[Lexicog] A folk-etymology

[Mike Maxwell]

Michael Nicholas wrote:
>> Parabrisas is "windscreen" in Spanish as spoken here in Spain. I 
>> imagine if you were asked to define "parasol" the answer would involve 
>> something like "to ward off the rays, light, heat of the sun"
> 
> */rtroike at email.arizona.edu/* escribió:
> 
> Someone a few days ago (pardon, I've forgotten who) mentioned the
> Spanish word "paracaidas" ("parachute"), and etymologized 
 > the "para" as the preposition meaning "for" ("caida" is "fall"),
 > citing "paraguas" ("umbrella") as a parallel ("for water").
> 
> I had always folk-etymologized the "para" part the same way myself,
> and just happened to learn from a student recently that it is 
 > actually the verb "parar" ("to stop, prevent, hinder").
 > Checking the online OED for "parachute", I found
 > that the "para" part here is from the same source, and the
> "chute" is cognate with the Spanish "caida".

I'm the one who wrote that 'para' in these constructions is 'for'.

I was in the process of writing one of my typical long-winded replies 
about arguments on both sides, when I ran into some deciding cases in 
Spanish (from my own notes on this subject, no less, showing how 
forgetful I'm getting).  Yes, this is probably a form of the verb 
'parar' "to stop", not the preposition 'para' "for".  The evidence is 
from other Spanish compounds of this sort, where the left-hand member is 
definitely a verb (I'll put the 'r' of the infinitive in parens):

   sacamuelas < saca(r) "to extract" + muelas "teeth", "dentist"
   lavaplatos < lava(r) "to wash" + platos "dishes", "dishwasher"

There are probably others.  AFAIK, there are no such compounds where the 
left-hand member is unambiguously a preposition.  So on the assumption 
that this is a uniform construction, my etymology (and synchronic 
analysis, to the extent that these are productive and transparent) was 
wrong.

    Mike Maxwell


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