Yoïn van Spijk @yvanspijk@toot.community
Public

RE: toot.community/@yvanspijk/1160

Several people asked if the English suffix '-wise', as in 'otherwise', 'likewise' and 'weatherwise', is like Romance '-mente'.

Yes and no.

'-Wise' used to be a noun too, but it's not the word 'wise' ("sensible").

So unlike '-mente', it has nothing to do with the mind.

'-Wise' comes from the Old English noun 'wīse', which meant "manner, way". "In that way" was 'on þǣre wīsan', for instance.

This noun marginally survives in 'in such wise'.

Via Proto-Germanic *wīsō(n), it ... 1/

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