Because, and the French
History of a Conjunction
Where there is an effect, there is a cause. The word ‘cause’ was borrowed from Old French into English, and has a wide variety of use cases today, but where did it come from? In this article, we explore the history and evolution of the word, ‘because’.
Modern Usage
The nouns: ‘cause’, ‘causeway’, and ‘causerie’ inspire the sentence, ‘The cause of the blockage is a group’s prolonged causerie blocking the causeway.’ Those three words appear in order of familiarity to an English speaker. Second language learners of English will have command of ‘cause’, but unlikely causeway, ‘a raised way across wet ground or water’ may seem out of reach, especially when ‘bridge’ will suffice. Causerie, ‘a chat or a short informal essay’ is unlikely to be in the vernacular of even a modern-day native speaker.
History of, ‘Cause’
‘Cause’ has found its way into and is used frequently in, the English language. It stands to be used without prefix or suffix, though is more commonly seen as the latter syllable in ‘because’, an indispensable conjunction rivaled by only ‘and’, and ‘or’. This borrowing from Old French has pervaded our daily conversations and is both common and important. It hasn’t always been this way. How is it that a word from another language has grasped hold of English, and what was there before it?
Throughout the 11th century, the Normans of Normandy in Northern France secured a prominent role in the administration of England, bringing their particular dialect of Old French into a prestigious position in government and society. A large cannon of administrative and martial words were introduced into the common English vernacular including the words: ‘government’, ‘prime minister’, ‘governor-general’, and ‘administration’ itself. Knowing how the word entered the langauge, we may turn our attention to what it has replaced, and how it developed.
Integration of, ‘Because’
The word ‘because’ did not begin usage with this spelling. ‘Par cause de’ literally translated as ‘by reason of’ was the initial model for the English borrowing. Around the 14th century, it would not be uncommon to hear the word ‘bicause’. Quoting the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology the condensed history is given as:
because; for the reason that; on account of. xiv. ME bi cause, after OF. par cause de by reason of
Unpacking the acronyms:
ME: Middle English
OF: Old French
xiv: roman numerals for fourteen, referring to the century.
Before the use of the conjunction ‘because’, an Old English word þurh pronounced thurch (ch representing the final phoneme in ‘loch’ in Scottish English) was used. This roughly translated to modern English as ‘through, by way of’. In middle English ‘þurh’ became through, preserving both original meanings into modern English and joining in as another way to express cause. Examine the following sentences and compare how natural each feels:
“It is through me that he lost his hands.”
“It is by me that he lost his hands”
“It is because of me that he lost his hands”
Speculation and Closing Words
Allowing myself to wager, the third option feels closest. Conjecturing, the feeling of archaism in the former two options may come from their lack of use in common language. In fact, an archaic word is defined as, ‘having the characteristics of the language of the past and surviving chiefly in specialized uses’. Personally, ‘through’ and ‘by’ guide me to imagine dramatic dispositions in medieval fantasy pics.
Echos of the past are fossilized in the words we use every day. From an abundance of word-borrowings from Latin-based tongues to a reduction in case inflections around the Middle English period leaves a language not quite resembling a Latin-rooted language, but also straying away from the common characteristics of a Germanic language. Through these fossils, we can begin to answer the question, ‘because why?’
References:
Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, C.T. Onions
The Normans, Sarah Jewett
A Modern English — Old English Dictionary, Mary Johnson
Mariam Webster’s Online English Dictionary
