Last week while in the car, we were trying to figure out why “appropriate” (adj) and “appropriate” (v) are spelled exactly the same, pronounced differently, with what we deemed very different meanings. (Yes, my whole family is apparently word-nerdish, LOL.)
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So I just looked it up and kinda scratched my head to see that, in fact, they both come from exactly the same Latin word and both appeared in English in the 15th century.
Both start with proprius, the Latin word from which we get “proper.” It’s the best place the start in this case. Proper means “adapted to some purpose, fit, apt.” The Latin means “one’s own, particular to oneself.” Easy to say how those are related, right? If something is its own, it has a very particular purpose. But it also carries an idea of possession. (Interestingly, it didn’t carry a connotation of social correctness until 1704! Who knew?)
The prefix is a variation of ad- which means “to.” Pretty simple. “To make one’s own” is a very literal definition of the Latin approprius, which is where appropriate comes from. So the verb is pretty easy to see. But it also still has that meaning of “one’s own, particular to itself.” In which case the adjective suddenly makes sense too, because if something is appropriate, it is proper, fit, apt to a purpose.
Yeah, I really never thought that appropriate as “proper” and appropriate as “take for yourself, by force if necessary” were in fact the same. But apparently they are. Pretty interesting, eh?
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
This is such a fascinating word. I am so glad you shared.
It is funny to think that your family discusses these thing, especially since your childeren are so young. My family is totally uninterested in words and thier origin and meaning. They are bored by it. It sounds like our family is full of awesomeness!
LOL.
I use this word a lot with my kids. There are a lot of things that aren't bad, just inappropriate. Like wearing a bathing suit to the mall for example 🙂
DEFINITELY interesting! Love your info here, Roseanna.