Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Q&A about words connected...but not?
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Latin male is an adverb which means 'badly, wrongly, wickedly, etc'. Latin malus, -a, -,um is an adjective 'bad, evil'. The word female is English. The Latin word for a woman was femina, and there was another form, a diminutive femella 'girl' (i.e., literally 'little woman'). The -VllV is a suffix and not part of the word, but is added on to make it a diminutive. The Latin word is usually derived from a Proto)indo-European root *dhēi- 'to suck'. The -min- in femina is probably an old (as in obsolete) suffix that made a verb into a noun/adjective and with passive meaning. So, the reconstructed meaning of femina could be 'someone who suckles'. English male is (via French) from Latin masculus, a double diminutive (i.e., the c and the l, cf. homunculus 'manikin') of mas 'male, masuline'. Latin, like English, has words that are similar, but different. But the fact that English male and Latin male 'badly' are spelled the same is an accident of history.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted connected...but not? YuriiNation 08/06/07 12:13 PM Re: connected...but not? zmjezhd 08/06/07 01:19 PM Re: connected...but not? of troy 08/06/07 03:02 PM Re: connected...but not? zmjezhd 08/06/07 03:47 PM Re: connected...but not? YuriiNation 08/07/07 07:40 AM Re: connected...but not? zmjezhd 08/07/07 02:30 PM
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,398Members9,182 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 (), 1,070 guests, and 0 robots. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 29
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,576tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,922Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org