Thursday 20 August 2020

What makes you beautiful.

In PIE, the root “deu-“ means “good” or “to revere”. It gives rise to the root “beu-“, “ben-“ and “bon-” in Latin which, unsurprisingly, spawn all sorts of words related to beauty and money. It is obvious now where “beauty” (literally) comes from, but what’s not obvious is that is the effemination of the word “beau” (or “beaut” for a more inclusive understanding) which refers to the suitor of the lady, all of whom are wishing for a “boon” (a prayer, usually for something good). This boon can be in form of a bonus, or even a bounty, and result in a bonanza. For a child though, just a bonbon (a type of confectionary) would suffice. 

 

 

 

But the benefit of boons is only granted to the most Benedictine (one who speaks good, closely associated with God, or Pope), to the most benign (kind, generous, just a good person) and benevolent.

To balance off the diabetic nature of the write-up I’ll just throw in that the other set of roots that spout off “deu-“ mean war, poison, destruction and death.

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