Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Weekly Themes Capricious etymology (double-entendre intended)
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
OP I was amazed to see "capricious" derived from "head of a hedgehog", and to see Merriam Webster present that origin, with a "perhaps". The OED agrees with what I'd always thought, that it's from "capra", Latin for "goat"--well, OED comes through the Italian: "Italian capriccio sudden start, motion, or freak, apparently < capro goat, as if ‘the skip or frisk of a goat’".
Note: the etymology in the on-line OED dead-ends with a "see above" as though you were reading the paper dictionary. I looked at "caprice", which lead me to "capriccio", to get to the derivation above.
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,322Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 0 members (), 466 guests, and 4 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 13ddrinnan 1
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613tsuwm 10,542wofahulicodoc 10,535LukeJavan8 9,916Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org