Anthology of Ideas

The following was sent to me by a friend, the original source is unknown, and google wasn’t much of a help. The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

I think this selection of words shows evidences the many ways words enter into the English vocabulary. Itinerary: Itinerary began as the word itinerarium from Latin which means “account of a journey”. Mouse: Mouse began as the Greek word m?s it the evolved over time to be (in chronological order) m?s in Latin, maus in German, m?s in Old English, then finally as mous in Middle English. This word is interesting for two reasons the first is that it has a rather long etymology and the second is that English first borrowed the word directly from Latin and then later borrowed it in a different form from the Germans.

The following was sent to me by a friend, the original source is unknown, and google wasn’t much of a help. The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

I think this selection of words shows evidences the many ways words enter into the English vocabulary. Itinerary: Itinerary began as the word itinerarium from Latin which means “account of a journey”. Mouse: Mouse began as the Greek word m?s it the evolved over time to be (in chronological order) m?s in Latin, maus in German, m?s in Old English, then finally as mous in Middle English. This word is interesting for two reasons the first is that it has a rather long etymology and the second is that English first borrowed the word directly from Latin and then later borrowed it in a different form from the Germans.