here is what happened:

First, some terminology: The English language, historically, is classified into three periods: Old English, or Anglo-Saxon (and just to clarify, since many people do not have sound knowledge of this: Old English does not mean "Ye Olde Tea Shoppe," but is a nearly completely foreign and unintelligible language to Modern English speakers), spoken from about 450 AD to about 1100 (the Normal Conquest of 1066 was a factor, but not the sole cause, of the evolution of English from Old English to Middle English); Middle English, going up to maybe 1550 or so; and Modern English. (Shakespeare would be--no, not Old English but Early Modern English.)

 

Here is a specimen of Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. This is "Caedmon's Hymn," considered the earliest Old English text.

 

Nū scylun hergan     hefaenrīcaes Uard,
metudæs maecti     end his mōdgidanc,
uerc Uuldurfadur,     suē hē uundra gihuaes,
ēci dryctin     ōr āstelidæ
hē ǣrist scōp     aelda barnum
heben til hrōfe,     hāleg scepen.
Thā middungeard     moncynnæs Uard,
eci Dryctin,     æfter tīadæ
fīrum foldu,     Frēa allmectig.

Now: For some time after the Normal Conquest--maybe about 300 years--the English language had sort of gone underground. The rulers and nobles--all the people of power, position, wealth, etc.--were French-speaking Normans or their descendants. It was the language of government, and, believe it or not, some Norman French is still used in the British Parliament:

Acts of Parliment [sic] are confirmed in Norman French. A literal translation of La Reyne le veult is ‘The Queen wishes it’.

The House of Lords has been an English speaking chamber since the 1400s; [punctuation emended] however, Norman French is still used on formal occasions.

When a bill has passed its third reading in the House of Commons, it goes to the House of Lords for their approval. Written at the start of the bill are the words: ‘Soit baillé aux Seigneurs’, meaning ‘Let it be sent to the Lords’.

When the bill is returned to the Commons, it reads ‘A ceste bille [avecque des amendmens] les Seigneurs sont assentus’ meaning ‘To this bill [with amendments] the Lords have assented.’

When amendments are accepted, the bill reads ‘A ces amendmens [avecque une amendment] les Communes sont assentus’ meaning ‘To these amendments [with an amendment] the Commons have assented.’

Whereas La Reyne le veult is used on most occasions when bills are passed, occasionally a much longer portion of Norman French is used.

When approving finance bills for Royal Assent, the Clerk says: “La Reyne, remerciant Ses bons Subjects, accepte leur Benevolence, et ainsi le veult.”

This means: “The Queen, thanking her good subjects, accepts their benevolence, and so wills it.”

                                    --htpps//royalcentral.co.uk/interests/state/la-reyne-le-veult-why-are-acts-of-parliament-confirmed-in-norman-french-rather-than-english-81184/

[The seemingly haphazard use of italics is in the original. I have, however, regularized the use the single quotation marks.]

So, getting back to my main point, French was used in government and by the nobles and those in power (for a depiction of the relative power between the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, see Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe). And, the other side of the coin, English was the language of those on the periphery, both geographically and socially--the rustics, peasants, and those living far from London, the seat of power.

Thus, whereas Old English had words for intellectual and theological concepts, those words had fallen out of use and out of the language. A couple of examples: Old English used the word thrinness (actually, a special character, no longer used in English, was used for the th), meaning 'trinity'. Inwit meant 'conscience'. So, those words dropped out and, once their lack was appreciated, new words for those meanings were coined from Latin.

A number of writers were quite diligent in coining new words to add to the English vocabulary. I believe Shakespeare gets credit for a number of new words. A 17th century writer and physician named Sir Thomas Browne coined many, many words, some of which did not "catch on," so to speak, but many of which successfully entered English usage.