Talk:Doublet (linguistics)

Would be great to have some references here. I'm also guilty of not including references/links, but in trying to build it found a great site - http://www.etymonline.com/abbr.php

Yes, a great resource etymonline is. I'm about to propose a merge w/ etymological twins. What do you think? Adam Mathias 01:38, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Mister (...) Alteration of master—[1]. Are they considered doublets in such case? If decision is that they are, just add them to the list of English examples on my behalf, whoever you are.
—6birc, 12:22, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

The foreign word "hospes," mentioned in the article, has a slew of doublets: hospice, hospitable, hospital, hospitality, host, hostess, hostage, hostel, hostler, hotel, and spital. They all come from the Latin hospes, and all these words generally mean to provide accommodations for people. This may not seem to make sense for the word "hostage," but it really does mean "to provide accommodations for someone (until certain demands are met)."

Another interesting set of doublets is: "apothecary," "boutique" and "bodega." They also show how languages can modify consonants and vowels but keep the same general pronunciation. The word "apothecary" (a pharmacy or drugstore) comes from the Greek apotheke which means "storehouse." The English words "boutique" and "bodega" also come from "apotheca." Ignore the vowels, and look at the consonants of these cognates. In the order of their pronunciation, they are: p or b, then th or t or d, then c or q or g. All three cognates have kept the same general pronunciation of consonants: the two lips (p,or b), then the tip of the tongue (th, t or d), and then the back of the tongue (c, q or g).

The following doublets are also of interest because they are borrowed into English from the Old French (pre-1500s) (with 's' before the particular vowel) and again from French (post 1500s) (with the 's' removed and the affected vowel with a circumflex): beast-bête, boscage-bouquet, castle-chateau, crust-crouton, feast-fete, hostel-hotel, master-maitre, paste-pâté, rasp-rappee, reconnaissance-reconnoiter, roast-rotisserie, vassal-valet. The change of removing the 's' and adding the circumflex occurred when Old French became French in the 1500s. The circumflex disappears from the words fully asimilated into English.

Yeah, you're right about the references; guilty as charged. Although, all of this can probably be found in http://www.etymonline.com/abbr.php and other standard etymological sources. -- DFurlani 19:27, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

Triplet example queried

Your example implies that Cordial, Heart and Sincere all have the same root- Cordial and Heart might, but Sincere comes from the latin meaning 'without a crack' or something like that, I'm sure, so if I'm right this doesn't make sense?! IceDragon64 (talk) 00:51, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Cow/Beef

This is listed as a couplet although I don't think they have the same root. Am I misunderstanding something? Quantumelfmage (talk) 05:47, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

They're generally traced back to a common Indo-European stem pronounced something like gwow... AnonMoos (talk) 13:08, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Loot/Leaf

I've read somewhere that the native English cognate of the word "loot" (a relatively recent loan from Hindi) is "leaf". The meanings are, of course, incredibly off; EtymOnline follows "loot" to Sanskrit lota-m "stolen property", and "leaf" to PIE *leup "to break off" (bridging most of the meaning gap). Is it true? It might well be; if so should it get included in the article? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.179.218.11 (talk) 12:09, 1 April 2011 (UTC)