AGS Steam Games

Forums → The Tavern → Etymologic Question: Body

15 3489
roydotor2000
offline
roydotor2000
340 posts
Nomad

Why do we call our bodies, bodies? pls. post your opinions here. \\/

  • 15 Replies
EmperorPalpatine
offline
EmperorPalpatine
9,439 posts
Jester

Why do we call anything anything? People decided to communicate through phonetics by deciding that [spoken sounds in a particular order] represent [thing]. Over time, the pronunciation of stuff changes due to regional dialects and such. In this case, "body" came from Old English "bodeg/bodig", which is from Proto-Germanic "budagÄ...", which may have stemmed from words meaning ground, in the sense that that's where corpses go.

pangtongshu
offline
pangtongshu
9,808 posts
Jester

which may have stemmed from words meaning ground, in the sense that that's where corpses go.


In that sense..I would think that it would stem from such a word because the body used to be thought of related to the ground, not in the sense of that is where we ended, but began.

Some mythos fun.
MacII
offline
MacII
1,315 posts
Shepherd

Good question, looks to be pretty murky at a glance: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=body .

You could ask at World Wide Words, I've known him to answer if you courteously and non-imposingly ask the right question (arguably quite some years ago, don't know how much busier today than he already was then).

Devoidless
offline
Devoidless
3,675 posts
Jester

I vote we all refer to our 'bodies' by using the word "Doofenshmirtz" instead. It's a great word and singular can be used as the plural. It would make some songs a whole lot better.
Ex)
Girl, look at that Doofenshmirtz
Girl, loot at that Doofenshmirtz
Girl, look at that Doofenshmirtz
I work out!

Minotaur55
offline
Minotaur55
1,373 posts
Blacksmith

We call our bodies "bodies" because they must hit the FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, the word "Body" roots from the Latin word "Corpus" and most of English roots from Latin. So with some translations upon translations it wound up becoming the word "Body" or in other cases "Bodies".

Reton8
offline
Reton8
3,173 posts
King

I thought corpse had it's roots in the latin word corpus (From Old French cors, from Latin corpus. Source).

I thought body had different roots:
Body from Old English bodig (Source 1 and Source 2)

The Spanish word for body (cuerpo) has the same root as corpse
From latin corpus (Source)
___________________________________________________________

"Curse you Perry the Platypus!" - Heinz Body

Freakenstein
offline
Freakenstein
9,504 posts
Jester

In Anti-Cenere, the word for body is kropp. The why's to this has already been explained

Devoidless
offline
Devoidless
3,675 posts
Jester

Girl, look at that Doofenshmirtz
Girl, loot at that Doofenshmirtz
Girl, look at that Doofenshmirtz


That's it. No more RPGs for a while. Although that does give me an idea...

Doofenshmirtz of Wild Persuasion
0 AC
Equipable by:
All
Effects:
- Bind on equip (Cursed)
- When attempting to pass a charisma check, roll 1d8. Odd numbers are added to your charisma for the check, even numbers are deducted.
Nurvana
offline
Nurvana
2,520 posts
Farmer

Your Doofenshmirtz is a wonderland...

MacII
offline
MacII
1,315 posts
Shepherd

Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!

most of English roots from Latin


You're sure not from Sanskrit? (Not sure really, but an amazing bit of European languages do. I guess they're called Indo-European for a reason.)
roydotor2000
offline
roydotor2000
340 posts
Nomad

Any further history?

Reton8
offline
Reton8
3,173 posts
King

...most of English roots from Latin


This is somewhat true indeed, but English is more messy lol.

The roots of English are actually quite a mess and hence a reason for English to be difficult to learn. The English writing system long long ago used Anglo-Saxon runes and then was replaced by the Latin Script.

The Old English language was transformed by two invasions. The first invasion by Norther Germanic speakers (8th and 9th century) and the second invasion by by speakers of the Romance language Old Norman (11th century). Both invasions had a strong influence and brought many changes to the language. The changes in the language from the Normans lead Old English into what is now considered Middle English. Today, what is spoken is Modern English, and yes I'm grabbing this all from Wikipedia. (Two more helpful articles, English language and The History of the English Language.)

Here is the breakdown of influences in English Vocabulary:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Origins_of_English_PieChart_2D.svg

Just think of some of the French words used in English:
genre, résumé, cul-de-sac, à la carte, avant-garde, café, coup de grâce, fiancé, foyer, melee

I mean it all makes for a lot of confusing pronunciation rules have word origins from three different places. I can see why people may have difficulty learning the language.
HahiHa
offline
HahiHa
8,256 posts
Regent

Just think of some of the French words used in English:

Those are all more or less direct gallicism if I'm not wrong. English, originally, does not stem from Latin. It seems as you show that it has had a lot of influences; nevertheless I disagree with the statement that "most of English roots from Latin"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0d/IndoEuropeanTreeA.svg
Showing 1-13 of 15