Word origins

WILLIAM FUNK once said: "Words are little windows through which we can look into the past". Familiarity with the life history of a word makes its meaning clear. The word also becomes easier to remember. A few words with an interesting life-story follow.

Accolade (award of expression of high praise) comes from the Latin ad, meaning to, and collum meaning neck. An accolade was originally a ceremony in which knighthood was conferred, an embrace being part of the ceremony. Collar, ‘neckpiece’, is also derived from collum.

Advocate takes its origin from the Latin ad meaning to and vocare, meaning speak, call. Thus an advocate is a professional who speaks in favour of his client. Similarly, an attorney is someone to whom a person in trouble will turn to, for the word comes from the French atourne, a compounding of a, to, meaning and tourner, meaning turn. A solicitor is one who pleads or solicits on behalf of his client. It comes from the Latin solicitus, which means to show care or concern. All these professionals are lawyers, which is a generic term for a person trained in law and authorised to represent others in legal matters. Law, which comes from the old Norse log, plural of lag, ‘something laid down’, is the branch of knowledge dealing with rules and conduct ‘laid down’ by a controlling authority.

Often, in exasperation, we tell someone to go to the devil. This expression takes life from the law courts. A tavern called The Devil stood near the law courts in London and was much frequented by lawyers. When a lawyer was wanted, had been hunted everywhere and could not be found even in his chambers, his clerk would say: Go to The Devil. Spending a great deal of time in The Devil tavern meant huge bills for liquor and lawyers looked for work as they had ‘The Devil to pay’ for drinks. Thus came the expression ‘the devil to pay’.

Tap-root

Narangi (an orange-coloured fruit) comes from the Sanskrit nagrang meaning sindoor coloured. Tracing the word in other languages reveals the importance of Sanskrit vis-a-vis word origins. Right from the Persian naranj to the Portuguese laranj and to the English orange, one can see traces of the root word.

— Deepti

This feature was published on January 2, 1999