Comments on: Linguistic History and Biblical Interpretation

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:47:00 +0000

Interesting. English is a Germanic language, and many of these words have German cognates. In many cases, the German meaning hasn't changed as much as the English meaning.

Wife – German Weib still means woman or female person

Starved – German Sterben still means simply to die

Deer – general animal or beast Still true for German Tier

Silly – I love this one. The German cognate, selig, still means 'blessed.' Luther's translation of the Beatitudes begin with "Selig sind ..." (Blessed are ...).

Boor – German Bauer (related to Dutch Boer--important in South African history) means 'farmer.'

Knave – German Knabe means 'boy.'

By: rachel

rachel — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:27:00 +0000

thanks for very interesting post. and i enjoyed your thoughts on last harry book too!
rachel

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 21:35:00 +0000

thanks all.

Brook – the easiest way to find word histories is to look in an Etymology dictionary. The Online Etymology Dictionary is pretty good, and even dictionary.com has decent word history sources. The best of course is the Oxford English Dictionary. It gives complete histories of words including the reference for the first time it appears in written form. your best bet is to find a university library that has the complete 40 volume collection. You can buy it for around $1000 (the concise version for around $300) or pay for an online subscription for $250 a year.

I think C.S. Lewis book “On Words” talks a bit about this topic.

By: Brook

Brook — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 17:38:00 +0000

Great post…very interesting study. Do you have any sources/resources you could cite or recommend on this sort of thing? (much as I like your blog, I’d like to refer back to something a bit more “authoritative” on the subject of, say, “girl” referring to a male youth than “I read it on a blog…”) Books, that sort of thing? Thanks!

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 16:46:00 +0000

Little un-edumatcated me who hasn't been to college appreciates this post because it says what is in my heart but what I don't possess the knowledge to articulate.

This is a very clear and helpful post. If we even look at how American English has evolved over maybe 50 years we will see this.

Even in the last 5 years.

Aside from a spelling variation - a few years ago I would have railed at being called *fat*. Now I'm glad to be called *phat*. For a lame-o urban example.

By: sonja

sonja — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 11:23:00 +0000

Amazing! I haven’t had any coffee yet. So I can’t string any intelligent words together. But this is an AMAZING post.

By: Erin

Erin — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 07:41:00 +0000

Fan-frickin’-tastic post Julie – thanks!

I just now read it but it’s late and I’m tired. Will comment tomorrow.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:34:00 +0000

Thanks, Julie–I LOVE this post! I have done a fair bit of linguistic study, and all aspects of communication fascinate me in general. I figure if I did nothing else but help people understand more about how language, communication and translation work–and give a sense of just how HARD it is–it would not have been a wasted life.

Another example is the word nice. Going back in English history, it meant foolish or stupid, and, further back, came from a Latin word meaning ignorant.