Helpmeet
Do you ever wonder where words come from? I do, and yesterday I got to wondering about a weird one. I was reading a magazine and saw a reference to "helpmeet," as in "He couldn’t have done it without his lifelong helpmeet Sarah." Hmmm. Helpmeet? I know it means the same as "helpmate" (as in "wife" or "SO") but where does the "meet" come from?
The answer is that, yet again, laziness gave us a new word. The original source is biblical. Genesis 2:18, in fact. Wherein you’ll find "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." That "meet" means here is "suitable." As in, "I’ll make him a suitable helper." Or "It is meet that ye should go out and find thy own way." Well, before long, our sloppy ancestors, having said it as written over and over, just contracted it to "helpmeet." As if the original had been "I will make him a helper for him."
So there you go – from two separate words with two distinct meanings (help and meet) into a single word: helpmeet. KnowwhatImean?
- And that’s today’s word from the bird
