Thanks to Christel for this interesting word – druthers.
A group of us sat around the table in the coffee shop. The bill was placed on the table, but no one grabbed it immediately. If I had my druthers, someone else would pick it up because I paid last time.
The dictionary defines druthers as an alteration of would rather. So, the above sentence could read, ‘I would rather someone else pick it up.’ Druthers is an example of metanalysis, the shifting of a sound from one element of a phrase to another. The ‘d’ of would and the ‘r’ of rather comes at the beginning of the phrase to make up the word druthers.
Words come into being through various ways. They can be descended from ancient language roots, handy neologisms (a newly coined word), onomatopoeia (see article from January 4th), or borrowing from other languages. One formation that stands out from others is words formed by mistakes, known as metanalysis. It happens when the spelling or sound of a word is split in the wrong place. This often occurs when a word has jumped from one language to another and is subject to a new phonetic combination. I have a few other examples to share with you besides druthers.
Apron came into the English language from French. The word for a cloth covering in Middle French was naperon, which came from nape, meaning tablecloth. Modern French uses nappe for tablecloth. In the 14th century naperon came into English. So, a covering on a table was referred to as ‘a napron.’ People started calling the covering on a person during the cooking and serving process ‘an apron.’ Metanalysis caused the word naperon to be split in an interesting way with the ‘n’ moving from the beginning of the word allowing for ‘an’ instead of ‘a’ as the indefinite article.
In Middle French the word oche meant an incision made to keep a record, carving a mark in piece of wood. When the word migrated into English in the 16th century the mark was referred to as an oche. This eventually became respelled as a notch, meaning an indentation, a gap or a degree.
The Middle English word eke meant also or in addition. So, a secondary name, an also-name, became known as an ekename. This morphed into a nickname, as the ‘n’ moved from the indefinite article to the beginning of the word (similar to notch).
You might think an orange is named after the colour of the fruit. The original word for the fruit in Arabic was naranji. It came into French as auranja, which has since become orange in modern French. The ‘n’ disappeared in the spelling because the indefinite articles in French, un and une, end with an ‘n’ sound and would be difficult to pronounce. So, the word was respelled by dropping the initial ‘n.’ Interestingly, Spanish keeps the ‘n’ and calls the fruit naranja.
The person who calls balls and strikes at a baseball game is also an example of metanalysis. The English word noumpere came from the Latin impar, meaning unequal or odd. A noumpere was the name given to a person appointed to settle disputes between opposing parties, who were at odds with each other. As we have seen before, the ‘n’ was moved to create an oumpere, one who was chosen to see that the rules were followed in settling disputes. In the late 1800s, when the game of baseball was developed, the person charged with making sure the rules were followed by the players was called an umpire.
How words develop is a fascinating process to research. I hope you enjoy these columns. I am always open to suggestions for words to research. If I had my druthers the warm temperatures of Spring would come quickly and melt our snow so the golf season could begin. Have a great week.
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com . Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
