Devoid of meaning
Occasionally a common or garden word will suddenly become strange. Having just used it in a sentence a sense of panic ensues - was that the right word? Repeat the word several times and it becomes an alien collection of random sounds, totally devoid of meaning.
Take the word 'thank' which we use dozens of times a day. We say 'thank you' to thank someone for doing some fairly thankless task, where the thanker feels that by thanking the thankee the thanked person will feel appreciated.
I'm struggling to think of other examples where we take the infinitive of a verb and append the direct object 'you' to make a meaningful sentence. Walk you, stand you, play you, run you. All gibberish.
Of course there is always that infinitely adaptable word 'fuck' which can adopt the same construction as 'thank you', but frankly you can use 'fuck' meaningfully in any role a sentence has to offer, as our friends from Monty Python will confirm.
Coming back to 'thank'. According to the internet, (give us this day our daily Google, and forgive us our plagiarism, as we forgive those who borrow from us,) the word thank derives from Old English 'pancian', meaning to give thanks, which in turn derives from the Proto-German term 'thankojan', which also spawned the Middle German term 'danken', meaning to thank. The English term 'thank you' was shortened from the phrase 'I thank you.'
Repeat the word 'thank' several times... Thank thank thank thank thank. After that exercise I can't help but feel it should be one of those onomatopoeic words: thank - the sound a plank makes on hitting a water tank.
Take the word 'thank' which we use dozens of times a day. We say 'thank you' to thank someone for doing some fairly thankless task, where the thanker feels that by thanking the thankee the thanked person will feel appreciated.
I'm struggling to think of other examples where we take the infinitive of a verb and append the direct object 'you' to make a meaningful sentence. Walk you, stand you, play you, run you. All gibberish.
Of course there is always that infinitely adaptable word 'fuck' which can adopt the same construction as 'thank you', but frankly you can use 'fuck' meaningfully in any role a sentence has to offer, as our friends from Monty Python will confirm.
Coming back to 'thank'. According to the internet, (give us this day our daily Google, and forgive us our plagiarism, as we forgive those who borrow from us,) the word thank derives from Old English 'pancian', meaning to give thanks, which in turn derives from the Proto-German term 'thankojan', which also spawned the Middle German term 'danken', meaning to thank. The English term 'thank you' was shortened from the phrase 'I thank you.'
Repeat the word 'thank' several times... Thank thank thank thank thank. After that exercise I can't help but feel it should be one of those onomatopoeic words: thank - the sound a plank makes on hitting a water tank.
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