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mandyjw

Etymology of "Understand"

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"Etymology's joke on us is that our very words that mean "grasp an idea of, mentally fit together parts of reality" — are themselves obscure or incomprehensible to us.

Understand is so plainly odd that even people who don't think about word histories notice it. In form it is a compound of under + stand (v.), and it has been so since Old English. Likewise the sense has not shifted since King Alfred's day: "to comprehend, grasp the idea of, receive from a word or words or from a sign the idea it is intended to convey; to view in a certain way."

https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/superstitious-understanding

:oxD


My Youtube Channel- Light on Earth “We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”― Robert Frost

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I understand now. So the same roots as: interstate and superstate.


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