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Tue 12 Jan, 2016 10:41 am
Is there any special term for two words that have the same meaning but different etymological backgrounds, like romance and germanic origin, which is the most common combination in English?
e.g. dove (germanic) - pigeon (romance)
heavenly (germanic) - celestial (romance)
I found some information by Googling "etymological pairings".
BTW
I've always been struck by the common origin of satan and titan.
For who in his right mind would have boarded RMS Satanic back there in 1912?
There are many synonyms in English which come from Norman French and Saxon respectively. E.g. Fair/blond/blonde; bear/carry; ghost/phantom. As far as I know they are just called 'synonyms'.
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