September 16, 2018
There's no "rage" in "outrage" and "courage."
I'm reading "The Freedom Trail in Mississippi Is a Chronicle of Outrage and Courage," which I recommend but won't summarize. I want to talk about a language matter, the "rage" in "outrage" and "courage." You probably already realize that there's no "rage" in "courage," that it's a combination of "cour" (which means heart) and "-age" (which is a standard way to make a noun "denoting something belonging or functionally related to what is denoted by the first element" (OED)). But you probably, like me, think "rage" is the foundation of the word "outrage" and "out" is a prefix, such as in "outside" or "outlaw." I was surprised to see that "outrage," like "courage," is using the "-age" ending, and the "r" is part of the root of the word, "outr-." It comes from the Latin ("ultra") and the French ("outre") for "beyond," signifying transgression. The OED acknowledges, "In English often reanalysed as out- prefix + rage n., a notion which affected the sense development." That is, there is no "rage" in "outrage," but we see it there anyway and it affects how we understand the word. I don't think we see "rage" in "courage," though. I'm only seeing it now because of that headline, putting "outrage" and "courage" side by side, so I don't think our understanding of "courage" is affected by the unseen "rage."
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33 comments:
Couprage is what is happening to Democrats who thought they were going to beat Donald Trump.
Sorry, Deep Staters.
Will there be enough couprage to take down Kavanaugh?
Outrage has two senses
1. The thing which is outre, beyond what is proper
2. The reaction to it.
The word says they're one and the same, the word itself says so. Not one person in a hundred notices the equation of two entirely different things. What is beyond what is proper deserves rage is a handy hidden doctrine.
This is so useful that the word was reimported back into French.
Our English word rage is traced back to Proto-IndoEuropean *rebh which meant something an edge or an extremity.
Three related English words are rib, reef and roof.
A related Latin word is rabies, which means rage.
Latin rabies became the Old French rage, which entered the English language with the Norman conquest.
TEARS OF RAGE!!!
The Latin verb rabere meant to rage.
That Latin verb passed through Old French into English to become our verbs to rave and to rage.
Of course our English word rabies comes from the Latin word rabies, which means rage.
That's interesting, I've been reading the word "courage" for 50 years, and never saw the "Rage" there - until you mentioned it.
But yeah, "Outrage"is all about the "rage".
Does anyone see the anger in encourage? Or garage?
"Maybe in order to understand mankind, we have to look at the word itself.
Basically, it's made up of two separate words — 'mank' and 'ind.' What do these words mean? It's a mystery, and that's why so is mankind."
French speakers see the outre age combo word. It means outside acceptible norms of conduct.. The anger at outsiders is an add on emotion trigger. As for courage, it is definitely about being lion hearted in battle and is sexist as it gets.
VERY interesting, Professor; thanks!
Words which are syllablfied improperly from the point of view of etymological sense
pregnant (pre-gnant)
amnesia (a-mnesia)
helicopter (helico-pter)
Richard was a lion. You're not supposed to think of the tail, says Wm. Empson.
I take umbrage.
You make an interesting word dissection in a 'angels on pinheads' sort of way but relevant? Not so much, imho. More to the point, in NO way do I think- as you say - "it affects how we understand the word". C'mon, at some point over the passage of Time-Place, the USAGE-MEANING of a word or phrase is the meaning of CONTEMPORARY 'general understanding-acceptance - NOT what it's etymological meaning was in the year 1066, yes? Personally, I would find it much more interesting-productive to - as befitting the current 'Kulture' - explore-define-debate how much more a "Feminine" description the word 'Rage' seems to be these days. ...Hey, there's a Sociology thesis for ya' - "TENNIS COURT AND POLITICAL RAGE AS A MARKER OF THE MODERN FEMINIST MILIEU" ...#1(mid 19th century: French, from mi ‘mid’ + lieu ‘place’."
rcocean,
I sometimes saw the rage in "garage mahal" but he is now absent.
Kavanaugh's panty-raiding was caused by his underage.
out drinking-- got caught in a barrage of flying fists
Forage for beers.
O for fuck’s sake, Althouse. Maybe it’s time to ween yourself off the goddamn New York Times?
ok now do 'Grape-Nuts'
(sorry, Jerry)
“I sometimes saw the rage in "garage mahal" but he is now absent.”
I once called him gasrage — this was before blogger had autocorrect in comments.
Having gnawed on Kavanaugh for weeks, the rodents will now swarm after Senators.
Just saw the old I Love Lucy segment
Bough
Rough
Through
Enough
English is hard for a foreigner to learn.
I've never seen the word or the idea of "rage" in "outrageous" either.
There is no "age" in decolletage.
Sometimes I'm so mad at myself, I'm full of inrage.
Althouse: There is no "rage" in "outrage"
Of course there is. There wasn't, when the word first came in to the English language, but there is now. We've put it there.
There's no "ade" in Meade, but there is mead in Meade.
Maybe it is competitive raging - like saying "I can out-rage you ... so take that."
which is what we are seeing happening in the emotionalist culture.
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