Technical Note 4: Is this Word Inherited or Borrowed?
There is no simple indicator of whether a word in English has come down to us all the way from PIE via Proto-Germanic.
However, there are quite a lot of useful clues.
First, is the word likely to be in what one might call ‘core vocabulary’? It’s not possible to define this term precisely, but it is likely to include verbs for basic states or actions (‘to be’, ‘to go’, ‘to stand’ ‘to say’, ‘to see’ and so on); nouns for close family, for bodily features (’heart’, ‘eye’ etc); and, up to a point, for everyday objects; basic adjectives (‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘tall’, ’short’) and colours (‘red’ but not ‘aquamarine’); numbers; pronouns; and prepositions.
If so, it is very likely to be inherited.
In the case of English, the deep interaction with the Vikings has however, as we have seen, introduced many Old Norse words that most of us would consider ‘basic’, like ‘get’, give’, ‘take’ and ‘they/them/their’. This is, fortunately, much less likely to be the case with borrowings from other sources.
Second, does the word seem definitely ‘niche’ – perhaps a term whose meaning you may be unsure of, which seems technical or academic? If so, the chances are that the word is borrowed. It may not be borrowed from another Indo-European language, but these languages do account for a very high proportion of all borrowings into English, and other borrowings often show their origins either by form (for example the ‘al’ of ‘al-gebra’ or ‘al-cohol’ being based on the Arabic definite article) or by cultural reference (for example ‘wigwam’ or ‘didgeridoo’).
We have come across many examples of Greek-based words being used in medical parlance, and Latin was after all the main scientific language of Western Europe into the 18th century. Both languages have been used in many domains to create new words or word-combinations, sometimes with a mix also of inherited terms, like say ‘mono-clonal-anti-bodies’ (the first three elements from Greek and the last inherited, but as it happens a word barely known outside English) or ‘Instagram’ (first element from Latin, second from Greek). Italian has supplied many of our musical terms like ‘piano’ or ‘allegro’, Persian words about chess (‘rook’, ‘checkmate’), Indian languages words in many domains, Celtic languages a good slice of our topographical names, and almost all of the major Indo-European groups well-known personal names from Arjuna to Vladimir, whose meanings we will be exploring later.
Third, does it start with a common element that you can at once assess as inherited or borrowed?
Prepositions and prefixes are often a good guide: any word starting with ‘cata’, ‘peri’ or ‘apo’ is almost bound to be borrowed from Greek, and one with ‘ad’, ‘com’ or ‘pro’ from Latin. An illustrative list of common examples in borrowings from Greek and Latin is shown at the end of this blog.
Fourth, does its first letter or two give it away? English has either no or extremely few inherited words beginning with the following letters:
‘c-’ where sounding as ‘s’, so words starting with ‘ce-’ or ‘ci-’ (cement, circle etc)
‘j-’
‘p-’
‘sk-’ (as we saw in Blog 5, all inherited words starting with ‘sk’ have been changed to ‘sh’)
‘v-’
‘x-’
‘z-’.
There will be the occasional exception: for example we saw in Technical Note 2 ‘vixen’ as a word from a West-country dialect that, unlike standard English, voiced initial unvoiced fricatives (think ‘Zummerset’); and in Blog 8, Box 2 that ‘jowl’ is an inherited word, but seems to have been affected by the spelling and the pronunciation of French ‘joue’ (‘cheek’).
We will explore the case of initial ‘p’ a bit further in a subsequent blog: it relates to the mysterious square brackets around ‘b’ at the end of the previous blog.
Fifth, look it up!
A good starting point is the Etymonline app, readily downloadable. Type in an English word of interest, and it will usually give you an initial derivation from whatever language is the source, and very often a Proto Indo European root in bold characters. If you click on the latter, it provides a list of words from this root in use in English, whether inherited or borrowed. These lists can be quite extensive, and you will probably often be surprised, as I have been, at some of the connections. Later blogs will give you further insights into the sometimes seemingly far-fetched sound changes that underlie such connections.
Etymonline is quite careful to use words like ‘perhaps’ or ‘probably’, when there may be uncertainty about a particular derivation.
Annex: Greek and Latin Prepositions/Prefixes
Preposition/Prefix Meaning[1] Typical English Borrowing
Greek
amphi around amphitheatre
ana up analogy (‘reckoning up’)
anti against antipathy
dia through diagram
ek (written ‘ec’) from or out ecstatic
[ex, with same meaning, may be either Greek or Latin]
en in endemic
epi on, against epidemic
hyper above hyperbole
hypo below hypocaust
kata down catastrophe (a ‘downturning’)
meta after, behind metaphysics
para to or at parameter
peri around periscope
pros towards prosthetics
Latin
ab(s) away from abscond
ad to admirable
ante before antediluvian (‘before the Flood’)
circum around circumspect
cum (or ‘com’) with compare
contra against contradict
de down from defunct
e from evade
ex (as noted, may be Latin or Greek) extol (‘raise up from’)
extra beyond extravagant
in in, on inflammable[2]
inter between interval
ob on account of, against obstruct
per through persuade
post after postpone
prae (often ‘pre’) before prefect
pro on behalf of protest
sine without sinecure
sub under subordinate
super above supersonic
trans across transform
[1] This column gives the meaning when used as a preposition in the original language. As you will see, this often differs from the meaning when part of a word.
[2] Note that this is identical in form to the more common ‘negative particle’ which means the opposite of the word in question – eg ‘invisible’: ‘can’t be seen’. That’s why we have been forced to invent the term ’non-inflammable’!