School: Surprisingly Connected Etymologies
Channel: Alliterative
Date: 2021-09-01

Five back-to-school words with unexpected connections.

Sign up for "The Origins of English: Learning to Think Like an Etymologist" course here: https://www.speakeasy.com/e/origins-of-english 

Thank you to our newest Patreon supporter, Amanda Denman! To join them, check out our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheEndlessKnot

Endless Knot posters and merch are on RedBubble: https://www.redbubble.com/people/EndlessKnot/shop?asc=u
Let us know if there are more video posters you want to see there!

Show notes & credits: http://www.alliterative.net/general-credits

Website: http://www.alliterative.net/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alliterative
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alliterativeendlessknot
Tumbler: http://alliterative-endlessknot.tumblr.com/
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/alliterative
Podcast: http://www.alliterative.net/podcast

Click here to sign up for our video email list, to be notified when new videos are posted: http://eepurl.com/6YuJv
Click here to sign up for our podcast email list, to be notified when new podcast episodes go up: 
http://eepurl.com/btmBZT

Transcript: 
Hey everyone, just a quick announcement before we begin: I’m putting on another session of my online seminar “How to Think Like an Etymologist”, on 4 Sundays starting on September 12. If you want to hang out with me and other language nerds and find out the basis of historical linguistics, follow the link in the description to sign up for the course. Hope to see you there!

It’s back-to-school time, so today in “Surprisingly Connected Etymologies” we’re gonna school you in some educational etymologies!
Ok parents, time to start thinking of your children’s back-to-school apparel! The word parent comes from the Latin verb parere “to bring forth, produce”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *perə- with basically the same meaning. This root also leads to the Latin verb parare, to prepare, also the source of prepare, literally “produce in advance”, which when combined with the prefix ad- “to”, gives us apparel, which originally referred to fighting apparatus (another related word) such as armour and weapons (unless it comes from Vulgar Latin *ad-particulare “to put things together”). 
Have you ever had a severe teacher at school? Well that’s probably etymologically appropriate, if not pedagogically! School comes from Greek skhole meaning “leisure” as well as “school”, from the idea that you need leisure time away from working to be able to be educated. But literally skhole means “a holding back” and thus “a rest”, coming from Proto-Indo-European *segh- “to hold”. This root (probably) also leads to Latin severus “stern” from the derived form *segh-wer- “toughness, steadfastness” giving us English severe.
Does your math teacher ever do calculations on the blackboard with chalk? Well, etymologically that would be appropriate. Calculate comes from Latin calculus “reckoning, account” which had the original sense of a “pebble used as a reckoning counter” and is a diminutive of calx “limestone”. This Latin word calx was borrowed into West Germanic, becoming cealc in Old English and then chalk in modern English, referring more specifically to the particular type of limestone commonly found in Britain.
Any English student can tell you that a text can be subtle and hard to understand. Latin textus meant literally “woven thing” but could metaphorically be used to refer to the “style or texture of a work” and eventually the “written work” itself. The Latin subtilis meant “finely woven” from sub- “under” + tela “web”. Both text and subtle can thus be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *teks- meaning “to weave”.    
If you’re like me, you’re deliriously happy to learn a new etymology, as you should be. Delirium comes from Latin delirium “madness” and deliriare “to be crazy, rave” literally “to go off the furrow” a plowing metaphor from the phrase de lira “off the furrow”. Latin lira comes from Proto-Indo-European *leis- “track, furrow”, which came into the Germanic branch eventually giving us English learn, this time from the metaphor of gaining experience by following a track.
Thanks for watching! This is one in a series of occasional short videos about connected etymologies; to see more, you can also follow the Endless Knot on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.