Word of the Week: October 9, 2000
Going, Going, Gone

The Latin verb eo, ire, ii, itus means "to go." As you can see, it is short. So short, in fact, that it is often hard to see in words. Sometimes you just can't see it, because the "going" has "gone" right out of the word. For example, all those Count Draculas: their count came from Latin com- "together" + eo, ire, ii, itus "go." What happened was that Latin formed a noun comes, comites, "a co-goer" or "companion" (to a king, for example), which was taken up by the French, who are notorious for changing spellings. By the time it got to English, the "going" was "gone" and it was conte, which became count.

But of all the gone goings, the sudden one is the most astounding: sudden is from Latin subeo, subire, subii, subitus ("come up to, come next, occur"). To get from subeo to sudden, start with Latin. Latin formed an adjective subitus which meant "sudden," because things that are sudden "come next" or "occur." Next, Latin added an adjectival ending to their adjective to produce subitaneus, which also meant "sudden." (Why you need to add an adjective ending to an adjective is another story) Then the French came along and worked their spelling magic: soubitein suddenly became sodain and suddenly appeared (in the 12th century), and English just kept on changing it until it was sudden. Where'd the going go so suddenly?

Words of the Week are written by Dr. Jacques A. Bailly.