10 words:
1. Thorough
2. Thought
3. Through
4. though
5. Dough
6. weight
7. Plough
8. Sleigh
9. Laugh
10. sigh
Trace the etymology of the ten words from their oldest roots (from whatever source) into Modern English. Show how the word developed or migrated through languages to get to English and their present meaning. Date its first usage and provide examples in your discussion of how it comes to its modern meaning.
Please italicize all examples if the word(s) in your prose. Reconstructed and unattested forms need to be marked with an asterisk (i.e. wolf from the Proto-Indo-European *wlkwos).
Please do not use recent words (eg. computer terms, terms involving space travel, etc.) as these will not tell an interesting story.
Avoid compounds since then you have to trace the word history of two words and only get credit for one.
Please format the paper as either a Word document or a PDF (not Google doc or Apple Pages).
Please use either Times New Roman or Cambria 12 point font and 1.5 spacing.
There are a number of sources you can use on-line, including The Oxford English Dictionary (available through the Madden library), worldwidewords.org, Wikipedia, Wonderopolis.org, and thoughtco.com among others. I recommend looking at least three references per word. Please cite where your information came from with each of your 10 entries and include a bibliography at the end of your paper.
Example entry: The modern English word hearse has a long and interesting history. It meant wolf
in Oscan, an Italic language related to Latin. It should be noted that, like in many Indo- European languages, the word for wolf was taboo in Oscan and the word hirpus is not what we expect given the reconstructed sound changes from the PIE root *wlkwos. From Oscan it was borrowed into Early Latin (ca. 300 BCE) as hirpex and the meaning shifted to mean a wolfs tooth specifically the fang, as this is the most salient feature of the wolf. In Mid-Latin (ca. 100 CE ) the meaning changes to mean a large rake, specifically the kind that was used to break up large dirt clods in fields. It then shifted again in Vulgar Latin to *herpica which means hay harrow. The salient feature for the word now being the triangular shape. This happens around 350 CE (and this is what it still means in modern Italian). After the Roman Empire fell in the west, the word continues to be used and we next find it in Old French as herse. Its meaning has shifted again to name the triangular frame for candles, specifically those used in a church. This use is recorded during the Carolingian Empire (ca. 800 CE). Its usage again shifts in Middle French to mean those candle holders, specifically placed over a coffin for funeral services This occurs by ca. 1200 CE (this is still what it means in Modern French). From Middle French it is borrowed into Middle English (ca. 1350 CE) as hearse and it again undergoes another meaning shift to mean the canopy placed over a coffin. In Early Modern English (ca. 1500 CE ), its meaning shifts to coffin bier, which is the frame on which a coffin is placed. By the mid-17th cen. (1650 CE), it has come to mean funeral carriage and with the advent of the automobile, in the 20th century, it comes to mean a funeral car.
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