deracinate

[Wilson Gray]

On Nov 18, 2004, at 2:41 PM, RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       RonButters at AOL.COM
> Subject:      deracinate
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> --------
>
> According to the OED, the word DERACINATE was apparently coined by
> Shakespeare, who used it first in Henry V, v,ii, 47. I say the bard
> borrowed it directly
> from French; my colleague George Williams, who is working on the
> Variorium
> Shakespeare, seems surprised that Shakespeare did not borrow the Latin
> form,
> which would be DERAXINATE. I will leave it to the Shakespeareans to
> figure out
> which is most likely from the point of view of the bard's mind and
> track record.
> But what I am wondering is as follows:
>
> 1. Does anyone have an antedating to the 1599 Shakespeare quote?
> 2. Does DERAXINATE feel as unlikely to ADS-ers as it does to me?
>
> I realize that this is not an AMERICAN English question, but then
> Shakespeare
> was really an American, wasn't he? Just born in the wrong place?
>

1) I don't.

2) I don't have a Latin reference handy, but it certainly seems as
unlikely to me as it does to you. I'd expect DERADICINAT-US/-A/-UM or
even DERACINAT-US/-A/-UM, depending upon the relevant period in the
history of Latin, before I'd expect DERAXINAT-US/-A/-UM. In any case,
I'd think that any decent dictionary could supply the correct Latin
root, whether Shakespeare coined the word or Virgil did.

-Wilson Gray