Types of borrowed elements in the English vocabulary. Etymological doublets, hybrids, international words, and folk etymology.

Etymological doublets are pairs of words of the same language which share the same etymological basis but have entered the language through different routes; often diverge in currect meaning and usage. They may result from:

-shortening: defence – fence, appeal – peal; history – story;

-stressed and unstressed position of one and the same word: of – off, to – too;

-borrowing the word from the same language twice, but in different periods: jail (Par. Fr.) – goal (Norm. Fr.);

-development of the word in different dialects or languages that are historically descended from the same root: to chase (Northern Fr) – to catch (Central Fr); chart – card; channel (Fr) – canal (L); senior (L) – sir (Fr).

Hybrids are words made up of elements from two or more different languages.

Patterns of hybrids:

native affix (prefix or suffix) + borrowed stem: befool, besiege, beguile; graceful, falsehood, rapidly;

borrowed affix + native stem: drinkable, starvation, wordage; recall, embody, mishandle;

borrowed affix + borrowed stem + native affix: discovering;

native affix + native stem + borrowed affix: unbreakabl e.

The term folk (false, popular, etymythology) etymology (from German Volksetymologie) refers to erroneous beliefs about derivation and the consequent changes to words.

Sources of folk etymology:

reasonable interpretations of the evidence that happen to be false, e.g. cockroach (as if from cock + roach or caca ‘excrement’) < Sp. cucaracha ‘chafer, beetle’ < cuca ‘kind of caterpillar’;

urban legends, e.g. a rule of thumb ‘rough measurement’ is mistakenly thought to refer to an old English law under which a man could legally beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb (though no such law ever existed);

racism and slavery, e.g. picnic as a shortening for pick a nigger is erroneously thought to refer to an outdoor community gathering during which families ate from box lunches while a randomly-chosen Afro-American was hanged for the diners’ entertainment.

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