Valuing Words

I have been convinced to resume blogging, and this begins my resumption after a hiatus (there's a good word for a future post) of almost a year.

I was reading a biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and came across either a typographical error or what I would consider a misuse of a word. In the place where I would look for the word apprise was the word appraise. That extra "a" makes a difference.

Appraised has an element of determining amount to it. My dictionary has in its three definitions the words "price", "quantity", and "worth". To appraise something is to determine how much (value, quantity) it has. It came to English in about 1400 through Old French (aprisier) from the Late Latin word appretiare. Appretiare was formed from the Latin roots ad-, meaning "to" and pretium, which means price. So its meaning hasn't changed much over the centuries. But its entry into English began the confusion which continues to this day. It came to English as apprize (notice the lack of the second "a"), a spelling still extant in my dictionary.  The existence and confusion with the word praise (not prize) ultimately resulted in the current spelling.

Apprise, on the other hand, comes to English later (about 1690) and from the same root as our word apprehend. The past participle of the French word appris is apprendre, and means literally "to lay hold of [in the mind]". It means to inform, teach, or notify. The word can be spelled with an s or a z; depending on whether you are more concerned with confusion with appraise or apprize you may decide for yourself which spelling to use.

I used the word extant earlier. In case you’re wondering, it’s not a misspelling of extent, it is another good word.

Extant is a good old adjective, arriving in English in the 1540s from the Latin word extantum, which means “standing out above the surface”. The definition of “standing out” is still listed in my dictionary, but as an Archaic usage. Its current usage is the meaning “still in existence, not lost or destroyed.” That meaning came into English within 20 years of the word’s arrival.

Extent is a noun, with more history. It came to English in the early 1300s, from the Anglo-French word extente. It also has an original element of valuation (like appraise); it was originally a reference to the evaluation of land, or the stretch (extent) of the land. It wasn’t until after the use of extant that the meaning of extent settled to its current primary meaning of size or limits of something.

Most people are familiar with extent and appraise; you can show your erudition by proper usage of the good words extant and apprise. Stay tuned for more blogs on words like erudition…