Etymology and vocabulary: words evolved differently

Fenestella

Banned
Etymology tells a lot about the perspectives/concepts/customs/traditions/etc. enshrined in vocabularies, some of which I find interesting/inspirational/etc. That's why I'd like to contemplate plausible alternative semantics and usage of words.

Some random thoughts-

Idiomatic expression: ostracism, which traces back to the ancient Greek custom of banishment by votes using ὄστρακον (ostracon, potsherd)
Plausible alternative: petalism
Reason: it traces back to the ancient Syracusan custom of banishment by votes using πέταλον (petalon, leaf)

Idiomatic expression: faro, meaning "lighthouse" in several Romance languages, which traces back to the celebrated lighthouse on the island of Pharus (Φάρος)
Plausible alternative: peloro or peloritano
Reason: from the Italian perspective, the Capo Peloro (Punta del Faro) is defined by its lighthouse (Faro di Messina) which has been a historic and geopolitical landmark.

Idiomatic expressions: ambassador & vassal
Plausible alternatives: ambassador meaning vassal, vassal meaning ambassador
Reason: ambassador traces back to ambactus, of Gallic/Celtic origin meaning "servant"; vassal traces back to vassus, of Gallic/Celtic origin meaning "servant".
 
The word "gerrymandering" would be totally different with a POD before the 1800s, being relatively modern.

Also, the entire English language would be divergent if the Norman conquest had not happened, or proceeded differently, or if England was conquered again later on.
 
If the USA had chosen a different atoll to perform nuclear tests on, we wouldn't be calling the swimsuit a "bikini". Imagine wearing an "utirik" or a "rongelap".
 
That's one thing to consider. The butterflies resulting from alternate history would definitely affect language too, even if the languages evolve down roughly similar paths.

For English, no Shakespeare, no Chaucer, or other influential English-language writers would take out so many words and sayings or change their meaning, and whoever takes their place in the English literary canon will introduce new terms and sayings. Same thing with the "inkhorn terms"--if that movement never develops or is less influential, English will lack tons of different words and terminology and will substitute with native English, making things more like German for terminology. You could also have more borrowings from Greek instead of Latin, too.

All this would pretty much ensure that even if the Anglo-Norman monarchy is established OTL with William the Conquerer winning and his descendents ruling, that if you went to said timeline, a native English speaker from OTL would sound bizarre to the people of that timeline and vice versa.

If the USA had chosen a different atoll to perform nuclear tests on, we wouldn't be calling the swimsuit a "bikini". Imagine wearing an "utirik" or a "rongelap".

I've thought of that myself--maybe they'd just call it a "two-piece" if it became too hard to pronounce. Or something like "utirick" (with mangled pronounciation, of course).
 
'English purists' have tried to promote many words from Anglo-Saxon roots:
speechcraft (grammar)
fore-elders (ancestors)

And of course Poul Anderson's marvelous attempt to
rewrite a modern physics article as if the Conquest hadn't happened.

Uncleftish Beholding (Atomic Theory)

https://msburkeenglish.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/uncleftish-beholding-aka-atomic-theory.pdf

Some of those work, but Uncleftish Beholding is a great example of how not to do it since that amount of purism is simply not the natural evolution of any Germanic language sans Icelandic.
 

Fenestella

Banned
Idiomatic expression: slave, which traces back to sclavus, identified with Sclavus ‎(Slav) through misconception
Plausible alternative: spartacus
Reason: Spartacus, leader of the most famous slave revolt, sometimes associated with Sparta through misconception and pseudo-etymology.


Idiomatic expressions: zookeeper, veterinarian
Plausible alternative: androcles
Reason: the famous story of Androcles and the Lion
 
Idiomatic expression: slave, which traces back to sclavus, identified with Sclavus ‎(Slav) through misconception
Plausible alternative: spartacus
Reason: Spartacus, leader of the most famous slave revolt, sometimes associated with Sparta through misconception and pseudo-etymology.

Maybe have the term "serf" evolve differently to explicitly mean slave, since originally in Latin it could mean "slave". Or borrow from Greek "doulos", "slave".

Although imagine the moment a slave realises the very name for them, "spartacus" also refers to, well, Spartacus himself. Yeah, that's not gonna end well.
 
Some of those work, but Uncleftish Beholding is a great example of how not to do it since that amount of purism is simply not the natural evolution of any Germanic language sans Icelandic.

No, of course not- it's largely tongue-in-cheek, though Poul Anderson himself was strongly pro-Germanic versus Classical/Romance.
 

Fenestella

Banned
Maybe have the term "serf" evolve differently to explicitly mean slave, since originally in Latin it could mean "slave". Or borrow from Greek "doulos", "slave".

Although imagine the moment a slave realises the very name for them, "spartacus" also refers to, well, Spartacus himself. Yeah, that's not gonna end well.
I was entertaining an eponym. Let more slaves be slaveholders' nightmares :cool:
The Greeks and Romans had a tremendous amount of terms for slaves, which shows how deep-rooted slavery was in their societies, a few more examples: δμώς (dmos, slave captured in war), δραπέτης (drapetes, runaway slave).


Idiomatic expression: baloney, from bologna, an eponymous sausage
Plausible alternative: frankfurt, another eponymous sausage
 
i've devised some for my own project, too (mind, it's supposed to be simultaneously familiar and strange, so some common OTL words are kept regardless). among them:
  • the Latin feminine suffix -rix replacing -ess, so "actrix" instead of "actress" as the female equivalent to "actor" (there IS one notable use of the suffix IOTL: "dominatrix")
  • "Avay!" as a specifically British version of "Hey!", meant to be derived from "avast" (for the project, i wrote in a sort-of pirate mentality for the British based on alot the most famous pirates IOTL being British)
  • "Brisbane standoff" as a replacement for "Mexican standoff", in the particular instance being based on an alternate version of The Story of the Kelly Gang using it and being much better-known ITTL; an alternative is "Colorado standoff", Colorado here referring to OTL's Arizona (as in the Colorado River)
  • "eelskin" and "leppie" as alternates of "redcoat", the former partly being a narrative pun (the idea is that George III is replaced by a fictional member of the House of Moray) as a specific equivalent to "lobsterback" and the latter being a reference to leprechauns based on the color (the uniforms are typically green instead of red) but, more derisively, claimed as a shortening of "leper"
for a different project entirely, i came up with "eletran" as an alternate term for radio, as a contraction of "electrical transmission"
 
  • the Latin feminine suffix -rix replacing -ess, so "actrix" instead of "actress" as the female equivalent to "actor" (there IS one notable use of the suffix IOTL: "dominatrix")
The term aviatrix was commonly used in the early days of aviation; it fell out of usage along with 'aviator', to be replaces by the gender-neutral pilot.

'Dominatrix' is no longer much used in BDSM, at least online, being generally replaced by 'femdom'...er, so I've been told, anyway.
 
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