Difference between revisions of "Ghyll talk:Exingians"
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(Well, I'll be. So it is.) |
("Sherd" came before "shard") |
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:Huh, I never would have guessed. I bet that originally was a typo, and then those crazy archaeologists liked it and kept using it - like the word "Filk". --[[User:Dfaran L'Eniarc|Dfaran L'Eniarc]] 00:45, 19 Jun 2005 (EDT) | :Huh, I never would have guessed. I bet that originally was a typo, and then those crazy archaeologists liked it and kept using it - like the word "Filk". --[[User:Dfaran L'Eniarc|Dfaran L'Eniarc]] 00:45, 19 Jun 2005 (EDT) | ||
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| + | ::In fact it's the other way around: "sherd" is the older form, though less popular today; it's related to "shear". See [http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE467.html] for full details. English underwent a partial sound-change that changed "er" to "ar" in the 17th century; this affected the name of the letter R and the words "varsity" (from "university"), "parson" (which used to be just a different meaning of "person"), "sergeant" (which kept its spelling with "er"), and "shard" among others. However, in the great majority of words with "er" the sound-change reversed itself; we no longer say or write "marcy" for "mercy", for example. --[[User:Jcowan|John Cowan]] 14:13, 20 Jun 2005 (EDT) | ||
Revision as of 13:13, 20 June 2005
Nope - he meant "potsherds". See http://www.answers.com/potsherds. --Morbus Iff 21:18, 18 Jun 2005 (EDT)
- Huh, I never would have guessed. I bet that originally was a typo, and then those crazy archaeologists liked it and kept using it - like the word "Filk". --Dfaran L'Eniarc 00:45, 19 Jun 2005 (EDT)
- In fact it's the other way around: "sherd" is the older form, though less popular today; it's related to "shear". See [1] for full details. English underwent a partial sound-change that changed "er" to "ar" in the 17th century; this affected the name of the letter R and the words "varsity" (from "university"), "parson" (which used to be just a different meaning of "person"), "sergeant" (which kept its spelling with "er"), and "shard" among others. However, in the great majority of words with "er" the sound-change reversed itself; we no longer say or write "marcy" for "mercy", for example. --John Cowan 14:13, 20 Jun 2005 (EDT)
