English spelling is complicated , but it has its reason for being that way . Borrowing from other language , pronunciation shift over time , and oddment in the evolution of impression standards all work a role in get us to where we are today . The way a word is spelled tells a part of its history . But for a few words , the spelling gets the account altogether wrong .
In the other years of printing , spell out varied a stack . As a banner began to develop in the 16th hundred , a mode for all matter authoritative led some multitude to await to Latin and Greek for spelling inspiration . So , for example , the worddebt , which had been spelleddetteever since it had been borrowed from French that way , was gussied up with a silentb , the better to show its ultimate ancestry from Latindebitum .
Many words were affected by this add - a - mum - letter of the alphabet trend . The changes , though grouchy and unnecessary , did reflect remote diachronic roots . But sometimes , they did n’t . Here are five eldritch spellings that came about through etymological misunderstanding .
1. Scissors
We used to spell scissorssissorsorsizars . Where did thatsccome from ? The classicizers of the 1500s think the word become back to Latinscindere , to split , but it actually came to us ( via French ) fromcisorium , “ reduce implement . ” The same assumption turnedsitheintoscythe .
2. Island
An unnecessaryswas bestowed onilandin order to make reset the link to Latininsula . Onlyislanddidn’t come frominsula , but from the Old Englishíglund .
3. Ache
Acheis from the Old English verbacan . There was a related nounatche(other such couplet include speak / speech , interruption / breach , awaken / watch ) . The spelling descend onacheunder the mistaken belief that is was come to to the Greekakhos(grief , pain sensation ) .
4. Could
In Old English the preceding tense ofcandid not have anlin it , butshouldandwould(as past tense ofshallandwill ) did . Thelwas stuck intocouldin the fifteenth one C on doctrine of analogy with the other two .
5. Sovereign
When English borrowedsoverainfrom French it had nog . The word was formed after Latinsuperanus , “ in high spirits one ” ( fromsuper , “ above ” ) . The wordreign , however , come from Latinregnare , did have agin it , and it very easily made its way intosovereign .
Arika Okrent is a linguist and source of the bookIn the Land of Invented Languages . She lives in Chicago .
This part in the beginning melt down in 2014 .
