ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Words and Flowers ~~ for Etymologists and Gardeners

Updated on May 18, 2013


This particular hub is dedicated to one of our HP writers, Kathleen Cochran, who this morning over breakfast suggested that I write a hub on words and their etymologies. I told her I had a hub on that very topic, which had been sitting unfinished for two months. She commented that clearly great minds think alike. :) So I came home and finished the hub.

Beyond that, Kathleen introduced me to HubPages and kindly and repeatedly badgered, I mean encouraged, me to join and give it a try. I obviously started writing about what I know best, Modern European History, World War II in particular. Soon I was hooked on writing, on reading, on the wonderful ongoing conversations and friendships that develop here. And no one was more surprised than I when I began to write outside my comfort zone.

Now my comfort zone has been enlarged as has my circle of friends who write exceedingly well. For me, it all began with Kathleen sharing her excitement and joy. Please keep reading and ENJOY! :)


Cautelous is interesting to me, because when I first came across it, I immediately thought of the word “cauterize” meaning to sear or burn a wound with a heated tool – this procedure is done to eliminate bacteria and promote healing. The word can also mean to render one insensible . I rather self-indulgently congratulated myself on my linguistic prowess, but a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind compelled me to look it up anyway and come to find out it is not related to “cauterize” at all!


The first time we find the word in literature is in 1384 and this archaic word comes to us from Latin by way of the Medieval French word “caudeleux. Today we use cautelous, which is an adjective, when we want to describe someone, or perhaps even an animal, as crafty, cunning, cautious or wary.


This word was too compelling to pass up because I assumed, correctly this time, that it was related to one of my favorite words “ramification.” Ramify, which is a verb, comes from the Latin and means branch. My last name which is German, although my patrilineal family is Polish, means the limb or branch of a tree.


Imagine my astonishment when examining World War II army document at the National Archives when I chanced across the word “aeste” (plural of ast). A German official was describing where certain branches - “aeste” - of the SS (Schutzstaffel) were located. But to return to Ramify which means to divide into branches and going very far back to the Indo-European root “wrad” we also find radish, root, radical, eradicate, and rutabaga.




Gnathic, is not a word one is likely to use very often, but it comes with an interesting history and evolution, never-the-less. It an adjective which refers to something derived from or relating to the jaw. Scholars believe the original Indo-European root was “genu” which could mean either jawbone or chin, hence the word “prognathous” or chin. It comes to us most directly from the Greek “gnathos” for jaw. The first documented usage appears to be 1882.


I imagine that manyof us will quickly recognize this word in its adjectival form Aurorean, because we are already familiar with the term “aurora borealis,” commonly referred to as the Northern Lights. For those of you well-acquainted with Latin mythology, you will recognize “aurora” meaning sunrise, dawn or even the goddess of dawn. Specifically, Aurorean, refers to something related to or belonging to the dawn.


The Borealis is created when charged electrons contained in the solar wind encounter atoms of nitrogen and oxygen in the earth’s upper atmosphere; this could be anywhere from 20 to 200 miles above the surface of the earth. The shape and location of the borealis, whether northern or southern is determined by the lines of magnetic force associated with the north and south Poles.



Many of us will assume this word has something to do with four; we associate the first syllable with common words like quarter, quartile, etc. Quadrennium is a noun meaning a period of four years. The word is derived from the combination of the Medieval Latin roots “quadri” meaning four and “annus” meaning year. The original Indo-European root was “at” from which a whole variety of words commonly used in English are descended. For example, annuity, perennial, annals, annual.


And there is this prince of a word using the root “annus” – Superannuated, indicating something which is outmoded or old-fashioned, or a condition where advanced age has incapacitated a person for active duty, or someone older than the usual members of a specific group, say beginning swimmers. Synonyms for superannuated are varied and quite interesting: obsolete, Noachian – I wonder what Noah thinks, fossilized, medieval, Neolithic, antiquated, and moth-eaten. Speaking of Noah, we can’t ignore that most wonderful of words - antediluvian – “before the flood.”

Source


The word Morphean, an adjective, refers to something that is sleep inducing or that is related to drowsiness. The root of the word, “morph” is Greek. Those who study Greek mythology will immediately recognize the god of dreams Morpheus, who was the son of Hypnos, the god of sleep. He was responsible for introducing human beings into the subconscious of people who were dreaming; Morpheus was literally, “the Maker of shaoes” which helps explain how all these words are related.


We also have the linguistically related word, Morphine, which is a bitter addictive narcotic, the principal alkaloid in opium (think poppies); there is a serious danger of addiction with long term medical use. Morphine is often administered when patients need either an analgesic or a sedative to alleviate pain and/or profound emotional distress. Morphine has a decided calming effect which helps protect the individual who has just suffered a major physical injury or trauma of some sort. Morphine can be administered orally, by injection or by IV intravenous drip.


Large doses of morphine are known to depress respiration (minimize the normal breathing response) , therefore there use in terminal cases is controversial. They do indeed make the terminal patient, who might otherwise be suffering quite terribly, comfortable and peaceful, but by depressing respiration, the use of morphine hastens death. This is an issue that needs to be thoroughly discussed between the patient (if possible), the family members, and the medical staff.

Source


Found in French and German in the early 1800’s (from Latin), Morphology is (1) the branch of Biology that investigates the structure and form of plants and animals, or (2) the identification, analysis, and description of the structure of a specific language and is concerned with things like linguistic derivation, context, intonation / inflection, and word compounding, in other words morphology is concerned with the word-forming elements and processes within any language.


And then there is the word Metamorphoses which commonly refers to a change in physical structure, form, or substance. Frequently in literature, the word is used to draw attention to a striking alteration in character or appearance of an individual. However, in Biology, the word often refers to a fairly abrupt developmental change, for example, a change which affects the structure or physical form of an animal. These changes occur after the animal is born (or hatches); they do not occur in utero and may include biochemical, behavioral, and physiological changes. The word comes to us from Greek to Latin to German.


Source
Source
Source
Source
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)