Valentines Day: Surprisingly Connected Etymologies

6 words for Valentine's Day with some surprising etymological connections.

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Transcript:

It’s coming up to Valentine’s Day, so today in “Surprisingly Connected Etymologies” we’re giving you some words straight from the heart!

I don’t know which you’d prefer from your Valentine, but although a cordial welcome may seem rather different than a hearty welcome, etymologically they’re the same. Hearty of course come from heart, a word that can be traced back through the Germanic branch of languages to the Proto-Indo-European root *kerd-. This root also leads to Latin cor “heart”, and from that through French to words such as cordial and courage (both literally “hearty”), as well as concord (literally “hearts together”) and discord (“hearts apart”). The noun cordial had the original sense “medicine, food, or drink that stimulates the heart”, or I suppose a love potion if you will!

Now if you love someone you should probably believe them, at least etymologically speaking. Believe comes from Old English belyfan “to have faith or confidence (in someone)” with a change in prefix from the earlier gelyfan with the intensifying prefix ge-. This in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *ga-laubjan “believe” literally “hold dear” from the Proto-Indo-European *leubh- “care, desire, love”. This root also leads to Proto-Germanic *lubojan, Old English lufian, and finally Modern English love.

Now you might not want to believe the object of your love, especially if you feel passion for a fiend, but perhaps etymologically it’s not surprising you could feel this way. Fiend comes from the Old English feogan “to hate” and means literally “hating” and therefore someone who is hostile or a enemy. It can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *pe(i)- “to hurt”, and this possibly comes into Latin as the verb pati “to suffer”, and eventually English passion in the sense of “suffering” (think the passion of Christ), and only in the 14th century did the word gain the more positive sense of “strong emotion, desire”. I guess if you are passionate about someone who isn’t good for you, it can lead to suffering.

For instance, unhealthy relationships can lead to jealousy. The words jealousy and zeal both express strong, even obsessive, feelings for something, and etymologically this makes sense as they both come from Greek zelos which could mean both “jealousy” and “fervour, enthusiasm”. Ultimately this Greek word comes from Proto-Indo-European *ya- “seek, request, desire”.

Now there are many reasons you might desire someone. Some people use embellishments such as makeup or clothing to enhance their natural beauty, and I suppose etymologically speaking that’s the point. The root of embellish comes from Latin bellus “pretty, handsome, charming”, and this Latin word also leads to Vulgar Latin bellitas, Old French beltet, and later beute before becoming English beauty.

You might also be attracted to the sound of their voice. Are there some accents you find particularly charming? Well etymologically this makes sense. Accent comes from Old French acent, from Latin accentus made up of ad- “to” + cantus “song”, which is a loan translation of Greek prosodia “a song sung to music” made up of pros “to” + oide “song” (and of course we get prosody from this Greek word). Latin cantus is the past participle of the verb canere “to sing”, which produced another Latin word meaning “song”, carmen (with the dissimilation of -n- to -r- because *canmen was too difficult say), and this became charme in Old French and charm in English, through the idea of singing or chanting magical spells. The music of language can be very enchanting (another related word), but if you’re not so good with incantations (basically an etymological doublet of enchantment), you can always go back to that love potion from before!

Thanks for watching! This is one in a series of occasional short videos about connected etymologies; to see more, you can also follow the Endless Knot on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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