Why does more have an e?

Edit for bot-

2nd grade teacher and I know a little but certainly not all the reasons why words are spelled the way they are.

My aide asked and my attempts to find an answer on Etymonline and a Google search led to some interesting facts about other words, but not an answer to this q.

So, I’ve come to the experts.

Please and thank you!

I'm currently writing an independent research paper as an undergraduate student of English Literature. My paper is on the translation of the Greek word αἰών (aiōn) in the King James Version of the Bible. I'm focusing particularly on the Gospel of Matthew and Matthew's usage of the word.

Now, the KJV renders the word in most places in Matthew as 'world'. However, the semantic range of the original Greek gives a much broader picture. It seems the word can mean 'world', as in our physical universe, but it more often means something like 'age'.

While researching, I found an interesting fact: the English word 'world' also meant something like 'age' in Old and Middle English. This has huge bearing on my research.

The thing is, I'm in India, and while I have access to my university's library, its catalogue will probably not include the sources I need to research this (though, I'm still looking). So, I need your help.

Could you folk please help me find scholarly sources on the etymology and history of 'world'? At the very least, maybe an expert could confirm whether it did really mean 'age' in the past.

While researching “Embroil” (I can make a separate post if there’s interest) I found the PIE root was also the root for Aphrós, Sea Foam in Greek, which is how Hesiod arrived at the birth story for Aphrodite. That inspired me to make the following post.

The Olympians

Zeus. Root: the PIE *dyeu-. The one name in the pantheon with a clean Indo-European root. dyeu meant “to shine,” and its derivatives “sky, heaven, god” (God being dewos). cognate with Latin deus and Iu- in Iuppiter, Sanskrit dyú, Old English Tīw (like the Norse god).

Hera’s root is unknown but there are theories: A derivation from ὥρα (hōra, “season, ripe age”) has been proposed but is disputed. Plato guessed eratē “beloved,” Plutarch called it an anagram of aēr “air.”

Poseidon- unknown again. The Greek is Poseidon, the Doric is Poteidan, a name of uncertain origin. The popular “lord of the earth” reading rests on da meaning “earth,” which Beekes rejects. See Demeter below.

Demeter- ?da + mātēr: The second element is generally given as māter “mother”; the first element possibly from da, the Doric form of gē “earth,” (from which Gaia supposedly derives).

Athena- pre-Greek: A common Greek goddess dating to Minoan times; The city of Athens is probably named for a lost pre-Hellenic word, not the other way round.

Apollo- pre-Greek and no clear Etymology. But awesome history: Appaliunaš is mentioned in a treaty between Alaksandus of Wilusa and the Hittite king around 1280 BCE. Treaties were signed before the Gods, this one included before the God that scholars assume became Apollo. Wilusa was the precursor to Ancient Greek Wilios which eventually lost its W to be Ilios (Ilium), the formal name for Troy.

Artemis- unknown. The name is most likely from Asia Minor- the name is found in Lydian inscriptions (Artimus) and Lycian has ertemi. Plato’s artemēs “unblemished” is folk etymology.

Ares- ?arē “ruin”: Traditionally connected with the Greek word ἀρή; Scholars note that Ares is a pre-Greek abstract noun meaning “throng of battle,”

Aphrodite- ?aphros “foam”: Hesiod derived her name from aphros “foam,” but scholars believe the word is more likely from Phoenician Ashtaroth (Assyrian Ishtar). My own theory (more like, a fun thing I can choose to believe) is that Aphrodite’s origin story (born from the sea) is not necessarily due to aphros but that the Phoenician’s brought her over in their boats.

Hephaestus- pre-Greek: From Greek Hēphaistos, a pre-Greek word of unknown origin.

Hermes- unknown: From Greek Hermes, a word of unknown origin. The herma (a stone pillar topped with a head, used as a boundary marker) is named from Hermes, not the source of him.

