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SLAY:
"slay (v.)
Middle English slēn, "strike, beat, strike so as to kill, commit murder," from Old English slean "to smite, strike, beat," also "to kill with a weapon, slaughter" (class VI strong verb; past tense sloh, slog, past participle slagen), from Proto-Germanic *slahanan "to hit" (source also of Old Norse and Old Frisian sla, Danish slaa, Middle Dutch slaen, Dutch slaan, Old High German slahan, German schlagen, Gothic slahan "to strike"). The Germanic words are said to be from PIE root *slak- "to strike" (source also of Middle Irish past participle slactha "struck," slacc "sword"), but, given certain phonetic difficulties and that the only cognates are Celtic, Boutkan says the evidences "point to a North European substratum word."
The verb slēn displays many nondialectal stem variants because of phonological changes and analogical influences both within its own paradigm and from other strong verbs. [Middle English Compendium]
Modern German cognate schlagen maintains the original sense of "to strike."
It is attested by late 12c. as "destroy, put an end to." The meaning "overwhelm with delight" (mid-14c.) preserves one of the wide range of meanings the word once had, including, in Old English, "stamp (coins); forge (weapons); throw, cast; pitch (a tent), to sting (of a snake); to dash, rush, come quickly; play (the harp); gain by conquest."" -
slay | Etymology, origin and meaning of slay by etymonline
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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT:
"A capital crime or offense (1520s) is one that involves the penalty of death and thus affects the life or "head" (capital had a sense of "deadly, mortal" from late 14c. in English, as it did earlier in Latin). The felt connection between "head" and "life, mortality" also existed in Old English: as in heafodgilt "deadly sin, capital offense," heafdes þolian "to forfeit life."
Capital punishment was in Blackstone (1765) and classical Latin capitis poena." -
capital punishment | Search Online Etymology Dictionary
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ECTOPIC (PREGNANCY):
"ectopic (adj.)
1864 in reference to pregnancy, from ectopia "morbid displacement of parts" (1847), coined in Modern Latin from Greek ektopos "away from a place, distant; foreign, strange," from ek- "out" (see
ex-) + topos "place" (see
topos)." -
ectopic | Etymology, origin and meaning of ectopic by etymonline
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STILL BIRTH (STILL & BIRTH):
"stillbirth (n.)
also still-birth, 1764, from
still (adj.) +
birth (n.).
Entries linking to stillbirth
still (adj.)
Old English stille "motionless, stable, fixed, stationary," from Proto-Germanic *stilli- (source also of Old Frisian, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch stille, Dutch stil, Old High German stilli, German still), from PIE *stel-ni-, suffixed form of root
*stel- "to put, stand, put in order," with derivatives referring to a standing object or place. Meaning "quiet, calm, gentle, silent" emerged in later Old English. Euphemistic for "dead" in stillborn, etc. Still small voice is from KJV:
And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. [I Kings xix.11-13]
Used as a conjunction from 1722.
birth (n.)
c. 1200, "fact of being born;" mid-13c., "act of giving birth, a bringing forth by the mother, childbirth," sometimes in Middle English also "conception;" also "that which is born, offspring, child;" from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse *byrðr (replacing cognate Old English gebyrd "birth, descent, race; offspring; nature; fate"), from Proto-Germanic *gaburthis (source also of Old Frisian berd, Old Saxon giburd, Dutch geboorte, Old High German giburt, German geburt, Gothic gabaurþs), from PIE *bhrto past participle of root
*bher- (1) "to carry; to bear children" (compare
bear (v.)).
The Germanic suffix -th is for "process" (as in
bath,
death). The meaning "condition into which a person is born, lineage, descent" is attested from c. 1200 (it was also in the Old English word). In reference to non-living things, "any coming into existence" is from 1610s.
Birth control is from 1914;
birth certificate is from 1842." -
stillbirth | Etymology, origin and meaning of stillbirth by etymonline
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BORN:
"born (adj.)
Old English boren, alternative past participle of beran (see
bear (v.)). The -en of the Middle English past participles tended to drop the -e- in some verbs, especially after vowels, -r-, and -l- , hence also
slain, etc., Middle English stoln. "In modern use the connexion with bear is no longer felt; the phrase to be born has become virtually an intr. verb" [OED].
It is attested from early 14c. as "possessing from birth the character or quality described" (born poet, born loser, etc.). It is from 1710 as "innate, inherited;" the colloquial expression
in (one's) born days "in (one's) lifetime" is by 1742. The distinction of born from
borne (q.v.) is 17c. " -
born | Etymology, origin and meaning of born by etymonline
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BEAR (CHILD BEARING):
"bear (v.)
Old English beran "to carry, bring; bring forth, give birth to, produce; to endure without resistance; to support, hold up, sustain; to wear" (class IV strong verb; past tense bær, past participle boren), from Proto-Germanic *beranan (source also of Old Saxon beran, Old Frisian bera "bear, give birth," Middle Dutch beren "carry a child," Old High German beran, German gebären, Old Norse bera "carry, bring, bear, endure; give birth," Gothic bairan "to carry, bear, give birth to"), from PIE root
*bher- (1) "carry a burden, bring," also "give birth" (though only English and German strongly retain this sense, and Russian has beremennaya "pregnant").
The Old English past tense bær became Middle English bare; the alternative bore began to appear c. 1400, but bare remained the literary form till after 1600. Past-participle distinction of
borne for "carried" and
born for "given birth" is from late 18c.
Many senses are from the notion of "move onward by pressure." To
bear down "proceed forcefully toward" (especially in nautical use) is from 1716. The verb is attested from c. 1300 as "possess as an attribute or characteristic." The meaning "sustain without sinking" is from 1520s; to
bear (something) in mind is from 1530s; the meaning "tend, be directed" (in a certain way) is from c. 1600. To
bear up is from 1650s as "be firm, have fortitude."" -
bear | Etymology, origin and meaning of bear by etymonline
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