Minor etymologies

[radiantfracture]

I'm writing some game text and hesitated over the spelling of the word jeopardy. Jeopardy. That's a weird-looking word. Looks kind of like leopard. And jealous. French? So I looked it up.

according to the Online Etymological Dictionary:

jupartie, ioparde, etc., "danger, risk;" earlier "a cunning plan, a stratagem" (c. 1300), from or based on Old French jeu parti "a lost game," more correctly "a divided game, game with even chances" (hence "uncertainty"). The sense perhaps developed in Anglo-French.

This is from jeu "a game" (from Latin iocus "jest;" see joke (n.)) + parti, past participle of partir "to divide, separate" (10c.), from Latin partire/partiri "to share, part, distribute, divide," from pars "a part, piece, a share" (from PIE root *pere- (2) "to grant, allot"). Jeopardous "in peril" (mid-15c.) is now obsolete.

A lost game! Very satisfying.

§rf§

Comments

[cmcmck]

Juparti in Middle English.

[radiantfracture]

Much more transparent!

[asakiyume]

Games and peril! Sounds right.

[radiantfracture]

I like a work for danger that's a little lower-stakes.

[sovay]

Jeopardous "in peril" (mid-15c.) is now obsolete.

That's tragic. It should be brought back from extinction.

[radiantfracture]

Let's! It can be our occult hand.

[thewayne]

That's pretty cool!

Invent a new word: Leopardy: to play a dangerous game of wits with a leopard.

[radiantfracture]

That is quite good.

[larryhammer]

Love this.