brook (v.)
Pronunciation: brUk
Definition: To put up with or stand for; to tolerate.
Etymologically, this word means "to use, to enjoy." Somehow it's transmuted to stomaching something up to the breaking point. It comes from our very own basic roots, Middle and Old English. The Middle English word is "brouken" from the Old English "brucan." It's similar to the Latin fructus, meaning "to enjoy."
"Similar?" I hear you say.
Yes, similar.
They have the same root in an old, synthetically composited IndoEuropean language. The common root is bhrug. Linguists spent years and years figuring out the first roots for words of all different languages, so that we could figure out how Latin and German were related. They didn't figure them all out, but many. Grimm's Law (of the Brothers Grimm), a guiding principle in linguistics, explains that the "bh" sound of English often translates to an "f" sound in Latin. It all has to do with the positioning of the tongue and...well, I bored you yesterday, why continue today? :-D
In any case, to prove the point: the English "bear" is, in Latin, fero; brother, frater.
The homonym of this word comes also from English, but by a different word: broc. It's related to the High German word for "marshy ground."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment