Questions tagged [history]
Questions about the history and trends of the English language.
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Paucity of words for relationships
Please refer the following questions asked elsewhere on this site:
Is there a word that means "the wife of one's brother"?
What is the relationship name of my wife's brother to me?
...
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When did it become correct to add an “s” to a singular possessive already ending in “‑s”?
According to my grammar book, but at variance to the answer to this question, the correct singular possessive if a word ends in ‑s is:
James’s car
The grammar book allows exceptions for historical ...
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Why have the subjunctive and indicative converged in Modern English?
It is to me a curious fact that the subjunctive mood of verbs in English has so nearly disappeared in modern times. In fact, even the correct form and usage of the subjunctive in Modern English barely ...
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Why doesn't "its" have an apostrophe?
I know that its is the possessive and it's is the contraction, and know when to use them. But why doesn't the possessive have an apostrophe?
"The bear's eating a fish." [contraction]
"The bear's ...
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What is the history of adding the a- prefix to form words?
I have always found the a- prefix to words (as in anew, ajar, aside, awake, afoot, a-hunting, etc.) fascinating. The NOAD says on this topic:
a- 2. prefix
•to; toward : aside | ashore.
• ...
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Use of “f ” instead of “s” in historic, printed English documents
I was at a museum in London yesterday, and one of the items on exhibit is a document from the eighteenth century. It uses the letter f a lot where s should be used—for example, in Majefty.
Did the ...
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19th century English texts occasionally use Germanic-style number words, such as "four-and-twenty". When did this fall out of use?
19th century English texts occasionally use Germanic-style number words, such as "four-and-twenty", but the same text would also have the modern "twenty-four" in places (see e.g. Conan-Doyle for ...
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How and when did American spelling supersede British spelling in the US?
Considering that Webster published his first dictionary in 1806, is there a recognised tipping point (year, decade, etc.) that marked the move from traditional British spelling to Webster's American? ...
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Why is there a distinction between "its" and "it's"?
While I know technically the English language has a distinction because when there's a conflict between the possessive form and a contraction, the contraction wins. That is:
Its is the possessive ...
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Why do written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies?
Written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies. Consider what the written vowels in the romance languages represent. Also, for example, consider this simple comparison between a ...
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What we've gelost — why doesn't English use the prefix "ge-"?
The Germanic languages that I'm familiar with all use a prefix similar to ge- on past participles:
German: Ich habe mir den Fuß gebrochen.
Dutch: Ik heb mijn voet gebroken.
But English doesn't do ...
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When did the word "so" begin to be used to start a sentence?
In the last few years, I've noticed a growing usage of the word "so" to begin a sentence, especially in the context of higher education.
For example:
Interviewer: "What is the nature of your ...
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progressive forms: participle or gerund?
Progressive forms of verbs consist of the form to be + participle. At least that is what most English grammars say or they are imprecise and speak of the -ing form. My question is what follows after ...
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Why is the plural of “deer” the same as the singular?
Why is the plural version of deer identical to the singular version?
If mouse became mice, then why did the singular deer not change to something else in the plural?
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Did English ever have a word for 'yes' for negative questions?
The Germans have doch and the French have si as a word that means "yes" in response to a negative question, such as:
Don't you want some ice-cream?
Yes [I do]!
In English, we only have yes (as ...
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What is "won't" a contraction of?
"Don't", "wouldn't", "couldn't" and "isn't" are all contractions of "do not", "would not", "could not" and "is not"... So what's "won't" a contraction of?
It appears to be "will not", but if so, why ...
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Pronunciation of the English alphabet
Why are there inconsistencies in the pronunciation of the consonants of the alphabet? For example: 'b' is pronounced like 'bee' but 'm' is pronounced as 'em' rather than 'me'. The pronunciation of 'h' ...
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Is "from whence" correct? Or should it be "whence"?
I just saw a parody on the Lord of the Rings, where one of the characters says:
it must be cast back in the fire from whence it came!
This struck me as odd, since I expected them to say "whence it ...
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Why does "ow" have two different sounds
Why is it that the "ow" in now makes the /aʊ/ sound while "ow" in snow makes the /oʊ/ sound? Has this always been, was it spelled differently and then changed, or was it spelled this way but the sound ...
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How did "Jew" become pejorative?
For some reason, the word Jew often carries a pejorative or offensive connotation, which the related adjective Jewish does not carry. This is most obvious when either word is used as an attributive:
...
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Why did only English undergo the Great Vowel Shift, making pronunciation stray so far from spelling?
Lots of people have wondered why English seems to be one of very few languages with such irregular spelling, far from its pronunciation. The answers include the Norman invasion, and the Great Vowel ...
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Why are "put" and "but" different in their pronunciation?
"Put" and "but" both end in the same letters, so why don't they rhyme? Did they start out with the same sound, and then one of them changed? Or did they start out with different sounds, and just got ...
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If the letter J is only 400–500 years old, was there a J sound that preceded the design of the letter?
I understand that the letter "J" is relatively new — perhaps 400–500 years old. But since there has long been important names that begin with J, such as Jesus, Joshua, Justinian, etc., and which ...
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Why does legal English continue to remain archaic?
Perhaps this is a question for Law.SE if one exists, but I am asking here as there are other nice questions on English history.
There is some historical development account presented in Wikipedia, ...
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How does the "be-" prefix change the words to which it is applied? How did it come about?
What does the be- prefix change when applied to adjectives and verbs? There are many such words that seemed to be coined of this process, for example:
behold, beget, befallen, beridden, bedazzled, ...
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Why don't English nouns have grammatical gender?
English nouns — other than those with natural gender, e.g. people or animals — do not generally have grammatical gender, and so are referred to as 'it' rather than 'he' or 'she'.
However, modern ...
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Rhyme in Elizabethan sonnets
In sonnets from the Elizabethan period, "move" rhymed with "love" although they don't today. Recognizing that changes in spelling rarely keep up with changes in pronunciation, how were "move" and "...
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When and how did "momentarily" come to mean "in a moment", rather than "for a moment"?
"Momentarily" used to mean "for a moment" only, and not "in a moment". Thus, newscasters could be divided into two clear groups: those who would say "we'll be back momentarily," and those who would ...
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Capitalization of the word universe
Playing around with Google's Ngram viewer, where you can see how many times a word is used in books, I stumbled on this:
It shows how often universe and Universe have been used in books.
I think it'...
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Can an English sentence have a 'dative subject'?
I have been thinking about this for a while. It seems to me that, sometimes, the subject plays a dative role in that it is the recipient of something. Take the following active sentence.
He gave ...
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Were contractions less common in olden days?
We just viewed the new movie True Grit. The language of the characters was more formal sounding than we are used to, largely because of the absence of contractions. Is this historically accurate? Do ...
Tom Jenkins
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Why use the word "copy" in "do you copy that"?
I notice "do you copy that?" is used in movies to ask for confirmation in telephone/interphone conversation.
I only know copy means make things duplicated, so why use it in "do you copy that"? Is ...
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“Fire” a weapon before firearms existed?
Did the verb “fire a weapon” exist before the actual introduction of firearms on battlefields?
More specifically, does it make sense for a creative work to have archers (or whatever ranged weaponry) ...
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Why did the letter “o” disappear in the word “pronunciation”?
The verb pronounce has the letter o in its second syllable, but in the noun pronunciation, that same letter disappears from the corresponding position.
Why is that?
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What causes the pronunciation "nucular"?
What is the name of the phonetic shift behind the common mispronunciation of the word nuclear (nucular)?
Or, if the answer is "none", then I would appreciate learning the origin of the pronunciation.
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What is the name for the process which turned "iced cream" into "ice cream"?
There are several words (mostly related to food) which are shortenings of their historical forms. For example, the cold treat ice cream was originally known as iced cream in the 1680s. The -ed ending ...
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What are the historical reasons for the conventional sequence of footnote symbols?
According to @Mahnax's answer to this question, the Chicago Manual of Style Online states that the correct sequence of footnote symbols is as follows:
* (asterisk; but do not use if p values occur ...
user19148
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Where does "ta!" come from?
Where does the expression "ta" come from?
Wikipedia has only this to say:
"ta!", slang, Exclam. Thank you! {Informal}, an expression of gratitude
but no additional information or links about its ...
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What is the name of this castle part?
What do you call these?
Please provide a reliable source with your answer.
user8106
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What makes a word offensive?
Whilst I was sat on the bus yesterday, I overheard a group of teenagers discussing various things. As per the usual social requirement at that age, every 5th word was an expletive. Not exactly the ...
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Where did the practice of using apostrophes for possessive nouns but not pronouns originate?
Where did the practice of using apostrophes for possessive nouns but not pronouns originate?
For example, possessive nouns (both proper and common) are written with a apostrophe before the final s:
...
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Why can't "thanks" ever be singular as a noun?
While looking at the part of speech of the noun "thanks" in an online dictionary I noticed that it was a plural noun and wondered if it could be used in singular form. Glancing at the origin it ...
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Has "dilemma" ever been restricted to two options?
I was surprised to discover my dictionary had this entry for dilemma:
a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, esp. equally undesirable ones
The ...
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Which English words feature reduction of diphthongs like /eɪ/ to /i/?
Consider the following examples:
karaoke as /ˈkæ.ɹiˌəʊ.ki/
Israel as /ˈɪz.ɹi.əl/
al-Qaida as "alky aida"
Monday as "mundy"
Friday as "fridy"
and possibly:
Capernaum as /kəˈpɜːɹ.ni.əm/
Sinai as /...
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Reform of English writing? [closed]
As is commonly known, English is quite notorious for having a writing system that is far removed from the actual way it is most commonly pronounced. I understand that there are important historical ...
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What is the factual basis for "pirate speech"? (Did pirates really say things like "shiver me timbers"?)
The "pirate speech" we hear/see/read, for example, on the website Talk Like A Pirate Day consists of a rhotic dialect characterized by phrases like "shiver me timbers," "ooh arh me hearties," and so ...
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How come 'ou' was reduced to 'o' in the US?
Americans write color and favorite, when others say colour and favourite. How/why did this happen?
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What did "google" mean in the 1900s?
I know that Google got its name from the word googol (10100), and that Google/google referring the search engine/using the search engine are recent additions to the dictionary. Their definitions are ...
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Why did Old Testament scholars choose to employ "to know" in a sexual sense?
For those of us not familiar, the verb to know once had an archaic sexual sense, often found in the Old Testament, and as illustrated in the following story found in Genesis 19:
4 But before they ...
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Why doesn't English have a separate word for "head hair"? (head hair vs. body hair)
The answer can be "Because it doesn't!" or "It wasn't needed!" in short but there might be a historical or linguistic explanation behind this. (Of course, every language might be lacking a word that ...
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