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19 - Etymological doublets.

Sometimes a word is borrowed twice from the same language. As the result, we have two different words with different spellings and meanings but historically they come back to one and the same word. Such words are called etymological doublets. In other words, two or more words in the same language are called doublets or etymological twins (or possibly triplets, etc.) when they have the same etymological root but have entered the language through different ways. They differ to a certain degree in form, meaning and current usage.

Etymological twins are usually a result of chronologically separate borrowing from a source language. In the case of English, this usually means once from French during the Norman invasion, and again later, after the word had evolved.

e.g. warranty (гарантия) and guarantee.

In English there are some groups of them:

Latino-French doublets.

Latin English from Latin English from French

• uncia inch ounce

• moneta mint money

• camera camera chamber

Franco-French doublets

doublets borrowed from different dialects of French.

Norman Paris

• canal channel

• captain chieftain

• catch chaise

Scandinavian-English doublets

Scandinavian English

• skirt shirt

• scabby shabby

Another possibility is borrowing from both a language and its daughter language (usually Latin and some other Romanic language). In many cases involving Indo-European languages, words such as beef and cow, the one Germanic the other Romance, actually do share the same proto-Indo-European root. 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 Romanic language. Since English is unusual in that it borrowed heavily from two distinct branches of the same linguistic family tree, it has a relatively high number of this latter type of etymological twin.

Examples in English include:

• shirt and skirt (both Germanic, the latter from Old Norse)

• chief and chef (both from French at different times)

• secure and sure (from Latin, the latter via French)

• plant and clan (from Latin, the latter via Old Irish)

• right, rich, raj (господство), regalia, reign and real (from Germanic, Celtic, Sanskrit, Latin, French and Portuguese cognates respectively)

• ward and guard (from Germanic, the latter via French); also warden and guardian.

There are also etymological doublets which were borrowed from the same language during different historical periods, such as French doublets: gentil - любезный, благородный, etymological doublets are: gentle - мягкий, вежливый and genteel - благородный. From the French word gallant etymological doublets are : ‘gallant - храбрый and ga’llant - галантный, внимательный.

Sometimes etymological doublets are the result of borrowing different grammatical forms of the same word, e.g. the Comparative degree of Latin «super» was «superior» which was borrowed into English with the meaning «high in some quality or rank». The Superlative degree (Latin «supremus») in English «supreme» with the meaning «outstanding», «prominent». So «superior» and «supreme» are etymological doublets