Language is funny Early Modern Period (~1600 AD) (media.piefed.social)
 
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[–] 12 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

It's very common for words used to mean "write" to predate writing. "Write" itself predates writing by thousands of years.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Words that mean "write" usually originate as a meaning shift of an already existing word that meant "scratch", "draw", "carve", or the like.

    This is also the case with "write", which is originally from the Proto-Indo-European root that meant "rip" or "tear", which became "carve", and then finally "write" in late Proto-Germanic/early Old English.

    The only straightforward ways I can think of to get a brand new word meaning "write" after the fact would be to either: 1) coin it somehow, possibly by compounding existing morphemes or 2) borrow it directly from a language whose people already practiced writing. I'm not aware of any examples of this, but even though they are likely rare they probably do exist.

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