Where Do Words Come From?

Have you ever sat back and thought to yourself, “where do words come from?” If so, then you are not alone. Most of the time people rarely think about the origin of words. It is more common for people to dwell upon the meaning of the words that they speak because many believe that a word's eloquence lie in its meaning. However, when you take the timeout to think about the origins of words, most minds draw a blank. It would not be completely uncommon for the trained intellectual to simply state that words are the contemporary by product of the ancient Greek and Latin languages. The only problem with that theory is that in fact, it is more of a generalization.

Back to the question at hand, where do words come from? In order to be fair, it must be said that words from the standard American English language come from several languages of antiquity this does not account for words that have been borrowed from other languages.

The Importance of Dialects

You can literally go around the globe and find that there are similar words used for things in various cultures. It would not be uncommon for you to discover that inhabitants of Britain, Washington DC, and Los Angeles, CA may have different dialects of the English language. A dialect is simply a variant of a language. When it comes to language a variant is merely a slight difference in the pronunciation of a word as well as with the grammatical rules. A dialect will continue to evolve over time. Words are the building blocks of languages, and just like languages ever-changing so are words.

Where Do Words Come From?

Most of the words that we speak today have evolved from a group of languages referred to as Proto-Germanic. This category of linguistics includes words from Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. Some of the more familiar words from these languages include words like “burn”, “ring”, “dog”, and “house.” These are a few examples of words that have been used for the past 3,000 years. They have also been used in different languages so in such a manner that they have been passed down to the forms of English that we know today.

Other Theories on Where Do Words Originate From?

The abovementioned is one theory of origin. The second theory of linguistic origin is that the words are borrowed. From the many explorations that have been conducted throughout the world it has been said time and again that many words that have been included in the English language were borrowed. Thousands upon thousands of words were borrowed from other cultures. Whether through exploration or through adaptation of awe-inspiring cultures. For example, there are many English words that have been borrowed from the Greek and Latin languages.  With much of the English language being a flurry of words that have Latin or Greek roots it is no wonder that there is a question of the origin of words.

Unlike English, which is a Proto-Germanic language, the Latin and Greek words are of the Proto-Indo-European linguistic set. Much like the English, the Proto-Indo-European languages there are an array of dialects that stem from the Latin and Greek languages.

When you think of Latin root words what comes to mind? Here are a few examples with which you should be familiar. The Latin root word finis actually means “to end.” A few contemporary English words that have stemmed from it include finish, finite, and define.

A few Greek words that English has borrowed from include: aer (which means “air” and can be seen in the words “aerosol”, “aerobic” and “aeronautics”), bios (which means “life” and can be seen in the words “biography”, “bionic”, and “biology”).

There are an array of words that have come from the Hindi, Slavic, Yiddish, and Arabic languages as well.