Word Search-a-Palooza

On the drive in to work this morning, I started thinking about the words “prescription” and “subscription.” Literally they mean “in advance of the writing” and “below the writing” to me. Prior to researching the etymology,  I felt like they had nothing to do with what they actually mean to an English speaker.

But first, as I was thinking of this, I was driving down a highway. I often pre-write in my head as I am driving and then if I get to a good place and the pre-writing is still in my head, I may actually type it up. Like what I am doing now. In pre-writing, my first line was “As I am driving down this highway, reminding myself I have a prescription to pick up at CVS today, I find myself puzzling over the literal meaning of the word “prescription.”

What happened to my brain at that point was akin to the “squirrel” response of “Dug” the dog in the movie “UP!” “Squirrel” or in my case “highway” started me down another mole tunnel. I know the difference in my mind between a highway and a freeway, but is it the same distinction for everyone? A freeway to me is a multilane, often elevated ribbon of concrete and blacktop flowing through an over-developed large city shuttling commuters off to their various destinations through frontage and feeder side streets. A highway is any size road with a speed limit of 55 or more usually in more suburban or rural areas. The same road through a neighborhood with a 35 mph limit is just a street or road. Is that the same way others see it?

Apparently “prescription” got its name because olden day doctors had to write out a recipe for the chemist to mix up the medicine and they considered that “written in advance” of the mixing. And the “subscription” was named because people had to sign their name at the bottom of the pledge page stating they would pay the periodic fees for the service/ magazine/ program or whatever they were pledging to pay for.

I feel like that explanation took all the fun out of wondering. The explanation was too logical. I prefer the puzzling of wondering to actually knowing why. I have always puzzled about why the people who invented words added “silent” letters and words that sound the same but have different spelling. WHY? There is no good reason for any of that, and,additionally, in the modern world when new technology is invented or new things are discovered, why doesn’t every language adopt the same word of the inventor or discoverer instead of making up their own word for the thing? Such as:

1. English – computer 
2. Spanish – computadora 
3. French – ordinateur 
4. German – Computer 
5. Italian – computer 

I would like to formally thank Italia and Deutschland for taking the initiative to just go with the word created by the inventors.

I also want to formally apologize to Germany for calling them Germany and also for all the other countries that made up their own name for someone else’s country. My name is Tracy wherever I go, regardless of location. So why all this?

Here are the names of Germany in five different languages, along with their origins and usage:

1. German (Endonym) – Deutschland
   From Old High German diutisc, meaning “of the people”  Used in Germany itself.
2. French (Exonym) – Allemagne
   From the name of the Alamanni tribe, a confederation of Germanic tribes on the upper Rhine.  Common in French-speaking regions.
3. Italian (Exonym) – Germania
   From the Latin Germania, the Roman term for the region inhabited by Germanic tribes Also used for the German people (tedeschi).
4. Polish (Exonym) – Niemcy
   From Proto-Slavic němьcь, meaning “speechless” (referring to German as unintelligible to Slavic speakers) 
5. Finnish (Exonym) – Saksa
   From the name of the Saxon tribe, a Germanic people encountered by Finns 

Quite puzzling.

 

But I do enjoy the puzzle. And I hope that you enjoyed my puzzling.

 

Until Next Time,

Your friend Tracy