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root

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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.

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