Log in or Sign up

etymological curiosities

A list of 91 words by sarra.

About

Convergences. ('Convergent homonyms' is one candidate for the term; I'm not yet sure whether I like it best, even after a long time collecting.)

None of these are polysemous (identically-written words with different, but related meanings) or heterosemous (as before — related meanings, but which vary according to the word's placement as a different part of speech): they all have at least two meanings with distinct etymological roots. You may also be interested in doublets, which are an almost-but-not-quite opposing concept (q.v.). I don't think anti-cognates is quite the right word for them either.

Some of these are not here for the reasons you might think.

Also-rans: dear, hack, pelt, game, rifle, pant, wax, peck, pile, loaf, swan, wag, fit, list, hedge, lark, stock, right, stalk, bank, shag, lap, plain, pluck, type, lick, pile, switch, diet (all linked or dubious); madder (not really a word meaning "more mad"); pace, tear (homographs, but not homonyms).

Not including obsolete words (though some are rare, and I'm not convinced they belong here — like bent, riddle, rob); I'm not sure about dialect/slang. The line is fuzzy.

I'm not sure whether I ought to include conjugated verbs, such as rose, left and leaves; declined nouns, such as divers; or other vastly different parts of speech, such as mine, may and mere. Or abbreviations? (miss, mum, mummy)

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • ruzuzu *favorited* Mar 10, 2011

  • rolig Sarra! Nice to see you back here. I thought you had abandoned this list, which is one of my favorites. May 3, 2009

  • sarra Hallo! More specific, indeed. Some homonyms like bank have distinct meanings in the English we speak, but in the Oxford English Dictionary there's a long long note on the origins of bank-the-place-where-we-keep-money, which ends 'The word is thus ultimately identical with BENCH and BANK2, and cognate with BANK1.' May 3, 2009

  • myth Is this a list of homonyms or something more specific? May 3, 2009

  • bilby And a drink powder. Mar 9, 2009

  • mollusque How about tang? A tool, a seaweed, a sound, and a dynasty. Mar 8, 2009

  • rolig In the grocery store today, I thought of this list when I saw the squash, and nearby the staff was cleaning up a tomato that had gotten squashed on the floor. As I stood in line for the till, I realized that I hadn't given much thought to such covergences till recently. Thanks, Sarra!

    Another one is the tetrasemantic dock: 1. pier, 2. deduct, 3. enclosure for the accused in court, 4. a kind of weed.
    Jan 23, 2009

  • sarra Oh, and spelt! I'll be checking through these when I've time.

    NB. 'triplet' is used to describe a treble doublet, but I understand your meaning, of course. Jan 17, 2009

  • rolig Here's another great word for your wonderful list, the etymological triplet smelt (smelled; meld metals; little fish). Also, bale (bundle; menacing evil). Jan 17, 2009

  • trivet Founder? Jan 12, 2009

  • rolig Another curious word, which goes along with Sionnach's foxy suggestion, is thrush, which is not only a bird but also (with a different etymology entirely) a mouth infection. Jan 12, 2009

  • sionnach Sarra:

    How about hop, charge, bandy, dun, baffle? Then, you might find some more candidates on my beastly verbs list, e.g. crane, gull, fry, goose, among others. Jan 5, 2009

  • sarra Didn't know the narrative poem meaning, but lay lie is distinct from lay non-clerical, so that's something I'd genuinely so far missed for this list.

    Can't see why I rejected lie. Must've been sleepy. Jan 5, 2009

  • rolig How about lay (to place, a narrative poem)? I'm not sure why you decided against lie (to recline, an untruth) – aren't they etymologically distinct? Jan 5, 2009

  • sarra 'cleave' is already in, rolig :) Yes to host, and of course junk. Jan 4, 2009

  • rolig The word cleave would seem to belong here. Jan 3, 2009

  • sionnach host? junk? Jan 3, 2009

  • sionnach At first I thought that words on my list of 'faux comparatives' (e.g. temp, temper, tempest; earn, earner, earnest) might includes some candidates for this list, but a little reflection shows this to be unlikely. Jan 3, 2009

  • sarra Mould, yes! I didn't even know about the second meaning you give; I had thought leaf-mould was mouldered leaves, a perfect example of how we often make imperfect sense of our language. I haven't looked into how cognate that sense may be with the "fungus" one, but it certainly seems distinct from a mould for moulding. Jan 2, 2009

  • qroqqa May I suggest mould: "fungal coating", "earth", and "matrix, model". Jan 2, 2009

  • sarra Hallo rolig — I'm not looking for homographs, as many of those differ in pronunciation (like slough and row). Shed might fit though: I'll check!

    edit: I think row goes in. I'd forgotten about oars. Shed too!

    Dear was an early addition; it does indeed seem to be cognate. I must've been lax in my research back then. Note that there are many other holes and shoddy bits, I'm sure, as I've only looked at the background when I've added/rejected words. There will, eventually, be a proofing process. Jan 2, 2009

  • rolig I like this list a lot! But I am wondering what dear is doing here. Isn't the meaning "cherished" just an extension of the meaning "expensive (valuable, rare)"? In French, cher does similar double duty, as does дорогой / dorogoy in Russian.

    Another word I might suggest would be slough (meaning 1. "swamp", and 2. "shed dead skin"). And now that I think of it, also shed. And then there's the triple-duty row (1. "operate a boat using oars", 2. "a straight line of something", 3. "a quarrel"). There appear to be many such homographs in English. Jan 2, 2009

  • mollusque Great list, sarra! Do you know which word has the most independent origins? I asked that on question 11 months ago, and gave bear as an example.

    In biology this would be called convergence, but convergence has a different meaning in linguistics. Jan 2, 2009