Latin Suffixal Derivatives in English: and Their Indo-European Ancestry (Oxford Linguistics)

423 Pages·2006·2.18 MB·English

by  D. Gary Miller

Y
Latin Su xal Derivatives in English
and their Indo-European Ancestry
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Y
Latin Su xal Derivatives
in English and their
Indo-European Ancestry
D. GARY MILLER
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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Preface
AimandCoverage
The objective of this work is to provide a reliable taxonomy and brief
historicalaccountofthemajorLatinsuYxalderivativesinEnglish.
An updated treatment has been needed because (1) more is currently
knownaboutthehistoryandprehistoryoftheLatinsuYxesthanpreviously;
(2)EnglishhashadoveramillenniumofcontinuousinputfromFrenchand
Latin; (3) the complexity of the competition between native and borrowed
suYxes in English has received considerable recent attention; and (4) Latin
remainsaproductivesourceofEnglishwordformation.
Themostnotablefeatureofthisworkisitscoverage.Thenumberoftokens
for each suYx far exceeds that of every treatise on borrowed suYxes in
existence.NootherworkconcentratesonwordformationpatternsinEnglish
thatareduetoborrowingfromLatin.
Another unique feature is the loyalty to Latin derivational patterns and
their development. This increases the utility for classicists, forms a basis for
the study of the diVusion of classical elements in the vernaculars of Europe,
andemphasizestheformalvariationinwhichthesamesuYxoranalternant
ofitenteredEnglishatdiVerenttimesviadiVerentchannels.
English is rich in derivational suYxes as a result of its Germanic heritage
overlainbytheLatin-Frenchinput.Insomecases,theborrowedsuYxeswere
diVerentincontentfromthenative,butinotherstherewascompetitionfora
domain of productivity. While this is discussed in the introductory remarks
onrelevantsuYxes,intermediatesourcewords,mostfrequentlyOldFrench/
Anglo-French,1 are minimized since they are cited in most etymological
dictionaries and the OED. Instead, this work focuses on information about
theLatinformsandtheirhistory thatisignoredinetymologicaltreatises.
Each suYx is accompanied by a brief note on its Indo-European or other
ancestrywhenknown.ThediscussionthatetymologicaldictionariesofEng-
lishwordssupplyforrootoriginsisthusprovidedforthehistoryofsuYxes.
This information is followed by a sketch of the suYx’s synchronic status in
Latin, and a statement concerning its relative productivity in English. Since
1 IusethetermAnglo-FrenchratherthanAnglo-Normanbecause,fromthetimeofthe‘Norman’
invasion,theFrenchspeakersinEnglandrepresentedmixeddialects(Rothwell1993,1994,1996a,1996b,
1998).
viii Preface
Modern English is targeted throughout, lists of borrowings contain the
earliest examples that survive into present-day English and a sample of the
moreprominentlaterexamples.
Intheinterestofspace,thefullpre-Latinbackground(whenknown)isnot
repeated with every example. For the most part, the prehistory is cited with
only one entry that belongs to a given Indo-European root. That entry is
markedwithanasterisk(*)inthewordindexandcross-referencedintheroot
indextoothermembersofthesameroot.
Each lemma is accompanied by an approximate date of the word’s Wrst
occurrence in English and the relative date of the source word within the
historyofLatin.
EtymologicalDictionaries
Of the numerous resources available for the study of etymology, two in
particular are useful as Wrst steps in an enquiry. These are Terry Hoad’s
ConciseOxfordDictionaryofEnglishEtymology(CDEE)andCalvertWatkins’s
American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots (AHDR). Both are
