
The word for what Renn is nowadays is “vehement.” “Yyyyyyyyeah!” she will say in answer to any old question. Or “NO,” with her hand starkly out in front of her, fingers splayed and ramrod straight. Especially to the dogs if she is holding a piece of apple, or anytime she thinks of the squirrel that tries to get our bird feeder contents, with whom she has decided to be mortal enemies.
There aren’t all that many veh- words out there, so: what’s the deal?
Well, and how lovely, both vehement and vehicle go back to a PIE root, “wegh,” meaning “to go, move, or transport in a vehicle.” So Renn is just transporting a whole bunch with her words these days!
Please enjoy the wild array of other things it’s posited to be associated with:
Obviously earwig is the most worrisome here, and I’m sorry to say not only does it have the same PIE root as wiggle, they seem to be even closer:
I mean, “earwig” is BAD ENOUGH as a word that gives rise to an image in the mind, but to think of “wig” as not being a sort of bug but rather the movement that happens to get the bug in your ear and then presumably while it’s there is just unacceptable. I am grateful for the “(but false)” but really, it’s too little, too late.
Allowing, I GUESS, that it’s false, I welcome you to join me in likely never-satisfied curiosity about why Northern England during the reign of Charles II chose such a different body part in which to locate the falsehood.
OK byeeeeeeeee!
