Fossilised causatives

[Andrew Patterson]

In olden times the idea of "cause to" was shown by a vowel change. A few of these still survive, thus:
Fall -> Fell = cause to fall.

Others include sit -> set and rise -> raise.

I would like a fuller list if anyone can think of any, thanks.

[metal56]

In olden times the idea of "cause to" was shown by a vowel change. A few of these still survive, thus:
Fall -> Fell = cause to fall.

Others include sit -> set and rise -> raise.

I would like a fuller list if anyone can think of any, thanks.

You mean as in, "to fell a tree"?

[Andrew Patterson]

You mean as in, "to fell a tree"?

Yes, I do. It seems that the vowel change can often result in an infinitive or present tense verb that is also the past tense of the original verb. That's why I wrote "to fall" and "to fell" to make it clear in the modal agony post. Sorry, I shuld have made that clear.

Another pair: "to lie" and "to lay".

Sit has another partner, seat(v) which also demonstrates another fact, the exact meaning of these can vary - "cause to fall" could also be "drop" but this is clearly not formed from "fall".

[JuanTwoThree]

"drench" means "to cover with drink/force to drink/ soak etc"

[Andrew Patterson]

"drench" means "to cover with drink/force to drink/ soak etc"

Originally at least, but the current meaning has now diverged somewhat from its original meaning:

drench from O.E. drencan "cause to drink," causative of drincan "to drink," from P.Gmc. *drankijan. In M.E., it meant "to drown;" sense of "to wet thoroughly by throwing liquid over" is from c.1550.

Keep them coming.

[Andrew Patterson]

Did a bit more research at etymology.com. It seems "rear" meaning what the Lone ranger's horse does as he shouts, "Hi ho Silver," is another causative of "rise".

There's also "bait"="cause to bite" (perhaps the meaning has changed a bit) and "wend"="cause to wind" (And that only exists in the expression "wend one's way.") "Went" was the past of "wend" but has has diverged in meaning.

[Andrew Patterson]

At this point, it might be worth summarising what we've got:
bite -> bait
drink -> drench
fall -> fell
lie -> lay
rise -> rear/raise
sit -> seat/set
wind -> wend

Keep them coming.

[alsoran]

Andrew

How about "hang" and "hung" ("The painting hangs in the Louvre" and "They hung the painting in the Louvre")?
And maybe "rang" and "rung"?

[Andrew Patterson]

Andrew

How about "hang" and "hung" ("The painting hangs in the Louvre" and "They hung the painting in the Louvre")?
And maybe "rang" and "rung"?

"Hung" is just a past tense.
We can say "to fall" or "to fell";
we can say "to hang" but we can't say "to hung"; however
we can say both "to ring" and "to rung". Now to rung means to "put rungs on" as one might do when making a ladder. I'll check to see if it ever was a causitive. The meaning clearly isn't causitive now.

[Andrew Patterson]

ring (n.) O.E. hring "circular band," from P.Gmc. *khrengaz (cf. O.N. hringr, O.Fris. hring, Ger. Ring), lit. "something curved," from PIE base *(s)ker- "to turn, bend" (cf. L. curvus "bent, curved," crispus "curly;" O.C.S. kragu "circle," and perhaps Gk. kirkos "ring," koronos "curved"). Meaning "place for prize fight and wrestling bouts" (c.1330) is from the space in a circle of bystanders in which such contests were once held (ringside is attested from 1866). Meaning "combination of interested persons" is from 1829. The verb meaning "to make a circle around" is O.E. ymbhringan. The circus ringmaster is recorded from 1873. Tree ring is from 1671; fairy ring is from 1626. Nursery rhyme ring a ring a rosie, is attested in an American form (with a different ending) from c.1790. "The belief that the rhyme originated with the Great Plague is now almost universal, but has no evidence to support it and is almost certainly nonsense" ["Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore"]. This connection only dates to the 1960s.

ring (v.) "sound a bell," O.E. hringan, from P.Gmc. *khrenganan (cf. O.N. hringja, Swed. ringa, M.Du. ringen), probably of imitative origin. To give (someone) a ring "call on the telephone" was in use by 1910. To ring down a theatrical curtain is from 1772, from the custom of signaling for it by ringing a bell.

rung O.E. hrung "rod, bar," from P.Gmc. *khrungo (cf. M.L.G. runge, O.H.G. runga "stake, stud, stave," M.Du. ronghe, Du. rong "rung," Goth. hrugga "staff"), of unknown origin with no connections outside Gmc. Sense in Eng. narrowed to "round or stave of a ladder" (first attested c.1290), but usage of cognate words remains more general in other Gmc. languages.

Etymology.com doesn't go back far enough. Apart from the past tense, "ring" and "rung" could be cognate but I don't see any evidence for rung being a causative.

[alsoran]

Thanks, Andrew. I suspected I didn't really have a handle on causatives. Your reply is clarifying it for me.

[JuanTwoThree]

This seems to be a near miss:

"slope (v.)
1591, from earlier adj. meaning "slanting" (1502), probably from M.E. aslope (adv.) "on the incline" (1470), from O.E. *aslopen, pp. of aslupan "to slip away," from a- "away" + slupan "to slip" (see sleeve). The noun is first recorded 1611, from the verb."

I was also initially attracted by "to broach" meaning "to cause to break" because of how close "broach" is to "broke". But it seems that "to broach" and "to broke" (as in "broker") are both connected with banging a sharp point( as in "brooch") into a barrel.

[Andrew Patterson]

I was also initially attracted by "to broach" meaning "to cause to break" because of how close "broach" is to "broke". But it seems that "to broach" and "to broke" (as in "broker") are both connected with banging a sharp point( as in "brooch") into a barrel.

As soon as you wrote that, I thought about "breach"

breach O.E. bræc "a breaking," from brecan (see break), infl. by O.Fr. breche, from Frankish; both from P.Gmc. *brecho, *bræko "broken," from PIE base *bhreg-. Fig. sense of "a breaking of rules, etc." was in O.E. The verb is first recorded 1573.

Either way, the meanings of "broach" and "breach" seem to have moved towards "cause to break".

[thethinker]

Looks like you missed bend/bind from etymonline. Original meaning of bend was "confine with string", i.e. cause to be bound. I suppose we are basically talking about a causative function of ablaut here, but searching for things like "causative ablaut" on google doesn't get you very far, at least not in terms of examples in English.

[JuanTwoThree]

Andrew, I hate you. I've been doing nothing but think about vowel changes to produce cause.

What about:

drip
c.1300, from M.Dan. drippe, from P.Gmc. *drup-, from PIE base *dhreub-. O.E. had related drypan "to let drop," dropian "fall in drops," and dreopan "to drop."

OE seemed to distinguish between drypan and dropian. I suppose that a good bit of onomatopoeia plays a part in this case.