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Inetymology,doublets (alternativelyetymological twins ortwinlings) are words in a given language that share the same etymological root. Doublets are often the result ofloanwords being borrowed from other languages. While doublets may be synonyms, the characterization is usually reserved for words that have diverged significantly in meaning:[1] for example, the English doubletspyre andfire are distinct terms with related meanings that both ultimately descend from theProto-Indo-European (PIE) word*péh₂ur.
Words with similar meanings but subtle differences contribute to the richness of modern English, and many of these are doublets. A good example consists of the doubletsfrail andfragile. (These are both ultimately from the Latin adjectivefragilis, butfrail evolved naturally through its slowly changing forms in Old French and Middle English, whereasfragile is a learned borrowing directly from Latin in the 15th century.)
Another example of nearly synonymous doublets isaperture andoverture (the commonality behind the meanings is "opening"). Doublets may also develop contrasting meanings, such as the termshost andguest, which come from the same PIE word*gʰóstis and already existed as a doublet in Latin, and thenOld French,[2] before being borrowed into English. Doublets also vary with respect to how far their forms have diverged. For example, the connection betweenlevy andlevee is easy to guess, whereas the connection betweensovereign andsoprano is harder to guess.
Doublets can develop in various ways, according to which route the two forms took from the origin to their current form. Complex, multi-step paths are possible, though in many cases groups of terms follow the same path. Simple paths are discussed below, with the simplest distinction being that doublets in a given language can have their root in the same language (or an ancestor), or may originate in a separate language.
Most simply, a native word can at some point split into two distinct forms, staying within a single language, as with Englishtoo which split fromto.[3]
Alternatively, a word may be inherited from a parent language, and acognate borrowed from a separate sister language. In other words, one route was direct inheritance, while the other route was inheritance followed by borrowing. In English this means one word inherited from a Germanic source, with, e.g., a Latinate cognate term borrowed from Latin or a Romance language. In English this is most common with words which can be traced back toIndo-European languages, which in many cases share the sameproto-Indo-European root, such asRomancebeef andGermaniccow. However, in some cases the branching is more recent, dating only to proto-Germanic, not to PIE; many words of Germanic origin occur in French and other Latinate languages, and hence in some cases were both inherited by English (from proto-Germanic) and borrowed from French or another source – seeList of English Latinates of Germanic origin. The forward linguistic path also reflects cultural and historical transactions; often the name of an animal comes from Germanic while the name of its cooked meat comes from Romance. Since English is unusual in that it borrowed heavily from two distinct branches of the same languagefamily tree – Germanic and Latinate/Romance – it has a relatively high number of this latter type of etymological twin. Seelist of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English for further examples and discussion.
Less commonly, a native word may be borrowed into a foreign language, thenreborrowed back into the original language, existing alongside the original term. An English example isanimation andanime "Japanese animation", which was reborrowed from Japaneseアニメanime. Such a word is sometimes called aRückwanderer (German for "one who wanders back").[4]
In case of twins of foreign origin, which consist of two borrowings (of related terms), one can distinguish if the borrowing is of a term and a descendant, or of two cognate terms (siblings).
Etymological twins are often a result of chronologically separate borrowing from a source language. In the case of English, this usually means once from French during theNorman invasion, and again later, after the word had evolved separately in French. An example of this iswarranty andguarantee.
Another possibility is borrowing from both a language and its daughter language. In English this is usually Latin and some other Romance language, particularly French – seeLatin influence in English. The distinction between this and the previous is whether the source language has changed to a different language or not.
Less directly, a term may be borrowed both directly from a source language and indirectly via an intermediate language. In English this is most common in borrowings from Latin, and borrowings from French that are themselves from Latin; less commonly from Greek directly and through Latin.
In case of borrowing cognate terms, rather than descendants, most simply an existing doublet can be borrowed: two contemporary twin terms can be borrowed.
More remotely, cognate terms from different languages can be borrowed, such assauce (Old French) andsalsa (Spanish), both ultimately from Latin, ortea (Dutchthee) andchai (Hindi), both ultimately fromChinese. This last pair reflects the history of how tea has entered English via different trade routes.
Many thousands of English examples can be found, grouped according to their earliest deducible Indo-European ancestor.[5] In some cases over a hundred English words can be traced to a single root. Some examples in English include:
There are many moredoublets from Greek, where one form is a vernacular borrowing and the other a learned borrowing, such asscandal andslander, both from σκάνδαλον.
Many words ofFrench origin were borrowed twice or more. There were at least three periods of borrowing: one that occurred shortly after theNorman Conquest and came fromNorman French, one in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries from standard (Parisian) French at the time when English nobles were switching from French to English, and a third one during the sixteenth to nineteenth century, when France was at the height of its power and international influence. Examples of doublets from the first and second periods arecatch vs.chase,cattle vs.chattel, andwarden vs.guardian. More recent borrowings are often distinguished by maintaining the French spelling and pronunciation, e.g.chef (vs.chief),pâté (vs.paste),fête (vs.feast). There are multiple doublets caused by thew →g andca →cha sound changes, which happened in standard French but not Norman French. Several of these examples also reflect changes that occurred after Old French which caused the possible environments of[s] to be greatly reduced.
| English words from French | |
|---|---|
| from Norman French | from standard Old or Modern French |
| car | chariot |
| castle | chateau |
| catch | chase |
| cattle | chattel |
| convey | convoy |
| paste | pâté |
| feast | fête |
| hostel | hotel |
| pouch | |
| reward | regard |
| wallop | gallop (alsogalop, a type of dance) |
| warden | guardian |
| wardrobe | garderobe |
| warranty | guarantee |
| wile, wily | guile |
Derivative cognates are aclassification of Chinese characters which have similar meanings and often the same etymological root, but which have diverged in pronunciation and meaning. An example is the doublet考 and老. At one time they were pronounced similarly and meant "old (person)."老 (/lɑʊ̯˨˩˦/ inStandard Mandarin) has retained this meaning, but考/kʰɑʊ̯˨˩˦/ now mainly means "examine".
