Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Song

Song \sawng\ or \song\ , noun;
1. A short metrical composition intended or adapted for singing, especially one in rhymed stanzas; a lyric; a ballad

Song come from Old English sang ("art of singing, a metrical composition adapted for singing"), which derives from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz.

Song's close relative, sing, comes from Old English singan, which means "to chant, sing, tell in song," but can also refer to the noises of birds. It comes from Proto-Germanic *sengwanan, which derives from Proto-Indo-European *sengwh- ("to sing, make an incantation"). Sing doesn't appear to have any direct relatives in other Indo-European languages, as most all of them derive from *kan- ("to sing"), which is the forbear of Latin cantere and English chant. 

No comments:

Post a Comment