Lecture 3. The Etymology of English words

1. The Etymology of English words

Lecture 3

2. The plan of the lecture

• 1) Conditions and reasons of borrowing
• 2) The adaptation of borrowed words
• 3) International words
• 4) Etymological doublets and triplets
• 5) Translation-loans and their stylistic
characteristics

3. Conditions of borrowings

• -to fill the gap in the vocabulary
E.G “butter’’, “plum” (Latin w/)
• - to add a shade of meaning
E.G “desire ’’, “adore ” (French w/)

4. Adaptation of a borrowed word

Three areas
• The phonetic area
(regime, café, ballet (Fr.b)
• The grammatical area
(datum-data, phenomenonphenomena, datum-data
Lat.b)
The semantic area
(large-wide, gay- noble,
bright, multi-colored)

5. International words

- Greek or Latin origin
International words
are the words,
borrowed by
several
languages at
once due to
their cultural
or scientific
importance
(- philosophy, mathematics,
physics and etc., music,
theatre, drama, tragedy,
comedy)
- English origin (- football,
cricket, golf, rugby and
all kinds of sport)
- Russian origin (- sputnik,
dacha, kolkhoz )

6.

Etymological doublets
Etymological triplets
• Shirt (a nat. w) - skirt
(Scand.bor)
• Canal (Lat.) – channel
(Fr.)
• Captain (Lat.) –
chieftain (Fr)
• Hospital (Lat.) – hostel
(Norm.Fr.) - hotel
(Par.Fr.)
• To capture (Lat.) – to catch
(N/Fr) – to chase (Par.fr.)

7. Translation-loans

E.g.
E.g.
• Masterpiece
(from
Meisterstuck)
• Wonder child
(Wunderkind)
• First dancer
(from primaballerina)
• Blitzkrieg –
lightning war

8. Compare:

Motherly love – maternal leave
Fatherly support – paternal hierarchy
Childish charm- infantile diseases
Handy – manual
Sunny weather-solar system
Toothy grin- dental care
Nosy man – nasal sound