HOW WORDS MOVE.
HOW MEANINGS MUTATE.

Middle English wif continues Old English wīf.

Woman and wife senses continue through medieval English.

Middle English girle develops into modern girl with stabilized spelling and pronunciation.

A child or young person of either sex narrows to a female child or young woman.

Middle English boi develops into modern boy with stabilized spelling.

Male servant, churl, and young-male senses settle around the modern male-child center.

Old French embuié is the participial person-form of embuier, to fetter.

A person in fetters is named from the restraining action.

Old French embuier is formed on buie, a fetter or shackle.

The verb continues the restraint meaning of the noun.

Old French buie continues Latin bōia.

The restraint noun crosses from Latin into French.

Latin bōia is traced to Greek boeía dorá, ox hide.

An ox-hide material expression is proposed behind a restraining collar or yoke.

Greek boeía, bovine or of an ox, is formed from boûs, ox or cow.

The material name specializes the cattle word as ox hide.

Greek boûs reflects Proto-Indo-European *gʷou-.

The ox, bull, and cow field continues at reconstructed depth.

Old English hlāford contains weard as its guardian or keeper component.

Guardian supplies the keeping role beside the provision symbolized by loaf.

Old English weard reflects Proto-Germanic *wardaz.

Guardian and keeper continue the watch field.

Proto-Germanic *wardaz reflects the suffixed o-grade formation *wor-to-.

A guard noun develops from watching.

The suffixed o-grade *wor-to- is analyzed under *wer-³.

Perceiving and watching supply the guard formation.

Old English hlǣfdige contains -dige, a kneading element, beside hlāf.

The kneading role supplies the second household component.

Old English -dige is analyzed with the Germanic kneading element *dīg-.

Kneading and forming remain the semantic center.

Germanic *dīg- reflects the centum form *dheigh-.

Kneading specializes the broader form-and-build field.

The root appendix identifies *dheig̑h- as the oldest shape behind centum *dheigh-.

The form-and-build field continues at the deepest reviewed level.

Old Norse hūsbōndi contains hūs, house, as its first component.

House identifies the dwelling governed or inhabited by the householder.

Middle English lof develops into modern loaf with later spelling and pronunciation stabilization.

The shaped bread mass remains the lexical center.

Middle English lof continues Old English hlāf through the recorded English sound and spelling history.

Bread and loaf senses remain continuous.

Old English hlāf reflects reconstructed Proto-Germanic *hlaibaz.

The Germanic bread and loaf meaning is retained.

Freie Universität Berlin places Middle High German WÎP before Early New High German WEYB and Modern German WEIB: the long vowel î diphthongizes to ei, while final devoicing remains pronounced but is no longer marked by p in modern spelling.

Woman and wife senses continue while current usage becomes obsolete, jocular, ironic, discriminatory, or derogatory.

Freie Universität Berlin orders Old High German WĪB before Middle High German WÎP and explains that word-final b was pronounced voiceless and represented as p in Middle High German spelling.

The woman and wife field continues across the language stages.

Middle English humble continues into modern humble with spelling stability and later pronunciation standardization.

Low rank, modesty, and lack of pretension remain in the semantic field.