Application Questions
3. Etymologies (etymonline.com)
vice versa
c.1600,
Latin, from vice, ablative of vicis "a turn,
change" (see vicarious) + versa,
feminine ablative singular of versus, past participle of vertere "to
turn, turn about" (see versus).
fungible (adj.)
"capable
of being used in place of another," 1818, a word in law originally, from
Medieval Latin fungibilis, from Latin fungi "perform,"
as in fungi vice "to take the place" (see function).
Earlier as a noun (1765).
late
14c., "ask, make inquiry," from Old French demander (12c.)
"to request; to demand," from Latin demandare "entrust,
charge with a commission" (in Vulgar Latin, "to ask, request,
demand"), from de- "completely" (see de-) + mandare "to
order" (see mandate). Meaning "to ask for
as a right" is early 15c., from Anglo-French legal use. Related: Demanded; demanding.
late
13c., "a question," from Old French demande (see demand (v.)). Meaning "a
request, claim" is from c.1300. In the political economy sense
(correlating to supply) it is attested from 1776 in Adam Smith.
I (pron.)
12c.
shortening of Old English ic, first person singular nominative
pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *ekan (cf. Old Frisian ik,
Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old
High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik),
from PIE *eg-, nominative form of the first person singular pronoun
(cf. Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source
of French Je), Greek ego, Russian ja,
Lithuanian aš). Reduced to i by mid-12c. in
northern England, it began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct
word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.
The
reason for writing I is ... the orthographic habit in
the middle ages of using a 'long i' (that is, j or I)
whenever the letter was isolated or formed the last letter of a group; the
numeral 'one' was written j or I (and three iij,
etc.), just as much as the pronoun. [Otto Jespersen, "Growth and Structure
of the English Language," p.233]
The
form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered
in northern England until c.1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c.
The dot on the "small" letter -i- began to appear in
11c. Latin manuscripts, to distinguish the letter from the stroke of another
letter (such as -m- or -n-). Originally a
diacritic, it was reduced to a dot with the introduction of Roman type fonts.
table (n.)
late
12c., "board, slab, plate," from Old French table "board,
square panel, plank; writing table; picture; food, fare" (11c.), and late
Old English tabele "writing tablet, gaming table,"
from Germanic *tabal (cf. Dutch tafel, Danishtavle,
Old High German zabel "board, plank," German Tafel).
Both the French and Germanic words are from Latin tabula "a
board, plank; writing table; list, schedule; picture, painted panel,"
originally "small flat slab or piece" usually for inscriptions or for
games (source also of Spanish tabla, Italian tavola),
of uncertain origin, related to Umbrian tafle "on the
board."
The sense of "piece of furniture with the flat top and legs" first
recorded c.1300 (the usual Latin word for this was mensa (see mensa); Old English writers used bord (see board (n.1)). Especially the
table at which people eat, hence "food placed upon a table" (c.1400
in English). The meaning "arrangement of numbers or other figures on a
tabular surface for convenience" is recorded from late 14c. (e.g. table
of contents, mid-15c.).
Figurative phrase turn the tables (1630s) is from backgammon
(in Old and Middle English the game was called tables). Table
talk "familiar conversation around a table" is attested from
1560s, translating Latin colloquia mensalis. Table-manners is
from 1824. Table-hopping is first recorded 1943. The
adjectival phrase under-the-table "hidden from view"
is recorded from 1949; to be under the table "passed out
from excess drinking" is recorded from 1913. Table tennis "ping-pong"
is recorded from 1887. Table-rapping in spiritualism,
supposedly an effect of supernatural powers, is from 1853.
pachyderm (n.)
838,
from French pachyderme (c.1600), adopted as a biological term
1797 by French naturalist Georges Léopole Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert, Baron
Cuvier (1769-1832), from Greek pachydermos "thick-skinned,"
frompachys "thick, large, massive," from PIE *bhengh- "thick,
fat" (cf. Sanskrit bahu- "much, numerous"
Avestan bazah- "height, depth," Hittite pankush "large,"
Old Norse bingr "heap," Old High German bungo "a
bulb," Lithuanian biess "thick") + derma "skin"
(see derma).
kaiser (n.)
"an
emperor," Old English casere, fallen from use after Middle
English, but revived 1858 in reference to the German emperors of Austria and,
after 1870, Germany, from German Kaiser, from Bavarian and Austrian
spelling of Middle High German keisar, from Old High German keisar "emperor,"
an early borrowing of Latin cognomen Caesar. The Germanic and Slavic
peoples seem to have called all Roman emperors "caesar" (cf. Old
Englishcasere, Old Norse keisari). Said to be the earliest
Latin loan word in Germanic.
karaoke (n.)
1979,
Japanese, from kara "empty" + oke "orchestra,"
shortened form of okesutora, which is a Japanization of English orchestra.
Xerox
1952,
trademark taken out by Haloid Co. of Rochester, N.Y., for a copying device,
from earlier xerography "photographic reduplication
without liquid developers" (1948), from Greek xeros "dry"
(see xerasia) + -ography as
in photography. The verb is first
attested 1965, from the noun, despite strenuous objection from the Xerox
copyright department. Related: Xeroxed; Xeroxing.
babble (v.)
mid-13c., babeln "to
prattle, chatter," akin to other Western European words for stammering and
prattling (cf. Swedish babbla, Old French babillier)
attested from the same era, some of which probably were borrowed from others,
but etymologists cannot now determine which were original. Probably imitative
of baby-talk, in any case (cf. Latin babulus "babbler,"
Greek barbaros "non-Greek-speaking"). "No
direct connexion with Babel can be traced; though association
with that may have affected the senses" [OED]. Meaning "to repeat
oneself incoherently, speak foolishly" is attested from c.1400. Related: Babbled; babbling.
4. Spelling System
|
Phonetic Demand
|
Semantic Demand
|
Etymological Demand
|
|
hat
|
Resign/resignation
|
colonel
|
|
pen
|
excel/excellence
|
island
|
|
can
|
sign/signature
|
sword
|
|
hen
|
differ/different
|
quiche
|
|
tin
|
produce/production
|
champagne
|
9. “G” at the Beginning of a Word
|
/g/ Sound
|
/j/ Sound
|
|
gal
|
germ
|
|
gate
|
gem
|
|
gold
|
gym
|
|
goose
|
giant
|
|
guest
|
gentle
|
|
golf
|
gypsy
|
Rule:
If the letter “g” comes before the
vowels a-o-u, it has the hard /g/ sound
If the letter “g” comes
before the vowels e-i-y, it had the /j/ sound
Exceptions:
gear, get, gin, give, girl, gift
