HOW WORDS MOVE.
HOW MEANINGS MUTATE.

Middle English adopts Anglo-French humble with English phonological adaptation.

The low and modest senses are retained.

Anglo-French humble continues Latin humilis through Romance reshaping; no single intermediate phonetic derivation is asserted.

Physical and social lowness develop into modest or deferential senses.

Latin humilis is formed from humus, earth or ground, with adjectival morphology and vowel adjustment.

Near-the-ground or low develops into low in rank and humble.

English adopts New Latin humus without material spelling change and with English pronunciation.

The broad earth word specializes as the organic portion of soil.

New Latin humus reuses the ancient Latin form humus in scientific vocabulary.

Earth and soil are narrowed toward a technical soil constituent.

The Scots Middle English spelling brydegrome stabilizes as modern bridegroom.

The marrying-man meaning continues after the compound is reinterpreted.

Opaque Middle English bridegome is remodeled as brydegrome under the influence of the familiar word groom.

The bride-man meaning remains while speakers reinterpret the second element.

Middle English bridegome continues Old English brȳdguma with regular reduction of the final inflection.

Bride-man remains the compound meaning.

Old English brȳdguma contains guma, man, as its second lexical component beside brȳd, bride.

The marrying man is named through the inherited human-being noun.

Old English guma reflects reconstructed Proto-Germanic *gumōn-.

The man or human-being sense continues across Germanic.

Proto-Germanic *gumōn- reflects the suffixed zero-grade formation *(dh)ghm̥-on-.

The Germanic man noun is analyzed as an earthling formation.

The earthling formation *(dh)ghm̥-on- is built on *dhghem-, earth.

An earth-root formation supplies a human-being noun.

Middle English dogh develops into modern dough with later spelling stabilization while the inherited vowel history produces /oʊ/.

The kneadable flour mass remains the lexical center; money is a later slang extension.

Middle English dogh continues Old English dāg through the recorded English sound and spelling history.

The dough meaning is retained.

Old English dāg reflects reconstructed Proto-Germanic *daigaz.

The kneadable mass meaning continues in the Germanic noun family.

Proto-Germanic *daigaz reflects the suffixed o-grade formation *dhoigh-o-.

The Germanic dough noun is a formed or kneaded mass.

The suffixed o-grade *dhoigh-o- is built on *dheigh-, to form or build.

A concrete kneaded mass specializes the general forming action.

Middle English figure continues into modern figure with spelling stability and later English pronunciation development.

Shape, likeness, symbol, number, person, and calculation senses expand from representation.

Middle English borrows Anglo-French figure with English phonological adaptation.

The shape, form, likeness, and symbol field is retained.

Anglo-French figure continues Latin figūra through Romance transmission.

Shape, outward appearance, likeness, and represented form remain central.

Latin figūra reflects the suffixed zero-grade formation *dhigh-ūrā-.

A result of forming or kneading becomes shape, form, and representation.

The suffixed formation *dhigh-ūrā- is built on *dheigh-, to form or build.

The result-of-forming noun continues the root’s shaping field.

Old English brȳdguma contains brȳd, bride, as its first lexical component beside guma, man.

The bride component supplies the marriage relation in the compound.

Latin fingere reflects a nasalized zero-grade formation under *dheigh-.

Molding and shaping continue the form-and-build field.