#(also: I name [mostly] all of my myriad Aasimar characters using Latin-via-Google-Translate so I get it. I totally do]

[nazmazh]

This all started because looking up today's Semantle answer's etymology got me to "assess" deriving from Latin meaning "to sit beside" [as a judge's assistant, who was responsible for setting the value of fines and taxes, among other duties, would do]. Which send me down a rabbit hole of "Wait?! Is that where we get "ass" from?!"

And no. No it is not.

But you can see how I might make that connection of "seat" to "butt". "Ass" is actually much older - The "donkey" sense came to English specifically via the Germanic side of its DNA, but the word itself is ancient-ancient. Well-conserved throughout many branches of Proto-Indo-European, but curiously not likely of PIE origin - It likely came from a language in Asia Minor - To wit, Sumerian has a cognate.

The anatomy-slang sense of course, derives from "arse" - Just a variant pronunciation first noted in 1860 that caught on largely in America and was popularized in general usage by the 1930s.

Arse also comes to English via the Germanic side of things (meaning "rump/tail" originally - So that's pretty well-conserved). It's a PIE word originally, with cognates in a few far-flung branches like Greek, Hittite, Armenian, and Old Irish.

Even before the official pronunciation shift and split into a distinct word though, "arse" was dissuading people from using the word "ass" for donkey in "polite company".

In the middle of doing my daily Semantle etymology write-up and something dawned on me:

"Consector" and "Adsecla" sound very Latin in their construction and not just funny mashed-up syllables. "Caenum" means "mud/filth", so it tracks that we've got more Latin-ish words. ("Boccular" means "mouthpiece" apparently, which... sure?)

Plugging "consector" into translate churns out "reaper" which tracks, honestly.

"sector" itself seems to be a pretty good fit with "pursuer". "Con-" is a prefix that means "with".

"Adsecla" is less easy to crack.

"Ad-" has a lot of versatility as a prefix, but indicates an association ("to", "on", "towards", "near", "after", etc.)

"Secla" translates as "Century" which doesn't seem quite right here in this context. Hmm...

"Teletheric" has Greek roots, as our modern Tele-words do, in this sense would mean probably roughly "across the distant sky".

"Secla" [or it's proper-character equivalent, "σέκλα"] in Greek comes back as "chair" in English. This might be the right trail.

"Sella" is chair in Latin, with some related terms introducing that "c" - "lectica" is "sedan chair/litter"

Okay, so "to the sedan chair" - ~"Official assistant while travelling on official duties"?

(comes back as "ad sella" or "ad lectica" when plugged into translate)

I don't know if that's the exact logic, but I think it tracks pretty well.

Obligatory: