Are "route" and "rut" related?
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Tony Harminc [t...@harminc.net] Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2023 12:57 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Question for our international friends (mostly) On Fri, 17 Mar 2023 at 21:38, Bernd Oppolzer <bernd.oppol...@t-online.de> wrote: > > Very interesting discussion. > > I recently tried to understand what the correct pronounciation of the > word "router" is, because here in Germany there are different opinions. And I > learned in > the end, that BOTH ways are correct, like "rooter" and (don't know how to > spell the other, > maybe) "row-ter". There are two quite different words here, with variants, conversions n->v, v->n and so on, with ultimately quite different meanings and, uh, roots. It's only coincidence that the spelling - and some people's pronunciation - has ended up the same. First is the one that has do do with choosing or making a direction of travel, which is verbing of the noun route, which then gets re-noun'd to router. This is pronounced /ruːtə/ in the UK and /raʊdər/ in the US. As someone said, Canadians are split. This is (part of) the OED's description of that root: "Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French route. Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Old French rute, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French rote, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French, French route, Middle French routte way, direction (first quarter of the 12th cent.), course (of a ship) (c1160), path, passageway (c1170), the course of a military march (a1683) < classical Latin rupta (short for via rupta broken way), feminine of ruptus broken, past participle of rumpere to break (see rumpent n.); compare rumpere viam to open up a path. Compare post-classical Latin ruta , rutta way, road (13th cent. in British sources; 14th cent. in continental sources). The pronunciation with a diphthong is recorded from the second half of the 18th cent. and preferred by some, but not all commentators at that time; it disappears from standard British English in the course of the 19th cent., but is still widespread in North America. a. A way or course taken in moving from a starting point to a destination; a regular line of travel or passage; the course of a river, stream, etc. Also: a means of passage; a way in or out. Cf. en route adv.Often with modifying word indicating the purpose of travel; for more established compounds, as air, bus, lane-, migration-, red, silk, stock-, trade route, etc., see the first element. router Electronics and Computing. A device, circuit, algorithm, etc., which serves to determine the destinations of individual incoming signals; esp. a device which receives data packets and forwards them to the appropriate computer network or part of a network." The kind of router that removes wood comes from a different root, pronounced raʊt in both modern UK and North American dialects: "2. a. Woodworking. Any of various hand tools for working and shaping grooves, rebates, and mouldings, having a narrow, often profiled, cutter; (in later use) spec. a router plane. b. A machine or power tool for working and shaping grooves, rebates, and mouldings in wood or other materials, often following a prescribed outline." from the verb route: "3. b. transitive. Originally: to cut a groove or other recess in the surface of (a material, as wood, metal, etc.) by using any of various tools; to cut (a groove or recess) in this way. Later: to cut or work at by using an electric router or similar tool to remove material." in turn from wroot, v. "Etymology: Old English wrótan , = Old Frisian *wrôta (West Frisian wrotte , North Frisian wrote , wröte , wrät ), Middle Low German wroten (Low German wröten ), Middle Dutch and Dutch wroeten (Antwerp dialect wruten ), Old High German *wrôzian , ruozian to plough up, Old Norse and Icelandic róta , (Middle) Swedish and Norwegian rota , Danish rode ), < wrót wroot n." So in summary, the word that involves sending packets somewhere comes into English from Latin, and the one to do with grooves in wood and the like from old Germanic roots. > While doing this research, I found out that the American way to pronounce > things often > is the OLD british way to do it, which was common in GB in the 19th century > or earlier, > and which then changed in GB, but stayed like it was in the US of America. Yeah - it's normal for the language of emigrants to be more conservative than that of those who stay behind. As above, where /raʊt/ "disappears from standard British English in the course of the 19th cent., but is still widespread in North America." Tony H. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
