The origin of the word work may surprise you. Tripalium it was the name of an instrument of torture.
It remains to be seen whether the origin of the word, centuries and centuries ago, influences the way each people, even today, views work.
We admit that we were rocked by this Thursday. A strike against the Government’s proposals regarding labor law.
A lot can be changed in work in Portugal. Work. Work. We realized the origin of this word.
The conclusion may come as a surprise: the word “work” comes from the Latin tripalium.
But what does it mean tripalium? It is a mixture of tri + palum, that is, three + wood. Three dicksin short.
This is because, in other times in Europe, tripalium was the name of a instrument of torture which had three wooden stakes, very sharp.
That is, originally, “to work” meant “to be tortured”resume o .
Who was subjected to the torture of the tripalium? Slaves and the poor who could not pay taxes.
In other words, At that time, those who “worked” were those who didn’t have money.posses.
These three sticks were also used to tie up convicts, or keep difficult-to-shoe animals trapped, he adds.
Work associated with torture expanded to peasants, artisans, farmers or bricklayers.
Em French, but with the same origin, “travailler” means “to feel pain” or “to suffer”. Over time, it came to mean “doing an exhausting activity” or “doing a difficult, hard activity”.
A change to current meaning took place only in the 14th century: “application of human forces and faculties (talents, abilities) to achieve a certain end”.
But in English…
…the context is very different.
As most people know, “work” in English is “work”. Comes from workderived from Old English weorcworc – which means “a feat, something accomplished, action (voluntary or mandatory), procedure, business”.
There is also other meanings: “that which is made or manufactured, products of labor”, or “physical work, toil; trade, craft or specialized occupation; opportunity to employ labor in some useful or remunerative way”; and also “military fortification”.
The suggests that this term derives from Proto-Germanic work – “work”, from a suffixed form of the Indo-European root werg – “to do”.
Last curiosity, still about English: the so-called tripalium derived to travel, i.e. “travel”. Why? Because English roads in the Middle Ages were so bad that traveling on them was a real ordeal, explains .
Nuno Teixeira da Silva, ZAP //
