Sunday, February 8, 2009

Yolk

As I'm sure everyone knows, yolk is "the yellow internal part of an egg, surrounded by the 'white' or albumen, and serving as nourishment for the young before it is hatched" (OED). This word is native to English, showing up in Old English as geolca before becoming the Middle English yolke followed by our Modern English form yolk (AHD). What's most interesting, however, is that the Old English word came from the Old English word geolu, which means 'yellow'! (OED). Isn't it interesting how some words are derived from closely related attributive words? I sure think so!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.