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Common: originally the opposite of Immune          In what manner was the word common originally the opposite of the adjective immune? Common, as an antonym of immune, is a nifty tale involving ancient Roman legal duties and taxation. Antonym is a word with an opposite meaning. The antonym of hot is cold. The antonym of young is old. Common Modern English common, like French commun, Spanish común, Italian commune and Portuguese comum all descend from the Latin adjective communis whose literal meaning is ‘not under any legal obligation, exempt from public duty or taxes. The compound communis = Latin cum, con-, com- ‘together, with’ + Early Latin munis ‘bound, under obligation either legal or perhaps, in earlier Latin, tribal.’ Compare the third-declension Latin noun munus, muneris with its earliest meaning of ‘burden, duty performed, service done’ and its later meanings of ‘public office, favour, public gladiatorial spectacle.’ "But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"                                       Mark Twain Two Related Words From Latin munus ‘service, exchange of gifts’ derive English words like munificent (generous) and remuneration (payment). Immune In its prime and sensuous meaning, immune did not refer to health or disease. It meant ‘free of tribal obligation, free not to perform any public duty.’ The compound was made up of the Latin prefix in-, im- not, as many suppose, meaning ‘in’ but instead a Latin negative prefix meaning ‘not,’ thus immunis = im ‘not’ + munis ‘obliged.’ Note that the negative Latin prefix in- often assimilated to the first letter of the root word to which it was frontally attached, especially if the first letter of the root word was l, m, p or r, as, for example, in words like illogical, impatient, irreversible.   "The moral immune system of this country has been weakened and attacked, and the AIDS virus is the perfect metaphor for it. The malignant neglect of the last twelve years has led to breakdown of our country's immune system, environmentally, culturally, politically, spiritually and physically."                                           Barbra Streisand   When immune first entered English it meant free of anything regarded as burdensome or damaging. During the 1860s, immune began to appear in the pages of The Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, with modern meanings like ‘impervious of a specific malady, disease-resistant, not susceptible to individual pathogens, antigens or other disease agents.’   A child who is protected from all controversial ideas is as vulnerable as a child who is protected from every germ. The infection, when it comes — and it will come — may overwhelm the system, be it the immune system or the belief system.                           Jane Smiley, novelist   The Difference between Derivative and Cognate This pair of once-upon-a-time antonyms (common/immune) presents an apt moment to show the difference between derivative and cognate. A derivative word is borrowed, inherited or descended from another language, as English common is a derivative from Latin communis. As it happens, we also have in English a word that is cognate with Latin communis. A cognate word is related in origin to another word, but by way of an older language source from which both languages inherit similar basic root-forms. For example, English brother and German Bruder are not derivatives. Both words are cognate; both stem from a more ancient language, in this case, from common Germanic where the form may have been *brôthar, itself related to Old Aryan *brather with its cognates Greek ϕρᾱτηρ phrater, Latin frāter, Old Slavonic brātŭ, Old Celtic *brāter (Irish and Gaelic brathair and Welsh brawd). The English cognate of common is our adjective mean. In Old English gemæne, in Old High German gimeini and in modern German gemein, an adjective that means common, ordinary, vulgar. Our adjective mean, upon its entrance into English, first meant ‘held in common,’ then — a logical semantic development — ordinary, plain, inferior.’ Modern English saw the uses of ‘mean’ in a moral sense ‘nasty, unpleasant, hurtful.’   Thanks to the human heart by which we live, Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears, To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.   William Wordsworth, the last four lines of “Imitations of Immortality” published 1807   A semantic course similar to the English adjective mean occurred with Dutch gemeen and German gemein:  Das ist beiden gemein ‘It is common to both of them.’  Gemeines Recht ‘common law’ Das war sehr gemein von dir!  ‘That was really nasty of you.’  Was für ein gemeiner Streich! ‘What a dirty, rotten trick!’  The German word for municipality or community, die Gemeinde, is related to gemein’s earliest meaning.   The French wit, writer and philosopher, Voltaire, expressed one of my favourite sentences using the word common when he wrote: “Common sense is not so common.”               copyright © 2013 William Gordon Casselman     French Canadian Translation Services         Do you know the wordlore of  mayapple, familar North American spring flower? Check it out. Visit my word blog. Click above link.         Click to Read Other Recent Columns   1. Animal Droppings: Scat Words 2. Massage Words 3. Puffling 4. Louis: Origin of a Common Name 5. Farce: The Word Began as a Sausage!

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Description of Site Contents Bill Casselman's Canadian Word of the Day™ & Words of the World features thousands of entries about Canadian phrases, words, expressions, and folk sayings. Canadian French expressions, idioms and folk sayings are featured and explained in English. The latest, newest French Canadian slang is deciphered. Québécois joual phrases and jokes are explained in English. My newest, latest, unpublished word stories and studies appear here on this website. Canadian English is the focus but English spoken and written all over the world and throughout the history of the language interests me as well. Words of the World spotlights non-Canadian English words and their origins from languages all over the world and permits me to venture on etymological journeys well beyond the pleasant confines of my native Canada.

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