Isn't English stupid? I mean, it totally is. It's such an absurd hodgepodge of patently ridiculous half-rules and exceptions that it's a wonder you have any idea what I just said. Here, a quick example. If "right" is pronounced "rīt," then shouldn't "bite" be spelled "bight?"
Okay, as it happens, yeah. It totally should. And is. At least one version of it. Have you ever seen that before and thought it was a typo? Bight isn't a word... is it? Well, think back to where you might have seen that word. Was it on a map, maybe?
Bight is a noun describing a curve or recess in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature (New Oxford American). It can also refer to a curved section of rope in knot tying diagrams. It's not a common word, but if you live in Australia you might have heard of it.
You might be wondering how that word relates to similar English words, like bite, or right, or night/knight. It shares exact pronunciation with one of them and very similar spelling to the others. Surely there's a tie there somewhere. Well despite what you might (there's another one!) think, it doesn't. Have ties. To like... any of them. It springs from Old English byht, which meant bend or angle. You can trace it back from there through the Germanic languages to the Proto-Indo-European bheug, which meant "to bend."
So at least the meaning hasn't changed to something completely ridiculous during that time. It pretty much all comes up meaning bend, curve, bow, corner, something of that nature. Hey, do you want to see if anything in Latin means the same thing? Maybe we've stollen their word for bend and are using it to describe something totally unrelated because we already had a perfectly good word to describe a bend! What do we think?
Turns out, there is a Latin word that means approximately the same thing! And we are using it in modern English! If fact, we're using it a heck of a lot more often than bight, that's for sure. It's sinus. Means a curved hollow or concavity in the body. In Latin it referred to the same kinds of geographical recesses we call bights. So... Yeah. Next time you go see the doctor with sinus issues, tell him your bights are really blocked up.
And then let me know what he says.
Okay, as it happens, yeah. It totally should. And is. At least one version of it. Have you ever seen that before and thought it was a typo? Bight isn't a word... is it? Well, think back to where you might have seen that word. Was it on a map, maybe?
Bight is a noun describing a curve or recess in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature (New Oxford American). It can also refer to a curved section of rope in knot tying diagrams. It's not a common word, but if you live in Australia you might have heard of it.
You might be wondering how that word relates to similar English words, like bite, or right, or night/knight. It shares exact pronunciation with one of them and very similar spelling to the others. Surely there's a tie there somewhere. Well despite what you might (there's another one!) think, it doesn't. Have ties. To like... any of them. It springs from Old English byht, which meant bend or angle. You can trace it back from there through the Germanic languages to the Proto-Indo-European bheug, which meant "to bend."
So at least the meaning hasn't changed to something completely ridiculous during that time. It pretty much all comes up meaning bend, curve, bow, corner, something of that nature. Hey, do you want to see if anything in Latin means the same thing? Maybe we've stollen their word for bend and are using it to describe something totally unrelated because we already had a perfectly good word to describe a bend! What do we think?
Turns out, there is a Latin word that means approximately the same thing! And we are using it in modern English! If fact, we're using it a heck of a lot more often than bight, that's for sure. It's sinus. Means a curved hollow or concavity in the body. In Latin it referred to the same kinds of geographical recesses we call bights. So... Yeah. Next time you go see the doctor with sinus issues, tell him your bights are really blocked up.
And then let me know what he says.
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