In etymology, doublets (alternatively etymological twins or twinlings) are words in a given language that come from the same etymon. Many doublets in English resulted from borrowing of related words from other languages. While doublets may be synonyms, the characterization is usually reserved for words that have diverged significantly in meaning: for example, the English doublets pyre and fire are distinct terms with related meanings that both ultimately descend from the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word .
Words with similar meanings but subtle differences contribute to the richness of modern English, and many of these are doublets. A good example consists of the doublets frail and fragile. (These are both ultimately from the Latin adjective , but frail evolved naturally through its slowly changing forms in Old French and Middle English, whereas fragile is a learned borrowing directly from Latin in the 15th century.)
Another example of nearly synonymous doublets is aperture and overture (the commonality behind the meanings is "opening"). Doublets may also develop contrasting meanings, such as the terms host and guest, which come from the same PIE word and already existed as a doublet in Latin, and then Old French, or in Old French. before being borrowed into English. Doublets also vary with respect to how far their forms have diverged. For example, the connection between levy and levee is easy to guess, whereas the connection between sovereign and soprano is harder to guess.
Origin Doublets can develop in various ways, according to which route the two forms took from the origin to their current form. Complex, multi-step paths are possible, though in many cases groups of terms follow the same path. Simple paths are discussed below, with the simplest distinction being that doublets in a given language can have their root in the same language (or an ancestor), or may originate in a separate language.
Native origin Most simply, a native word can at some point split into two distinct forms, staying within a single language, as with English too which split from to.
Alternatively, a word may be inherited from a parent language, and a cognate borrowed from a separate sister language. In other words, one route was direct inheritance, while the other route was inheritance followed by borrowing. In English this means one word inherited from a Germanic source, with, e.g., a Latinate cognate term borrowed from Latin or a Romance language. In English this is most common with words which can be traced back to Indo-European languages, which in many cases share the same proto-Indo-European root, such as Romance beef and Germanic cow. However, in some cases the branching is more recent, dating only to proto-Germanic, not to PIE; many words of Germanic origin occur in French and other Latinate languages, and hence in some cases were both inherited by English (from proto-Germanic) and borrowed from French or another source – see List of English Latinates of Germanic origin. The forward linguistic path also reflects cultural and historical transactions; often the name of an animal comes from Germanic while the name of its cooked meat comes from Romance. Since English is unusual in that it borrowed heavily from two distinct branches of the same language family tree – Germanic and Latinate/Romance – it has a relatively high number of this latter type of etymological twin. See list of Germanic and Latinate equivalents in English for further examples and discussion.
Less commonly, a native word may be borrowed into a foreign language, then reborrowed back into the original language, existing alongside the original term. An English example is animation and anime "Japanese animation", which was reborrowed from Japanese . Such a word is sometimes called a (German for "one who wanders back").
Borrowed origin In case of twins of foreign origin, which consist of two borrowings (of related terms), one can distinguish if the borrowing is of a term and a descendant, or of two cognate terms (siblings).
Etymological twins are often a result of chronologically separate borrowing from a source language. In the case of English, this usually means once from French during the Norman invasion, and again later, after the word had evolved separately in French. An example of this is warranty and guarantee.
Another possibility is borrowing from both a language and its daughter language. In English this is usually Latin and some other Romance language, particularly French – see Latin influence in English. The distinction between this and the previous is whether the source language has changed to a different language or not.
Less directly, a term may be borrowed both directly from a source language and indirectly via an intermediate language. In English this is most common in borrowings from Latin, and borrowings from French that are themselves from Latin; less commonly from Greek directly and through Latin.
In case of borrowing cognate terms, rather than descendants, most simply an existing doublet can be borrowed: two contemporary twin terms can be borrowed.
More remotely, cognate terms from different languages can be borrowed, such as sauce (Old French) and salsa (Spanish), both ultimately from Latin, or tea (Dutch ) and chai (Hindi), both ultimately from Chinese. This last pair reflects the history of how tea has entered English via different trade routes.
