Saturday, December 13, 2008

Bad words!

All right! It's time for some 'bad' words :-)

The other day I noticed an interesting pattern in the etymology of words denoting bad.

ചീത്ത sounds very related to ചീയുക - to decay
അഴുക്കു comes from അഴുകുക - to decay
കെട്ട comes from കേടാകുക - to go bad, e.g. milk

So, it seems, that originally bad meant not fit for consumption.
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2 comments:

  1. Nikhil NarayananDecember 14, 2008 at 4:46 AM

    Hi
    Great to see you back.

    That speaks the importance for food :)

    -Nikhil
    PS: How do you explain പൊട്ട?

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  2. VinodDecember 14, 2008 at 3:23 PM

    Thanks! (I joined school and got really busy :-)

    പൊട്ട means broken. It comes from പൊടിയുക which in turn comes from the root പൊടു (per Gundert)

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