Chrysti The Wordsmith: Adult & Adultery

Greetings This is Christy Smith Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman. At first glance the terms adult and adultery appear close enough in spelling and pronunciation to be siblings a closer investigation of the development of these terms however reveals they have little in common. Let's put an adult under the etymological microscope first. The progenitor of this term is a Latin verb meaning to grow or to be nourished. A related word adolescent means growing and so etymologically speaking. An adolescent properly nourished grows into an adult. The term adult was adopted by English speakers in the 16th century. It's a coincidence that adultery is adult with an E R Y. This word also comes from the Latin language but its origin lies in a term meaning to pollute or corrupt from an extraneous source. The implication is that an adulterer is the corrupting interloper in an extramarital affair to adultery. Eight is to render him pure by adding improper or

inferior ingredients. Are you curious about such confound English similar terms as adult and adultery. You can do your own word investigation by reading any good quality dictionary or word history book. One of my favorites is the dictionary of word origins by John ATO published by Arcade publishing. I'm Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman Christie the wordsmith a sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.