13 votes

What is the ‘-ling’ in darling? (And what is the ‘dar-’ for that matter?)

3 comments

  1. [3]
    onyxleopard
    Link
    If anyone is interested in English etymology, I highly recommend etymonline.com. It’s a fantastic etymological dictionary run by a really dedicated guy. Here’s the entry for darling. The ‘dar’...

    If anyone is interested in English etymology, I highly recommend etymonline.com. It’s a fantastic etymological dictionary run by a really dedicated guy.

    Here’s the entry for darling.

    The ‘dar’ stem is from ‘dear’. So, it is, basically “a little dear thing”.

    8 votes
    1. [2]
      unknown user
      Link Parent
      My guess for "dar-", before I went in and checked, was "gift". Latin had do, dare, "to give". This Romanic stem didn't quite its way into Germanic languages, I suppose.

      My guess for "dar-", before I went in and checked, was "gift". Latin had do, dare, "to give". This Romanic stem didn't quite its way into Germanic languages, I suppose.

      3 votes
      1. xiv
        Link Parent
        To give, in south asian languages sounds very similar as well.

        To give, in south asian languages sounds very similar as well.

        2 votes