5 ms·

Very interesting. The connection to French is not immediately obvious as both "purchase" and "buy" would translate to "achat". However, "por chase" in French is

Very interesting. The connection to French is not immediately obvious as both "purchase" and "buy" would translate to "achat". However, "por chase" in French is "for the chase/hunt" which begins to resemble some definition of "purchase".

quickthrowman 5y ago
Norman/Saxon meat/animal word pairs are interesting; the saxons were the hunters and farmers, and the normans ate the meat. This led to a bunch of word pairs: Beef/cow Poultry/chicken Pork/pig Veal/calf Mutton/sheep There are other areas of English vocabulary with dual Saxon/Norman words as well. Bill Bryson has a great book that explores how English became what it is now: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue It’s an easy read with lots of interesting info.
- Mediterraneo10 5y ago
  Please don’t recommend Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue. Bryson has no actual background in linguistics and there is a factual error or urban myth on nearly every page of that book. There are loads of pop-sci “history of English” books written by people who were actually competent in the subject.
  - quickthrowman 5y ago
    Thanks for the heads up, I looked into criticism of this book and I won’t recommend it in the future. If you happen to see this reply, would ‘Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English’ by McWhorter be a better choice for a pop-sci history of English? r/Linguistics seems to be fine with him.
BrandoElFollito 5y ago
In which French did you find "por chase”? (this is not aggressive, I am french and this does not mean anything but it may be a dialect or some as ancient French?)
- jgwil2 5y ago
  The etymology given by Wiktionary[0] is: > From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”). [0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purchase https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purchase
  - BrandoElFollito 5y ago
    OK thanks, so this is XIV-XV century French (http://micmap.org/dicfro/search/dictionnaire-godefroy/porchacier http://micmap.org/dicfro/search/dictionnaire-godefroy/porcha...)

quickthrowman 5y ago

Norman/Saxon meat/animal word pairs are interesting; the saxons were the hunters and farmers, and the normans ate the meat. This led to a bunch of word pairs: Beef/cow Poultry/chicken Pork/pig Veal/calf Mutton/sheep There are other areas of English vocabulary with dual Saxon/Norman words as well. Bill Bryson has a great book that explores how English became what it is now: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue It’s an easy read with lots of interesting info.

Mediterraneo10 5y ago
Please don’t recommend Bill Bryson’s The Mother Tongue. Bryson has no actual background in linguistics and there is a factual error or urban myth on nearly every page of that book. There are loads of pop-sci “history of English” books written by people who were actually competent in the subject.
- quickthrowman 5y ago
  Thanks for the heads up, I looked into criticism of this book and I won’t recommend it in the future. If you happen to see this reply, would ‘Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English’ by McWhorter be a better choice for a pop-sci history of English? r/Linguistics seems to be fine with him.

BrandoElFollito 5y ago

In which French did you find "por chase”? (this is not aggressive, I am french and this does not mean anything but it may be a dialect or some as ancient French?)

jgwil2 5y ago
The etymology given by Wiktionary[0] is: > From Middle English purchasen, from Anglo-Norman purchacer (“seek to obtain”) from pur- (from Latin pro-) + chac(i)er (“to chase, pursue”). Compare Old French porchacier (“to follow, to chase”), which has given French pourchasser (“to chase without relent”). [0]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purchase https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/purchase
- BrandoElFollito 5y ago
  OK thanks, so this is XIV-XV century French (http://micmap.org/dicfro/search/dictionnaire-godefroy/porchacier http://micmap.org/dicfro/search/dictionnaire-godefroy/porcha...)