Re: "cumulated" or "accumulated"

[John Cowan]

Bob Proulx scripsit:

> In order to understand why a word is what it is you must understand
> how the word arrived into the language.  If it has origin roots in
> Latin or German or other makes a critical difference.  But having
> arrived here the result of two very similar words may be quite
> different.  I won't argue that is a good thing.

"Dish", "desk", "disc/disk", "discus", and "dais" all have the same
origin, Latin "discus", but came into English by different routes.

See http://www.languagehat.com/archives/004093.php and search for "04:29".

-- 
It was dreary and wearisome.  Cold clammy winter still held way in this
forsaken country.  The only green was the scum of livid weed on the dark
greasy surfaces of the sullen waters.  Dead grasses and rotting reeds loomed
up in the mists like ragged shadows of long-forgotten summers.
        --"The Passage of the Marshes"          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan