Talk:eldritch

Copied etymology?

I have a concerm, the etymology for eldritch looks like it was copied from here: http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990303

I am not sure how this is handled, being a relative newbie.

what about an etymology meaning "old realm" as per a word like "elder"?

I know etymology is based on more informed speculation than mine, but given the suggestions in the current list it struck me that none of them accounted for the "d". The idea of a "past with more magic in it" occurs frequently in mythology, and the current list of speculations seems all over the map, so "eldritch" meaning "old realm" didn't seem that far fetched to me. 2603:8001:9500:9E98:0:0:0:9A7 15:40, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

The "d" is easy to explain: it's a perfectly normal process for clusters of certain sounds + r between vowels to add a voiced stop in between. That's what happened with alder and elderberry, as well as thunder, remember and ambrosia. In fact, it's hard to find "lr", "mr", "nr" in the interior of words (boundaries with prefixes, suffixes and between elements in compounds are the main exceptions). That's not to say ldr->lr is impossible: such changes apparently happen a lot in Scots, which is where this comes from. Chuck Entz (talk) 17:51, 28 February 2021 (UTC)

Chuck Entz provides a fine dissertation on the "d" but doesn't answer your question. Your explanation (splitting the word into two parts: eld and ritch) appears to be more correct: the lore held by the "elders" or by an old women, hook-noed with a wart at the tip, otherwise a witch. GaryD144 (talk) 19:14, 9 December 2022 (UTC)

eldritch cannot be from eld +‎ -ric, as the earliest attested form is elrich; forms with /d/ do not appear until two hundred years afterwards On the other hand, it is not improbable that forms with /d/ could've been reinforced due to a folk-etymological association with elder etc, but I think this is unnecessary, as I think that Chuck answers the question perfectly fine. In case he wasn't clear enough, we have kindred from kin- +‎ red, so why can't we have el(f) +‎ -ric result in eldritch with excrescent /d/? Hazarasp (parlement · werkis) 18:49, 10 December 2022 (UTC)