Hestia- “hearth”: One of the few completely transparent/literal names. Latin Vesta is the counterpart, though the hestia-Vesta relationship cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics, so borrowings from a third language must also be involved.

Dionysus- Dio- (Zeus) + -nysos (?): Attested in Mycenaean Linear B as di-wo-nu-so; most philologists root the first element in Dios, the genitive of Zeus, and the second may derive from Mount Nysa where the infant god was raised by nymphs, giving roughly “the Zeus of Nysa.” However, Wiktionary treats the Dios link as popular etymology and analyses the compound as die-nūs-os from a verbal stem die- “to chase, impel,” suggesting an original “impeller of the world-tree.”

Thanks for reading. If you have any corrections or insights, please share!

I don't know if this counts as etymology but I couldn't think of a better subreddit

"the 150 pound St Bernard kept pounding on the cage at the dog pound".

Do these three different definitions of pound have common etymologies? I must assume pound sterling and weight have some commonality. And of course "impound" and "dog pound" would also have a common etymology.

Huh.

When studying various Indo-European languages, remembering plurals of the nouns you learn is always a pain in the arse (not as much as learning English is, when you have to remember for each word both how it's pronounced and how it's spelt, but still a lot), but one thing you can always count on in most Indo-European languages is that the plurals of the neuter nouns always end in -a. But not in German. Why is that?

Was it originally used figuratively to describe a person or their personality? I read that it is related to contingere but I was wondering what the original roots were and how they relate to the figurative use of the word.

Thanks to anyone, in advance, who takes their time to answer my question🙏🏽.

The German for "south" is, for example, Süd. Why was the 'n' also lost in German? It wasn't in "fünf" or "Mund".

If you search for the origin of the word "chimpanzee" the sourcing is pretty poor, but generally mentions the Vili word "ci-mpanzi". Vili is a variety of the Kongo language, and ci- is a noun prefix.

This seems accurate, as a 1901 dictionary of Vili (here) gives the root -mpenze for 'chimpanzee'. But where does this root come from? I can't find any research into its origin. However, Vili does have a very similar root -mpene meaning 'nudity', and this Kongo dictionary gives the word for 'nakedness' as -mpenza.

So is this the origin of "chimpanzee"? mpenza~mpene → mpenze. It seems quite logical to imagine chimpanzees as a kind of 'naked people' (similar to orang-utan meaning 'forest people').

Separately, the Lingala word for "chimpanzee" is -kómbósó, which seems a bit like the Vili kimpanzi - or is that a coincidence?

Do indigenous languages in tropical regions have words for things like snow and ice?

I had been thinking today if swedish name for their country Sverige has some common ground with czech or Slavic word for north - sever. Any suggestion?

does anyone know if theres relation between the word "nhaque" used to talk in a offensive way about people from rural areas in vietnam and "naco" used to talk in an offensive way about poor people in mexico??

ive seen the word naco is probably from the north regions of mexico but they sound really similar and have similar uses so i thought there might be something there. I dont really know of the origins of nhaque tho

trying to find info on the origin of jokari...a paddle game developed in France...i have found info about the game itself but not the origin...see link...

http://www.jokariinfo.net/

Since Latin, this hasn’t really changed meaning or form at all. Romans took “Rumen”, either the throat or first stomach compartment of the cow, to make “Ruminare”, the verb form of chewing cud. Roman writers used this word exactly how it’s used today- the turn something over again and again in your mind, thinking about it. But what’s strange is I can’t find a record of where the Latin root comes from. Does anyone know?

This came up in a Shower Thought post about how referring to a kitchen appliance as a female name, or even describing it using language characteristic of describing a woman, would be considered weird, but it is perfectly common with cars.

A commenter posited that it could stem from when English had a female-gendered word for ships or sailing vessels, but didn’t provide any more information.

The limited related words that I know from German and Spanish are either neutral or masculine.

Does anybody know where the practice of referring to transportation machines using feminine names and adjectives originates?

I know it was a Latin word for centuries but when did it become common use in English?