4 ms·

"Understand" comes to mind. What are you standing under??

• Natsu 3y ago
  https://www.etymonline.com/word/understand https://www.etymonline.com/word/understand It's an older version of "under" I guess. The weird thing is that the word "substance" has such a similar looking construction, because it literally means that which stands beneath. English in general uses a lot of seemingly random direction words in phrases, like "party down", "man up", "buckle up", etc.
• charcircuit 3y ago
  under in old english can mean among. You are standing among the knowledge.
• jason-phillips 3y ago
  > "Understand" Which comes to English from Old English and its Germanic origins. 'Unter' and 'Standen' are the Germanic equivalents today, signifying the original intent, to stand together on something. 'Comprehend' from the Normans' French (and Latin before that) is much easier to grok für Ausländer in this case.
• userbinator 3y ago
  I remember someone once saying "listen carefully so you don't overstand this". Took a second to get the pun.