Some Words About Words

I thought I'd do a couple of word histories separately here:

Along-It is supposed that this word goes back to the Indo European words "anti" ("against, opposite") and "dlonghos" ("long"). Old Germanic (called Proto Germanic) had "andi/anda" and "lang." When the compound was formed, I don't exactly know, but it may be a West Germanic creation, as German has "entlang," which also means "along," and indeed in Old English it was spelled "andlang," which eventually became "anlang/onlang/onlong," and finally in around 1500 the modern version began to persist. Originally, the meaning was simply "a long way," but this eventually was extended somewhat to "the whole length of something, lengthwise."


Winter-This came from Old Germanic "wentruz," and possibly traces back to an Indo European root meaning either "wet" or "white," making winter "the wet season" or "the white season." The word is used extensively in the Germanic languages, and besides the English word, German, Dutch and Frisian have "Winter," Danish, Norwegian and Swedish have "vinter." In Old Saxon it was spelled "wintar."