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/lit/ - Literature

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3500415 No.3500415[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

Are linguistics /lit/?
Is the study of linguistics fun?
Do you know any words with an interesting etymology?

>> No.3500437

>>3500415

Linguistics itself is just a bunch of shit, but learning about word etymologies is pretty interesting

>> No.3500455

>>3500437
>>3500437
I agree. I was just curious as to whether it is on-topic to discuss such matters on /lit/

>> No.3500462

>>3500415
Linguistics is /lit/ or /sci/ depending on your tastes.
I don't find linguistics fun because I don't find their research project as a discipline fundamentally interesting and I am already wedded to other methodologies and research projects in other disciplines.

Kind of like why I'm not learning the bassoon or conducting a hominidology of great apes—I'm doing things that better interest me.

>> No.3500464

Honestly, look at the state of /lit/. You can make any shitty thread and claim it /lit/, but the one thread which is, in fact, very /lit/ related is the one in which OP is civilized enough to ask about it.

>> No.3500476

As for word origins, a lot of english words come from Latin, Greek, German, or French.

Take the word hermaphrodite - it comes from the Greek gods Hermes and Aphrodite

this is a great website if you want to look up stuff like that: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php

>> No.3500485

Transvestite has root in the word 'travesty'

>> No.3500489

>>3500476
I love that site, I visit it very frequently. just about any word that isn't obvious has a wickedly cool etymology. It's very stimulating to me to read about words in there.

>> No.3500492

Alfalfa comes from an arabic word meaning "the father of all foods"

It's those nitrogen-enriching rhizomes I tell ya.

>> No.3500499

>>3500485
Wrong.

Transvestite:
[C19: from German Transvestit , from trans- + Latin vestītus clothed, from vestīre to clothe]

Travesty:
[C17: from French travesti disguised, from travestir to disguise, from Italian travestire , from tra- trans- + vestire to clothe]

>> No.3500512

>>3500499
Transvestit is from travesti.

>> No.3500519

>>3500512
I'm going to need you to cite a source, there, chum.

>> No.3500528

>>3500519
Huh, I can't seem to find one. I suppose I remembered wrongly. Or perhaps I just can't find it.
I'm willing to admit that I'm probably wrong.

>> No.3500535

I fucking hate french for giving us all these words with silent letters

shit like Repertoire and Bourgeoisie. I say as true Americans we should respell each of these words phonetically

>> No.3500548
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3500548

>>3500535
I was just about too look up the etymology when I stumpled across this. Google sure has a useful function going on there.

>> No.3500551

Zeta, ζ, in Greek was originally pronounced as 'sd', so Ζευς, Zeus, was pronounced 'sdeus', giving Latin deus, god.

The Sanskrit father of the gods was called 'sky-father' or dyaus pitr, whence comes Latin Jupiter.

>> No.3500728

>>3500551
I don't know why, but this is fascination overload to me.

>> No.3500772

>>3500728

The same Proto-Indo-European root also led to the Anglo-Saxon god Tew and equivalent Norse god Tyr.

>> No.3500875
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3500875

>>3500535
>Repetwoah

>Borgwahsee

Oh God no, these sound like bastardized Iroquois names of rivers.