@alyn No, 'to mete' comes from Proto-Germanic *metanan ("to measure"), which also became German 'messen' and Dutch 'meten'.
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Yoïn van Spijk
@yvanspijk@toot.community
Posts
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Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’. -
Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.@mgleadow No, that one's related to 'ministry' and French 'métier', from Latin 'ministerium'.
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Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’. -
Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’. -
Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.@fiee That's right!
'Kneif' and 'Kneip' are still listed in Duden, but they're indeed outdated.
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Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.@MichaelPorter I hope that the fact that Latin 'sexus', which gave us 'sex', is very distantly related to this word family as well.
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Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.3/
Old English ‘cnīf’, the ancestor of ‘knife’, wasn’t attested until the 11th century. It came from Proto-Germanic *knībaz (“(pocket) knife”), perhaps – but not necessarily – via Old Norse ‘knífr’.
Its cognates include West Frisian ‘knyft’, ‘kniif’, obsolete Dutch ‘knijf’, Low Saxon/German ‘knyf’, German ‘Kneif’ (via Low Saxon/German), and archaic German ‘Kneip’. French ‘canif’ was borrowed from West Germanic.
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Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.2/
... *messex if it had survived, but it didn’t even make it into Middle English. However, it does have living cognates in some of the sister languages of English, including German ‘Messer’ and Dutch ‘mes’.
In this post, you can hear and see how Dutch ‘mes’ and German ‘Messer’ evolved from Proto-Germanic, step by step. I also tell all about the difference between Proto-Germanic *matisahsan with an s and *matizahsan with a z (520 words, tier 1):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/messer-and-mes-936987552/
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Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.
‘Meteseax’ was a compound of two words. The first one was ‘mete’ (“food”), the ancestor of ‘meat’, whose meaning was later narrowed.
The other one was ‘seax’, which meant “sword” and is related to ‘Saxon’ and the surname ‘Sax’, on which the word ‘saxophone’ was based.
Zoom in on my new graphic to learn more.
‘Meteseax’ would’ve become ... 1/
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Most Spanish words come from Latin, but did you know there are two different groups?Most Spanish words come from Latin, but did you know there are two different groups?
There are words that Spanish inherited from spoken Latin, but also words that it borrowed from written Latin during the Middle Ages and after.
Some took both routes, creating doublets. For instance, both ‘hablar’ (to speak) and ‘fabular’ (to make up) come from Latin ‘fābulāre’.
Here’s episode three in my ten-part series on doublets. Next: Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Dutch, and English.
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Two of my favourite languages have something you could call ghost consonants.Two of my favourite languages have something you could call ghost consonants.
In Italian and Brabantian, consonants that were lost long ago still have an effect in the modern language.
Learn all about these fascinating ghost consonants in my new short video:
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The word ‘harbour’ shares its origin with French ‘auberge’ and German ‘Herberge’, which both mean “hostel”The word ‘harbour’ shares its origin with French ‘auberge’ and German ‘Herberge’, which both mean “hostel”.
They all come from West Germanic *haribergu, meaning “military camp”.
This was a compound of *hari (“army”) and *bergu (“shelter”). Other related English words are ‘harbinger’, ‘to harry’ and the name ‘Harold’.
Click my new infographic to learn more: