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015
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
adjectiveexact headword
regular
Conforming to a rule, pattern, order, or interval; borrowed through French from Late Latin rēgulāris.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verbhistorical-form prefix
regulate
To govern, direct, order, or adjust according to a rule; entering English from Late Latin formations on rēgula.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjective · noun · verbcontrarian claim
kapu
A Hawaiian word for what is prohibited, sacred, consecrated, or set apart, continuing the Oceanic tapu family through the characteristic Hawaiian *t to k sound change.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · verbdossier summary
law
A binding rule, body of rules, or regular principle; a Scandinavian loan in Old English whose deepest secure family means lie or lay.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
salary
Fixed compensation, inherited through French from a Latin term associated with salt.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗025
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
regular
conforming to rule, pattern, order, or interval
- DATE
- 14th century–today
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Late Latin / Indo-European
regulāre
regulate, direct
- DATE
- Late Latin
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Late Latin / Indo-European
rēgulāris
regular; according to rule
- DATE
- Late Latin
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
law
binding rule, body of rules, or regular principle
- DATE
- Middle English continuation–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
salary
fixed regular compensation
- DATE
- 13th c.–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
038
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 6
resolvedestablishedexact word
Did regular originally mean statistically normal?
No. The reported medieval sense centers on living under or according to a rule; ordinary and standard are later extensions.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Is regular unrelated to a physical ruler?
No. Its Late Latin adjective descends from rēgula, whose older semantic range includes a bar, rod, or straightedge.
openproposedposition text
Is calculus securely a diminutive of calx “limestone”?
Not securely. The traditional analysis is morphologically and semantically irregular; an alternative links Latin calculus and Greek stone words through a possible shared substrate source.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did Gothic fijands mean devil or evil spirit?
The reviewed Gothic noun inventory centers on enemy and regularly translates Greek echthros. Old English feónd developed or preserved devil senses, but that collateral history cannot be projected backward onto every Gothic occurrence.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did Old English frēond have one regular plural?
No. OED records endingless mutated and unmutated plurals, re-formed frēondas or frīondas, and rare vowel-final analogical forms.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did Old English fēond have one regular plural?
No. OED records endingless i-mutated and unmutated plurals, re-formed fēondas or fīondas, and occasional weak forms.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 2
RANK 155GRADE Aexact ranked word
Regular is measured order.
Late Latin rēgulāris grows from rēgula, the straight bar or rule. Ordinary, scheduled, and normal are later abstractions from conformity to a rule.
RANK 146GRADE Aranked reveal
The k in kapu is a fossilized sound change.
Hawaiian kapu and Māori tapu are not misspellings of one another: Hawaiian regularly changed inherited *t toward k while preserving the sacred and prohibited semantic field.
042
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
052
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
Merriam-Webster first-known-use report for regular
regular / regular / 14th century
Regular — Definition, Word History, and First Known Useexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
The SYSTEM entry in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum uses Science for an organized branch of knowledge when defining a system of philosophy.
science / science / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and scienceswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗06
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