root

Root, the part of a plant, and root, to dig with the snout, are different words, though they have influenced each other.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ruːt/^[4]

root¹ part of a plant

Etymology

The part of a plant is inherited from Middle English rot, rote, inherited from Old English rōt, borrowed from Old Norse rót (“root; cause, origin”),^[3][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *wrot, the source also of Old English wyrt “root, herb” and Gothic waurts, with the Scandinavian loss of w before r,^[3][2] from Proto-Indo-European *wrād- (“branch, root”), the source also of Latin rādīx.^[3][5] It is related to wort and radical.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The part of a plant below the ground: 1127 in Barnhart, before 1150 in the OED.^[2][6] The usual Old English words were wyrttruma and wyrtwala.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative use, the source of a quality or condition, is from the late 12th century, as in Tyndale's “coveteousnes is the rote of all evylle” (1526).^[3] The base of teeth or hair is from the early 13th century.^[3] Take root is from the mid-15th century.^[3] In grammar and philology it is from the 1520s, and in mathematics from the 1550s.^[3] Root and branch goes back to the biblical book of Malachi.^[1] Root beer is from 1841–43, American English,^[3][2] and roots, one's ties with a place or culture, is a later sense.^[7] The verb, to fix firmly, is from before 1200, and to pull out by the roots from before 1387.^[2]

Timeline

• 1127 – the underground part of a plant.^[2]
• late 12th century – source, cause.^[3]
• 1520s – in philology.^[3]
• 1550s – in mathematics.^[3]
• 1841 – root beer.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The part of a plant that grows down into the soil, holds it in place and takes in water and food.
2. The part of a tooth, hair or nail that is under the skin.
3. The cause or origin of something: the root of the problem.
4. (roots) One's family origins or ties with a place or culture.
5. (linguistics) The basic part of a word from which other words are formed.
6. (mathematics) A number that, multiplied by itself a given number of times, gives another number: the square root.

Verb

1. To grow roots.
2. To fix firmly, or to become established.
3. (with out or up) To pull up or get rid of completely.

root² dig, rummage

Etymology

To dig with the snout is inherited from Middle English wroten, inherited from Old English wrōtan (“to root up”), altered under the influence of the plant root,^[3][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *wrōtanan, the source also of Dutch wroeten and Old Norse róta,^[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *wrod- (“to root, gnaw”).^[3] Word Origins suggests a link with Latin rōdere “to gnaw”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of swine, to dig with the snout: about 1200 as wroten, and as root from 1538, in Leland's Itinerary.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

To poke about or search is by 1831.^[3][2] Root hog or die, work or fail, is first attested in 1834 in the works of Davy Crockett.^[3] To study or work hard is from 1856, which according to Barnhart and Etymonline led to the American sense “to cheer or support”, first in baseball, in 1889.^[2][3] MWU instead suggests this sense is an alteration of rout.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English wrōtan.^[2]
• 1538 – the form root.^[2]
• 1831 – to rummage.^[3]
• 1856 – to work hard.^[2]
• 1889 – to cheer.^[2][3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. Of a pig, to dig in the earth with the snout.
2. To search by turning things over; to rummage.
3. (with for) To cheer for or support a team or person.

Related words

• wort
• radical
• radish
• rootless

References

1. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster