967: time and tide Aug 2, 2017

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While there are examples of people using language as a tool to try to explain culture or cognitive abilities extremely and unfairly such as Sapir's ideas about the 'Eskimos', when used more generally, linguistics and etymology can offer good insight into the way people think or thought. The word 'time' comes from Old English 'tīma' and is related to a number of other words in different languages, but for a while, 'tīma' related to the tide. Eventually it took on only its temporal meaning, but not only did the word that became 'time' have the relation to tides, but the Old English 'tīd' that led to the Modern English 'tide' had the sense of 'time' or 'period'. In fact, this relation that it has to the sea now only goes back to late Middle English. With all this, it is safe to conclude that the relationship between the sea and the passage of time was very strong to English speakers, to the point that it did not always need to be distinguished by two words.

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