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The etymology of fencing was a trade (aussie.zone)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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An interesting bit of etymology that I learnt recently.

The English word "fencing" (as in sword fighting) comes from English "defence", from Old French "defens", from Latin "defendere", meaning "to ward off, defend".

The French word for fencing is "escrime". The Italian and Spanish words are also close cognates with French. "Escrime" comes from Old French "escremir", from Frankish "*skirmjan".

That means English, a Germanic language, gets its word from Latin, a Romance language.

And the Romance languages of French, Spanish, and Italian get their word from Frankish, a Germanic language.

Essentially, the Romance and Germanic language families did a trade.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd love to see more posts like this

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Same, this is neat.