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Essay #1

This project has three goals: 1) introduce you to the basic tools and methods of English etymology; 2) ) give you hands on experience with the Indo-European origins of many English words; 3) provide the pleasure of becoming intimately familiar with the history of a single word.

Your assignment is to trace the history of a Modern English word, showing how it has changed in form and meaning from Indo-European [IE] to the present. Don’t forget to cite the sources of your information

1. Choose one of the following words. If you would rather work with a different word, check it out with me first. The word must have an IE root and it must have some sort of semantic and/or functional shifts over its history.

2. Determine the word’s IE root and identify the family of words to which your word is related. To find the root, check the entry in an unabridged dictionary and then see if your word is discussed in Shipley, Dictionary of Word Origins. I have also donated to the library my personal copy of Watkins, American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. Note the related words derived from other forms of the same IE root, and identify important cognates in other Indo-European languages. Then use the information you’ve gathered to briefly discuss the word’s origin and summarize its relationship to other words in English and other languages. It will be important here to note any discrepancies you may find in these scholarly discussions of your word.

3. Next, explain how the word came into English -- either as a native Germanic word or as a borrowing from another language -- and write your own succinct etymology by consulting as many of the Reference Tools (on the class web page) you deem necessary (or as many as are relevant). Discuss in detail the semantic history of the word, beginning with its first recorded appearance in English, by using the definitions and illustrative quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary [OED]. The library’s subscription to the on-line OED is very handy. For the semantic histories of some words, you’ll find fun discussions in Hughes, Words in Time. If your word has anything to do with food, check out the entertaining information in Palmatier, Food.

Be on the lookout for several changes: 1) a word’s meaning becoming more or less specific; 2) a word’s connotations becoming more or less positive; 3) a word’s shifting its part of speech (e.g., a noun becoming a verb). If the spelling of the word changed from the IE root, can you explain the change with Grimm’s and/or Verner’s law?

4. Next, illustrate the currency and meaning of your word during the Middle Ages and Renaissance by citing two or three instances of its use in Chaucer and Shakespeare. Consult Tatlock & Kennedy’s Concordance to the Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer and Spevak’s various concordances to Shakespeare. Be sure that you make clear what meaning and part of speech the word has in each passage you discuss. If the word doesn’t appear in the works of one or the other, what conclusions can you draw from its absence? If you can’t understand what a word means in context, please check with me or with a reference librarian.

5. Finally, drawing on the entry you’ve consulted in the OED, as well as on corresponding entries in other current dictionaries and on your own experience, define and illustrate the word’s use in contemporary English. As what parts of speech does the word show up? Show how meaning may differ in formal or colloquial contexts.

As you work on your paper, remember that your goal is to show that you’ve located information and understand it well enough to put ideas in your own words and to make connections between very different kinds of information. Don’t just list information; discuss ideas. The evolution of a word is inherently fascinating. Write an essay that conveys the excitement. As you write this paper (or any paper for this class), think of your reader as someone not in the class. Be sure to explain key concepts and to establish context for your discussion. Be sure to follow the class style sheet.

Take advantage of my office hours. I'm available to talk about your research and paper at any stage of development.