The Data Series: Etymology of Structure

Introduction

Our next continuation of the data series is an important one. Presented here is the etymology structure. The word structure points to a fundamental aspect of the nature of reality. Think of concepts like organization, working parts, and interrelated pieces all working together to generate a larger, singular object. That is to say, we are able to perform analyses, find patterns, and make predictions about the physical universe and objects within it because they have structure. Don't take this word lightly. It will come up in many different contexts that aren't always intuitive, which can trip you up as you're trying to understand some new concept relevant to your research.

For example, consider the following question: What is the internal structure of the word yogas in Sanskrit? Some might hear this question and argue that it's just a word meaning 'union.' There is no structure to analyze. But a linguist might be able to break this word down into a root yuj, and an action noun-forming suffix -a. Moreover, the word also relates to its verb as the subject and indexes an object that is grammatically masculine and singular via the -s suffix. We cannot limit ourselves by relating the concept of structure to physical things like buildings and jet engines. There are also other phenomena to consider, such as linguistic structure, social structure, and, if you're a whiteheadian, even a hypothesized internal structure to actual occasions of experience.

Etymology

Evolotion

The word as it is today in English comes from French in the 15th century. At that time, it simply referred to the materials used for building or even the process of building. To provide some context, we began adopting hundreds of words from French after 1066 when the Normans invaded and conquered England, after which the most intense contact between English and French lasted about 300 years. But even after English made its comeback, the influx of French words continued. That being said, structure was a relatively late adoption.

Structure evolved into its French form from an earlier Latin structūra (derived from the root strū- 'to build') meaning 'building,' 'construction,' and 'concrete.' But before this it gets interesting. The hypothetical language that Latin stems from, Proto-Indo-European (PIE) shows a reconstructed root *strew- which meant 'to strew' or 'to spread about.' And because English and Latin come from the same PIE source language, you might have guessed that, just as the root (and its derivative words) evolved into Latin, it also evovled into English as 'strew.' The retention of pronunciation over a 6000 year period in both English and French is striking to say the least.

Cognates

There are other cognates for structure as well. For instance, we have the Sanskrit root stṛ- (3sg present stṛnoti), ancient Greek stronymi, and Old Church Slavonic stira. All of these have the similar sense of strewing or spreading out.

Interesting Sound Changes

This isn't actually a sound change, but rather a lack thereof. Typically, we'd expect the 't' in English strew to become a [θ] (the voiceless 'th' sound) via Grimm's Law, but because it's preceded by the [s] sound (a voiceless fricative), it retained its original form. This is called 'Lottner's Discovery' in some Historical Linguistics textbooks.

Conclusion

Structure, at its root, has the basic meaning of 'strewing about.' This concept of strewing comes with the idea that the items being strewn are arranged in an ordered way that creates an organized whole.