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Correcting Folk Etymologies

6/26/2017

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My Analysis
Much of this I do concur with, as I do think that a culture's theology has a lot to do with a word's etymology, and that it is important to study how they evolve over time to conceal the original meanings, which ultimately masks original thoughts and intentions based on how the words were first defined.  I do believe and know that words are electro-magnetic vibrations that hold significant influence on mind, body, and soul.  Words being utterances, they can heal or harm just like music and other sounds.
However, I'd like to do an etymological analysis of some of the words she highlights to determine how I feel about her conclusions about certain concepts she mentions, namely awake-a wake; morning-mourning, weekdays-weak daze; weekend-weak end-weakened; hello-o hell.  Let's go in. 
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awake: Old English (before 900 AD) āwæcnan, āwacian, both used in the sense ‘come out of sleep’, a + wæcnan (root of English word wake) from Old English (recorded only in the past tense wōc ), also partly from the weak verb wacian.  

a wake: "state of wakefulness," Old English (OE) -wacu (in nihtwacu "night watch"), regarding a vigil or prayer; the word specifically began to refer to a vigil over a dead body during the late Middle English (ME) period (1430-1500; heavy French and Latin influence). 

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morning: ME morn, morwening, from OE morgen, referring to the first or early part of the day
mourning: ME murnan (mourn), from OE murnung, "grief, complaint", from Indo European smer (1), meaning  "to remember" 

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weekdays: plural form of weekday, a compound word comprised of week (ME wike, weke from OE wice, wicu, from Indo European ​weik (4))  + day (ME dai, from Old English dæg; Indo European root agh  "meaning a span of time"
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weak daze: weak (Middle English weike, from Old Norse veikr, pliant; Indo European root weik (2) meaning "wind or bend") + daze (Middle English dasen, of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse dasask, to become weary.)

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weekend: a compound word between week + end signifying the last two days of a seven-day week; end (ME ende, from OE; Indo Euroepan root ant meaning "forehead or front")
weak end: a phrase containing both weak (see weak daze) and end 
weakened: a past tense of the verb weaken literally meaning "to make weak or become weak".  The suffix -en is applied to words of OE or Anglo-Saxon origin to become verbs (see moisten, deepen, shorten, etc...)  

hello: this is actually an informal greeting that is a variant of the word holla meaning "stop", perhaps from the French hola  (ho: "ho!" + la: "there", from Latin illāc, "that way"
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oh hell: oh + hell (from ME helle, meaning a place for "oathbreakers, other evil persons, and those unlucky enough to have died of old age or sickness rather than in the glory of the battlefield."  Old Norse is a Germanic language close to Old English, and Old Norse mythology described hel is very cold. It contrasts with Valhalla, the hall in Asgard where those slain in war domicile, and frolic and booze with the gods after death to reward their heroism. "In Old Norse, Hel is also the name of the goddess or giantess who presides in hel. She is the daughter of the god Loki and sister of the enormous wolf that will attack the gods at the end of the world." (American Heritage Dictionary)
Etymology gives us the truth behind the meaning of words.  Too often, people give false or folk etymologies, which just further adds to the confusion behind concepts and ideas.   Learning about words helps us to learn ideas, as well as discover ancient and historical concepts that have been hidden via connotative linguistics, but only if the etymological analysis is thorough and accurate.   Follow EtymologyRules to continue to learn the truth about words and the ideas/concepts that they represent. 
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