One of the most commonly referenced roots of the English language is Latin. However, the English language is Germanic – unlike romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.), the actual descendants of Latin.

In this instance, the word in question, “write”, comes from English’s Germanic roots. “Rizan” is the Old High German word for “to write, scratch, or tear”. Imagine if you draw a line hard enough with a pen on paper: that paper would in fact tear.

In German, “rizan” evolved into “reißen” (“tear, pull, or tug”), but in Old English it developed into “writan”, meaning “to score, outline, or draw”, eventually moving into the “write” of today’s English.

Happy WordNerd Wednesday! Feel free to leave words you’d like explained in the coming weeks in the comments below.