Messaggi: 22
Lingua: English
SonicChao (Mostra il profilo) 21 febbraio 2007 18:06:15
Islander (Mostra il profilo) 21 febbraio 2007 18:48:50
From what I understand, English has a 44,000 words vocabulary, nearly double most other languages due to it borrowing a lot from them (French and German probably more than others).
SonicChao (Mostra il profilo) 21 febbraio 2007 19:15:14
Islander:I beleive the root is Latin and the English word simply borrowed the usage from a romance language. The French word is enfants.Ah, I know in Spanish it's "niños" so I wasn't able to get help from that.
From what I understand, English has a 44,000 words vocabulary, nearly double most other languages due to it borrowing a lot from them (French and German probably more than others).
![okulumo.gif](/images/smileys/okulumo.gif)
erinja (Mostra il profilo) 21 febbraio 2007 21:35:09
Islander:I beleive the root is Latin and the English word simply borrowed the usage from a romance language. The French word is enfants.Merriam-Webster says that the English "infant" comes from the Middle English "enfaunt", which is from the French "enfant", which is from the Latin "infans" (in/fans - Latin for 'not capable of speaking')
gxosefo (Mostra il profilo) 21 febbraio 2007 23:21:02
erinja:Merriam-Webster says that the English "infant" comes from the Middle English "enfaunt", which is from the French "enfant", which is from the Latin "infans" (in/fans - Latin for 'not capable of speaking')If the latin part is true, then "infano" should not mean child, but baby, like SonicChao said previously.
Islander (Mostra il profilo) 22 febbraio 2007 00:09:47
I'm only speculating on how it may have come to mean what it does but it is easy to see how several centuries ago someone speaking English saw a French person refers to their toddler as their enfant and introduce the word in the english language not knowing the Frenchman was also refering to his 16 years old child just the same.
erinja (Mostra il profilo) 22 febbraio 2007 01:05:29
Islander:The meaning of words will likely evolve with time and cultures. Not capable of speaking can easily be interpreted against the culture of Latin speaking Romans where only Adults were authorized to speak, meaning to vote.Right.
And words change meaning, anyway.
For example, a word like "disorient" - literally, it means to turn away from the east. dis- plus -orient. Of course now, the meaning is nothing like that, but that is the meaning of the Latin root.
And I think that few parents would have named their daughters "Barbara" if they realized it came from the same root as the word "barbarian" (from the Greek "barbaros", originally meaning "not Greek", but later acquiring the meaning of "foreign" or "barbaric")
Kwekubo (Mostra il profilo) 22 febbraio 2007 01:08:05
gxosefo:If the latin part is true, then "infano" should not mean child, but baby, like SonicChao said previously.Tell that to the French
![rideto.gif](/images/smileys/rideto.gif)
Islander (Mostra il profilo) 22 febbraio 2007 01:16:29
![rideto.gif](/images/smileys/rideto.gif)
Mendacapote (Mostra il profilo) 22 febbraio 2007 11:02:05