The Etymology And Development Of The Words 'curry' And 'atone'

Hassan Basarally

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Name: Hassan Basarally I.D.: 806007430 Faculty: Humanities and Education Department: Liberal Arts Course Name and Code: Change and Development of the English Language- LING 2403 Lecturer: Dr. J. Ferreira Tutor: Dr. Skeete Assignment: Word Project – Atone and Curry Tutorial Date and Time: Thursday 5-6 p.m. Date of Submission: 19/02/08

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The words atone and curry are frequently used in the Anglophone Caribbean though the former in a theological environment and the latter in a culinary and cultural one. Through the examination of the words from the perspectives of linguistic origin, phonetics and phonology, morphological structure, semantics, related words, false etymologies and orthography, it is evident that the words like the language itself has undergone change. The word curry occurs in the English language as a noun and a transitive verb. There is no difference in pronunciation between both forms; hence the transcription remains \ˈkəri\; however on the Caribbean, particularly in Trinidad, the pronunciation \ˈkori\ might occur. In modern English an example of curry as a noun will occur in the sentence ‘This is a superb curry’. ‘Curry’ passes the tests for nouns, for example it occurs before the adjective ‘superb’. It occurs as a transitive verb in the sentence, ‘Can you curry the meat?’ A transitive verb is one in which there is a direct subject and one or more objects. Hence ‘you’ is the subject and ‘meat’ is the object of ‘curry’. The transitive verb form appears in the Middle English period, from 1100 to 1450. The earliest approximation of its usage is quoted by Barnhart (180) as 1300. The meanings include rubbing, specifically with a comb or brush. Its entry into the English language is from the Old French correir (Barnhart, 180, Hoad, 109 & Cunliffe, 75). This use of the word brings to attention a false etymology that curry is of Indian origin alone. According to Hoad (109) the proto language of curry as a transitive verb is from the Germanic *Ʒarǣǒjan. In about 1510 alterations of curry favel into curry favour. The origin of this usage is from Old French correier favaul which to be false. Hence to curry or groom someone who is false is to

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bestow undue respect or prestige upon that individual; this is the modern meaning of curry favour. According to Room (164): thus ‘Favell’ was the name of the horse, perhaps is turn influenced by an old word favel that meant ‘flattery’ (related to Italian favola, ‘fable’). For some reason-perhaps because chestnut horses where regarded as unreliable- the phrase came to acquire an implication of duplicity. In this instance thy word underwent what could be compared to a semantic derogation. A semantic derogation is the change of a word’s meaning in a negative manner as seen with curry favour where curry meant to groom a horse but curry favour connotes nepotism. Curry as a noun is Tamil or Kannada, both Indian languages, in origin (Hoad, 109). The first appearance is in 1681 and curry powder in 1810 (Barnhart, 180), earlier forms are also recorded by the same author as 1598 from Portuguese carriel which is from the Kannadan caril (1839). This form of curry therefore is from the Early Modern English period, 1450-1700. The Kannadan form of the word is actually still used today in Goa, India1. Its meaning is a dish, especially rice cooked with turmeric, however in the Caribbean region it is extended to any food that undergoes the culinary process. Inflected forms include curried, the plural form curries, currier and currying. The only variant to curry is currie, found in the Merrian-Webster online dictionary2 but it is uncommon. There is a misconception in Anglophone Caribbean usage that curry as noun can be used as an adjective. For example if asked ‘What kind of chicken was 1

Yule, Henry. “Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases”

< http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:705.hobson > 2

"curry." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 19 February 2009



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cooked yesterday’ the Trinidad English Creole (TEC) speaker might answer ‘Curry chicken’. The correct term would be ‘curried’ as TEC has null inflection. The word atone is used in the English language as a transitive verb. Its meaning include to become united or reconciled, appease and expiate. Its transcription is / əˈtōn/.The origin of the word comes from the Middle English period, in the early sixteenth century. Due to the fact that its introduction into English is relatively recent there is no evidence of a difference between the original and modern pronunciation. Modern usages of the term will occur in sentences such as ‘One must atone for ones sins’. ‘Atone’ in this sentence functions as a transitive verb as ‘one’ is the subject and ‘sins’ is the object. Inflected forms of the word include atoned and atoning. The term is closely associated with Biblical translation. Its origin goes from Hebrew to Greek to Latin, eventually coming into English usage. The Hebrew proto form is */kipur/. When the Bible was translated into Greek the equivalent /kǝtǝlǝgǝ/ came into use. From the Greek the Latin root unio or union occurs (Onions, 60). Finally, the word atone was invented by William Tyndale when he was translating the Bible into English. “It was Tyndale who, having dismissed the other options available, coined the word ‘Atonement’ to do justice to the great act of God in making us ‘at one’ with him” (Carey, George, William Tyndale; Reformer and Rebel). An improper morphological analysis would have ‘tone’ being a constituent morpheme. “The word actually derives from the noun ‘atonement’, which originated as a sixteenth-century invention to express the state of being ‘at one’ (i.e. at-one-ment), in the sense of religious reconciliation” (Room, 134). Instead atone came from the now obsolete verb at one. In addition, the verb atone is also influenced by the Medieval Latin adunamentun or unity (Chantrell, 33). Atone is as a result of the noun atonement undergoing a back formation in which the suffix was

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removed (Onions, 60, Chantrell, 33). A back formation is the creation of a new lexeme by the removal of a supposed affix. In addition, Chantrell, (33) notes that the use of atone was rare before the sixteenth century. Also the word began to be used widely in Shakespeare’s “Richard III”, written approximately in 1592. Atone and curry are two words that illustrate the dynamic nature of the English language. Atone is from the Middle English period with an etymology stretching from Hebrew to Latin. It is used exclusively as a verb. Curry has two forms, a noun and verb, the noun has its origins in Tamil language and is from the Early Modern English period. The same word and orthography is used as a verb, with its origin in Middle English Period like the word atone. These words have gone small semantic changes and in the case of atone the result of morphological re analysis.

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Works Cited Barnhart, Robert, K., ed. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology. Harper Collins Publishers: New York, 1948. Carey, George. “The Archbishop of Canterbury: William Tyndale; Reformer and Rebel. A Quincentenary Appreciation.” 5 Oct. 1999. 19 Feb. 2009 < http://www.tyndale.org/TSJ/2/carey.html>

Chantrell, Glymis, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories. OUP: Oxford, 2004. Cunliffe, Richard, John, ed. Blackie’is Compact Etymological Dictionary. Blackie and Son Limited: London and Glasgow, 1967. Hoad, T.F., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1986. Onions, C.T., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1960. Room, Adrian, ed. A Dictionary of True Etymologies. Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, Boston & Henley, 1986.