The word "random"

Drawth

ℹ	This leaf is a drawth wordwrestling a riddle or a wen that has arisen in the making of Anglish. See other drawths.

The word "random" is a fake friend (false friend): the "dom" ending is unkindred to the -dom afterfastening. Indeed, the word is of Frankish fromth (randon<randir), albeit in wharve of Theedish fromth, for the rand in random is kindred to the English deedword to run or less likely the thingword rand.

The run link is because the meaning of the word at first meant rashfully fast and shifted to weirdshape only after 1500 —after all, fast happenings are often unbridled. Since the shift of meaning is English, it could be foretold that if the Norman infall never had happened a word linked with running would have become to mean "random", say the made up word ranhood.

A small aside, "chance" is of Frankish fromth, while the OE word wyrdgesceapum can be updatared to weirdshape —weird (OE wyrd) once meant "fate".

Random  -- Willcury leafside.

Anyone  with  any  thoughts about using:  "Wyrd Leaf"  rather Willcury Leafside  ---  (WYRD  (OE): fate, destiny ---- that which comes.

Sholto (talk) 09:55, March 1, 2013 (UTC)

I well agree with the suggestion.

If willcury is appropriate, then why not "slumpmassy" (from Swe. 'slumpmässiga')? LOL

Anglofrench (talk) 19:57, March 1, 2013 (UTC)

Here are my objections to Sholto's suggestion: (1) Using the spelling "wyrd" is an orthographically questionable way of disambiguating from the living descendant "weird," and I assume they would occur as homophones anyway; (2) wyrd, in its current form of "weird," could be resupplied its nominal meaning of "fate" with relatively little risk of ambiguity, but using it as a modifier for the "page" equivalent runs the risk of its being confused with the modern adjectival "weird;" (3) the true meaning of "Wyrd Leaf" would be "Fate Leaf," which doesn't sound quite right to me—you could at least use an adjectival form like "weirdly," from Old English (ge)wyrdelic "fortuitous;" and (4) using "leaf" for "page" avoids the problem of finding a replacement for "page," since "leaf" and "page" aren't exactly synonymous. While "side" would be an obvious possibility paralleling most other Germanic languages, my suggestion of "leafside" had been based on the Dutch bladzijde (Afrikaans bladsy) so as to provide a unique and clear term.

However, I just came across the Old English word for "page," tramet (why had I never actually looked before??!! :P), and I believe it to be the perfect source for a new word for "page." Not only is it historical; it would also allow for a one-to-one replacement of the French-derived word. Admittedly I'm not 100% sure that tramet is native to Old English, but I haven't found anything to suggest otherwise. Anyway, modernizing the word as "trammet" seems appropriate (cf. "hammer"<hamer), and the result is what I think is a nice neologism. :)

@Anglofrench I chose "willcury" because it's a direct calque of the Dutch (and Afrikaans) willekeurig and indeed is a purely West Germanic form. I trust "will" needs no etymological explanation, and "cury" comprises "cure" + "-y," with "cure" being the revived form of the Old English cyre "choice" and thus cognate to the Dutch/Afrikaans keur.

Okay lol so here's why not: slump has no attested Anglo-Saxon cognate I'm aware of, and thus "slump-" would be a direct loan from the Swedish. At that, -mässig is, if I'm not mistaken, derived from some Middle Low German cognate of the New High German suffix -mäßig and thus itself a direct loan within Swedish. Regardless, in the absence of parallel Old English roots to support a calque, "slumpmassy" would simply be a loanword. By the way, even if you were to use it, a better adaptation would be "slumpmessy" (cf. the cognate suffix in Norwegian, -messig, and the analogy of English "mess" to Swedish mässa and Norwegian messe). Any more "LOL"-able suggestions? ;P jk

So I updated the link to say "Willcury trammet"—are there still any objections?

—Faxfleet (talk) 06:10, March 4, 2013 (UTC)

My ultimate suggestion would be 'fallen leaf(side)' pronounced f[a]llen (see Dutch toevallig, Ger zufällig), as it would be short enough and lyrical to convey an original meaning like 'random' (unlike wilcury or slumpmessy).

Anglofrench (talk) 19:48, March 4, 2013 (UTC)

Is there anyway we could use a form of "bewilder"? It's definition of "confusion" could be reasoned into a second meaning of randomness. I can see it in my head but I cannot really explain it here in detail of that connection.

Ameris cyning (talk) 21:23, March 4, 2013 (UTC)