remarkable for the amount of information in a small space. For words
borrowed from Latin or Greek, Hoad gives the general classical source, an
Old French or other intermediary (when relevant), brief word histories in
English, and broad Wrst dates of occurrence for the main changes in usage/
meaning.WatkinsprovidesmoredetailontheIndo-Europeanbackgroundof
inheritedwords,andotherwordsthatbelongtothesameroot.Noneofthese
provides discussion of the derivation of the Latin source word. Ernout and
Meillet(1951)andWaldeetal. (1982)havebeenconsultedthroughout.Since
thelatterisutilizedbyallrecentworks,citationsareminimized.
CitationofIndo-EuropeanRoots
ThegeneralknowledgeofIndo-Europeanassumedherecanbefoundinany
of the handbooks. Especially useful are Benjamin Fortson’s Indo-European
Language and Culture (2004) and Michael Meier-Bru¨gger’s Indo-European
Linguistics(2003).
Because of its ready accessibility, all Indo-European roots in the present
workarecitedasinWatkins(AHDR)unlessotherwisespeciWed.Generally,an
older Proto-Indo-European (PIE) form is also provided, sometimes from
AHDRandsometimesfromothersources,especiallyRixetal.(2001),Lexikon
der indogermanischenVerben(LIV).
Preface ix
Indo-Europeanrootsinanentryarecitedinbrackets,theWrstfromAHDR
(unspeciWed), the second (if present) from LIV, e.g. L valee(cid:1)re ‘be powerful’
[*wal-‘bestrong’¼*welh-1LIV676f.].Inmanycases,ashere,theLIVentry
is simply the older PIE form. Since the roots are alphabetized in AHDR, no
page reference is necessary unless a speciWc discussion is referred to. Page
numbers are given for LIV roots, which are also alphabetized, but more
diYcult to locate given the separate listings for palatals, aspirates, speciWc
laryngeals,etc.
Frequently the root in AHDR is a theoretical abstraction and a more
speciWc root formisgivenbyLIV, e.g. L tum-ee(cid:1)-re‘to swell’[*teu(h2)-‘swell’,
morespeciWcally*twem-LIV654].TheLIVentry inthiscaseiscloser tothe
protoformoftheLatinwordinquestion.
I have taken the liberty of making certain substitutions in the interest of
consistency and clarity. For AHDR’s obsolete *e, the appropriate laryngeals
(*h1, *h2, *h3) have been substituted; *h without a number means that the
precise nature of the laryngeal is undetermined. Many of the diacritics in
LIVhavebeenaltered,especiallyi/y,u/wfortheeditors’*i,*u,e.g.*wyekw-(¼
*uieku-LIV696),*yeug-(¼*ieug-LIV316). ˆ ˆ
ˆ
ˆˆ ˆ ˆ
When AHDR’s ‘oldest form’ and LIV’s form is the same, a single form
´
can be cited without reference, e.g. *spek- ‘observe’ for ‘*spek- ‘‘to observe’’.
(Oldest form *spek´-)’ (AHDR 82) ¼ *spek´- (LIV 575f.). Sometimes, for
simplicity, just the LIV form is cited, e.g. *g´enh 1- ‘beget’ instead of AHDR’s
*gene-.SinceAHDR(aloneofmodernsources)uses*eandonlycitespalatals
as the ‘older form’, it is clear that *g´enh 1- (with palatal *g´ and speciWed
laryngeal)mustbefromLIV(and/orAHDR’s‘olderform’).
Another(perhapspeculiar)conventionIhavefollowedistowritetheIndo-
European aspirates merely as *bh, dh, g´h, gh, gwh, except when adjacent to a
laryngeal. The zero grade of *deh3- ‘give’ is written *dh3-, but to avoid
potentialconfusion,thatof*dheh1-‘put;make’iswritten*dhh1-withvoiced
aspiratesignalledbysuperscripth.
For roots not in AHDR or LIVand, more generally, whenever available,
another source of background discussion is supplied, preferably in an
English-languagesource.SemiticrootsarecitedfromHuehnergard(2000).
Acknowledgements
Partsofthisworkhavebeenpresentedatconferencesandcolloquia,andother
parts read by friends and colleagues. For discussion of particular words or
topics,IamindebtedtoRobAdams,PhilBaldi,DavidBasilico,yDanielleBro,