Differingliterary and colloquial readings of certainChinese characters are common doublets in manyChinese varieties, and the reading distinctions for certain phonetic features often typify a dialect group. For a given Chinesevariety, colloquial readings typically reflect native vernacular phonology. Literary readings are used in some formal settings (recitation, some loanwords and names) and originate from other, typically moreprestigious varieties. Sometimes literary and colloquial readings of the same character have different meanings. For example, inCantonese, the character平 can have the colloquial pronunciation/pʰɛŋ˨˩/ ("inexpensive"), and the literary pronunciation/pʰɪŋ˨˩/ ("flat").
The wordspíosa andcuid (both meaning "part" or "portion") form an Irish doublet, both from theProto-Celtic root*kʷesdis. This root became inGaulishpettyā, then was borrowed intoLate Latin aspettia,Anglo-Normanpiece, thenMiddle Englishpece, before being borrowed intoMiddle Irish aspissa, which became modernpíosa. InOld Irish,*kʷesdis becamecuit, which in modern Irish iscuid.[6][7][8]
InJapanese, doublets are most significant in borrowings from Chinese, and are visible as differenton'yomi (Sino-Japanese readings) ofkanji characters. There have been three major periods of borrowing from Chinese, together with some modern borrowings. These borrowings are from different regions (hence different Chinese varieties) and different periods, and thus the pronunciations have varied, sometimes widely. However, due to consistent Chinese writing, with cognatemorphemes represented by the same character, the etymological relation is clear. This is most significant at the level of morphemes, where a given character is pronounced differently in different words, but in some cases the same word was borrowed twice. These have been very valuable to scholars for reconstructing the sounds ofMiddle Chinese, and understanding how the pronunciations differed between Chinese regions and varied over time.
InHindi and otherNew Indo-Aryan languages, members of native doublets are identified as eithertadbhava ('became that'), which is ultimately derived fromSanskrit but underwent changes through time, ortatsama ('same as that'), which is borrowed directly from literary Sanskrit. For example, Hindibāgh 'tiger' is derived by historical stages (tadbhava) from Sanskritvyāghra 'tiger'. Meanwhile, Hindi has also directly borrowed (tatsama) the Sanskrit wordvyāghra, meaning 'tiger' in a more literary register.
Several doublets inHindustani, which has two standard forms of Hindi andUrdu, come from commonProto-Indo-Iranian roots, with one descending via Sanskrit and another viaPersian. These may have stayed synonyms or diverged into different meanings. One example where both patterns can be seen is from the Sanskrit vār (water) and Persian bârân (rain), both from Proto-Indo-Iranian wáHr̥. The Hindustani words for rain include varṣā and barsāt from Sanskrit as well as bāriś from Persian. Meanwhile, the word varṣ from the same root has come to mean year, though often the Persian word sāl is used instead. This word is also a doublet, in this case of the Sanskrit word śarad, which has come to mean the season fall in Hindi.
Triplets:
As with many languages in Europe, a great deal of borrowing from written Latin –latinismos (Latinisms), orcultismos (learned words)[9] – occurred during the Renaissance and the early modern era. Because Spanish is itself aRomance language already with many native words of Latin ancestry (transmitted orally, so with natural sound changes),[9] the later written borrowing created a number of doublets. Adding to this was Spain's conquest by the Moors in the Middle Ages, leading to another vector for creating doublets (Latin to Arabic to Spanish).
| Native stock (palabras patrimoniales) | Latinisms (cultismos) | Latin etyma |
|---|---|---|
| bicho 'bug' | bestia 'beast' | bēstia |
| llave 'key' (object) | clave 'key' (concept) | clāvis |
| raudo 'swift-moving' | rápido 'rapid' | rapidus |
| dinero 'money' | denario 'denarius coin' | dēnārius |
| caldo 'broth' | cálido 'related to hot' | calidus |
| sueldo 'salary' | sólido 'solid' | solidus |
| delgado 'skinny' | delicado 'delicate' | dēlicātus |
| vaina 'pod' | vagina 'vagina' | vāgīna |
List of doublets in Welsh [cy]
Welsh contains many doublets of native origin, where a single Indo-European root has developed along different paths in the language. Examples of this are:[10]
In addition to native doublets, Welsh has borrowed extensively over the centuries, particularly from Latin and English. This has led to many more doublets in the language, including many from Latin that entered Welsh via English borrowings. Examples include:[10]
a wild guess — the Persian word pingân seems to suggest the form 'finjan' is a reloan from Arabic. If there is a Pers. word 'finjan', this rather seems to suggest a Rückwanderer from Turkish – not from Arabic.