muckefuck: (Default)
muckefuck ([personal profile] muckefuck) wrote2010-02-26 12:05 pm
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Doublet doubled

[livejournal.com profile] pne responds in this this entry to my last WotD with a bit about the joy of etymological doublets, wherein he muses on the possible existence of quadruplets. Well, having discovered that jaunty derives from a sailors' pronunciation of French gentil, I've now got a doozy: gentle:gentile:genteel:jaunty. And every one of them borrowed rather than inherited! The dates of first attestation, according to the OED, are respectively 1225, c1380, 1599, and 1662.
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