Sunday, October 24, 2010

Unwell.

I love studying the etymology of words.

Disease, meaning to make uneasy, discomfort, trouble, distress, misfortune.  Comes from two old words des, meaning without or away and aise, meaning ease.

Contageous comes from the word contagio which means contact.  Con meaning with, and tagio meaning touch.

Sick, meaning unwell, has a huge history. 

Old Frisian was a language similar to English, spoken on the North Sea Coast of modern Netherlands and Germany before the 1400's.  Their word for sick was siak

In the 600's - 1000's, the Old Saxon word for sick was siok.  A west germanic language, Old Saxon was the earliest form of low German.

Proto-Germanic is a hypothetical prehistoric ancestor of all Germanic languages, including English and their translation is seukaz.

Old High German, which is the ancestor of modern literary German renders it sioh.

The East Germanic language of the Goths, extinct since the 1400's says siuks.

Middle Dutch was spoken and written between 900's and 1400's.  Siec.

Old English: seoc.

In the Rosemary version, sick is made from two words:  is and ick, as in
Rosemary' s   ick.



12 comments:

Unknown said...

Aww Poor Rosemary! I hope you are feeling better soon!

Matty said...

This was one educational way of telling us. Hope you're feeling better soon. Rest up.

Jamie said...

Looks like cold and flu season started early in Canada. We're all sick in the west.
ugh

Kelly L said...

I hate being sick! Love your word origins.

Love to you and get better soon!
Kelly
I've Become My Mother

Unknown said...

Yet you dragged yourself to the computer to educate us. Now that's dedication!

Feel better soon. :)

Veronica Lee said...

Love your word origins, Rosemary. So sorry to hear that you've been sick. Get well soon!

((hugs))

Pat Tillett said...

That was very interesting! Get yourself better...

Anonymous said...

Very cool and I hope you feel better soon lovely lady.

Britta said...

I hope you'll be well soon!
Thanks for your compliment! It made my day!
I hope you have a lovely day :)
xo

CiCi said...

Always sorry to hear about people not feeling well. I hope you feel better soon. Interesting post about the different origins of some words. Your brain is still in high gear if you are able to write and make sense.

Bibi @ Bibi's Culinary Journey said...

Sorry to hear you are feeling ick. Get better soon.

Personalized Sketches and Sentiments said...

Hope that you feel better soon... I love knowing the origins of words.

Blessings & Aloha!
I just came by from Veronica's post about the art that I do. It is so fun to meet other bloggers. Please feel free to stop by and peek around my neck of the woods :o)