With the Hurricane news, I read about a man who used a "pirogue" to get to safety. The report said that it is a French word, though in looking it up it says, "French from Spanish." Then I looked up the Spanish word "piragua" which said, "a canoe made by hallowing out a tree trunk." This is the exact same definition of "pirogue."
Isn't it a Spanish word then? If words are handed down through various languages, are all languages given credit for the word?
Pirogue is a French word which comes from the Spanish word piragua. Of course, the distinction is a little trickier when the words are closer to each other, and especially if they are the same. Take "status quo". Is "quo" an English word? Well, yes, but directly from Latin, so it is also a Latin word.
Confusing? I thought so. Nothing about langauge is simple. Just trying to define word in a sense that works for all human language is extraordinarily difficult, and one can come up with many different criteria. I'm sure there are linguists who take both sides on the matter on when a word is in a language.
Perhaps it's just my limited experience with etymology, but it's my impression that Spanish isn't always given its due credit when etymology is discussed.
Spanish, especially that version used in South and Central America, has a lot of words that originated with the native Americans. piragua is one such. Dictionary.com says that it is 'Spanish, from Carib.'
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!