By language
English Many thousands of English examples can be found, grouped according to their earliest deducible Indo-European ancestor.Calvert Watkins, The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. In some cases over a hundred English words can be traced to a single root. Some examples in English include:
host and guest: via Latin and Germanic strange and extraneous: Old French, Latin word and verb: Germanic, Latin shadow, shade, and shed, all from Old English "shadow, shade" stand, stay, state, status, and static: native, Middle French, Latin (twice), and Ancient Greek via Latin, all from the same Indo-European root chief, chef, cape, capo, caput, and head: French (twice), Latin via French, Italian, Latin, and Germanic, all from the same Indo-European word "head") secure and sure: Latin, French capital, cattle, and chattel: Latin, Norman French, and standard French plant and clan: Latin, Latin via Old Irish right, rich, raj, rex, regalia, regal, reign, royal, and real: Germanic, Celtic, Sanskrit, Latin (twice), French (three times), and Portuguese cognates, all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European "to straighten, to right oneself, right, just" carton and cartoon, both ultimately Italian "carton" ward and guard: Old English, French, both originally Germanic; also warden and guardian; as well as warranty and guarantee chrism and cream: Greek via Latin, Greek via Latin and French cow and beef: Germanic via Old English, Latin via French; both ultimately Proto-Indo-European pipe and fife: both from Germanic, via Old English and German wheel, cycle, and chakra: Germanic, Greek via Latin, Sanskrit, all from Proto-Indo-European "wheel" frenetic and frantic: Greek, via Old French and Latin cave and cavern, from Latin , via French and Germanic languages direct, from Latin, and derecho, from Latin via Spanish price, prise, prize, praise, pry (a lever), and prix, all from French, some diverged in English corn, kernel and grain, all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European , the first two natively via Proto-Germanic (g → k), the last via Latin, borrowed from Old French clock, cloche, cloak, and glockenspiel, from Medieval Latin "bell", via Middle Dutch, French (twice) and German pique and pike (weapon), both from Middle French mister, master, meister, maestro, mistral (a Mediterranean wind), and magistrate are all ultimately derived from Latin "teacher" equip, ship, skiff, and skipper, from Old French, Old English, Old Italian via Middle French, and Middle Dutch, all from Proto-Germanic "ship" domain, demesne, dominion, and dungeon, all from French Slav and slave, from Latin and French, both ultimately from Proto-Slavic via Greek hemp, cannabis, and canvas, the former natively through Proto-Germanic, the latter two via Greek and Latin, all ultimately from either Proto-Indo-European or a very early shared borrowing from Scythian or Thracian discrete and discreet, from Latin, diverged in English, now homophones apothecary, boutique, and bodega, all ultimately from Greek via Latin and then, respectively, via Old French, via Old Occitan and Middle French, and via Spanish. care, charity, cheer, cherish, and whore, from French, Anglo-Norman, and Germanic, all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European , "dear; loved" garden and yard, the former via Anglo-Norman, the latter through Germanic. zealous and jealous, the former from Greek, the latter via Old French. tradition and treason: Latin via Old French. short, shirt, skirt and curt, the first two from Old English, the third from Old Norse and the fourth from Latin, all ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European , "to cut" reave and rob, the former from Old English, the latter from Frankish and Old High German via Latin, via Anglo-Norman, all ultimately from Proto-Germanic , "to steal" think and thank, both ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European , "to think". "Thank" meant "to give kind thoughts". arm and art, from Old English and Old French, both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European , "to fit, to fix, to put together, to slot" know, can, note, notice, noble, ignorant, recognize, normal, cognition, narrate, notorious, gnome, paranoid, nous, and gnosis. From Old English (twice), Old French (5 times), Latin (4 times), and Greek (4 times). All can be derived partially or entirely from Proto-Indo-European "to recognise, to know". horse, hurry, carry, and car. From Old English (twice) and Gaulish (twice). All ultimately originate from Proto-Indo-European "to run". the, that, this, and there. All originate from Proto-Indo-European "this, that", via Old English. blink, blank, bleach, and bleak. All originate from Proto-Indo-European "to shine" via Proto-Germanic. green, grey, grass, and grow. All originate from Proto-Indo-European "to grow" via Old English. yellow, gold, glow, and gall. All originate from Proto-Indo-European via Old English. king, kind, kin, nation, gentle, general, generic, genre, gender, generous, nature, naive, native, germ, genie, engine, generate, genus, genius, genitalia, genesis, gonad, and gene. From Old English (3 times), Old French (13 times), Latin (4 times) and Greek (3 times). All ultimately from Proto-Indo-European "to produce, to beget, to give birth". bear, brown, bore, berry, fierce, feral, ferocious, panther, and therapod, from Old English (4 times), Old French (twice), Latin, and Greek (twice), all ultimately from Proto-Indo-European "wild animal". strait, strict and stretto, from French, Latin and Italian policy ("principle of management"), polity and police, from various French forms derived from the Latin polītīa and Ancient Greek polīteíā. policy ("insurance contract") is an unrelated, homographic and homophonous false cognate. sky, hide, hut, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European "to cover, conceal, hide". skin is unrelated.
There are many more doublets from Greek, where one form is a vernacular borrowing and the other a learned borrowing, such as scandal and slander, both from σκάνδαλον.
Norman vs. standard or Modern French