Re: [tied] "Head" words

29-07-03 11:58, tgpedersen wrote:

> It sounds like some German linguist thought: 'Haupt' because
> of 'Haube'. By that logic English would have *'had' for 'head' to
> match the vowel of 'hat'.

Contamination happens from time to time. It's sporadic by its very
nature. English has <female> (rather than *femel < OFr. femelle)
obviously because of its folk-etymological relation to <male>, but
<woman> [wUm&n] has not been remodelled as "woo-MAN" by the same logic.

Piotr