Word of the Week – Sentence

I’m so, so happy to be all done working on the old house. Finished up all that on Friday, and spent 12 hours yesterday getting this house back in order and putting away all the stuff we moved over! It feels awesome to know that today will be spent at my computer, not cleaning. And much needed–I have two weeks to turn in The Lost Heiress, and much work to do!.

But for now, our word of the week. =) Ever wonder at the two different meanings of sentence? On the one hand we have the grammatical meaning of a complete thought. On the other, we have a judgment rendered in court.

Interestingly, they both come from the same root. The Latin sententia means “thought, way of thinking, opinion; judgment, decision,” and also “a thought expressed; aphorism, saying.” This led to meaning “an authoritative saying.” From about 1200 on, it was used in this way, applied to any teaching or doctrine.

In the early 1300s, it began to be applied to court decisions. From there, it took on the connotation in the mid-1300s of “understanding; wisdom; edifying subject matter.” Then it shifted into “the subject matter of a book or speech” at the end of the century. And by the middle of the next century, it narrowed down to that idea of “a complete, grammatical thought.”

Hope everyone has a great Monday!