Éyoù je peux trouver un paraerreurs?

[muckefuck]

Thanks to a discussion of portmanteau words in aadroma's journal, the scales have fallen from my eyes and I see that all this time I've had the wrong para in parasol and parapluie. I read the first word as "for (para) sun (sol)" and never thought too long on hard on why it should be para in French as well instead of pour as one would expect given the free forms of the prepositions.

In reality, this is a form of Latin parare "prepare" (which by mediaeval times has acquired the secondary meaning of "defend from"). So parasol is really "it protects from [the] sun". Why then the second a when the expected form in French would be *paresol? (Cf. pare-soleil "visor".) The OED suggests that, despite the fact that parasol is first attested in French, it may have been influenced by a pre-existing Italian or Latin formation. Once that and a few other parallel cases known to be borrowed from Italian (e.g. paravent, parapet) became established, then the element para- was extended to new compounds such as parapluie and parachute.

Given what a fan I am of these Romance verb-noun compounds, it cheers me to suddently discover so many more--and hidden in plain view to boot!

Comments

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Don't forget "pare-chocs", "pare-brise" and "pare-balles".

In Spanish they also get confused with other para- prefix, from Greek origin, in words such as "parapsicología" or "paralelo"

[lhn.livejournal.com]

I sort of like the idea of there being a word that means "defense against psychology". :-)

(And I bet the Scientologists would like it even more.)

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

LOL...
Parapsicología is the "science" that people which are called "psychics" say they are experts at.

[lhn.livejournal.com]

I figured that it was, given the similarity to English "parapsychology". But I liked my version better. :-)

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

Hahaha.
Well, your version was more interesting, indeed

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

And today I discovered parapente, which looks like it should mean "protects against inclines", but is actually a portmanteau of parachute and pente. (In English, "paraglider".)

[gorkabear.livejournal.com]

So that is a portmanteau!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

....oh! hey! I also always had the wrong para- in there! That's kind of delightful.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Being wrong can be fun!

[pne.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of "i para" in Romansh, which is "it seems" - yet another meaning for that sound. (Not sure what the Latin origin would be, though presumably it's cognate to French "il paraît", wherever *that* comes from.)