People often think the word "doubt" spelling is a little crazy because of the letter "b". Since it doesn't spell a sound, most folks can't figure out what it's doing there. But in spite of what most of us learn in school, sound is <i>never</i> the most important aspect of spelling an English word. A word's meaning and history need to come first. To doubt means to question, to waver, to hesitate. As a noun, it means uncertainty or confusion. The present-day English word "doubt" started as a Latin word, "dubitare". It first moved from Latin into French where it lost both its "buh" sound and its letter "b". And then it came into English in the 13th century. About 100 years later, scribes who wrote English but also knew Latin, started to reinsert the "b" into the word's spelling, even though no one pronounced it that way. But why would they do this? Why would anyone in their right mind reinsert a silent letter into a spelling? Well, because they knew Latin, the scribes understood that the root of "doubt" had a "b" in it. Over time, even as fewer literate people knew Latin, the "b" was kept because it marked important, meaningful connections to other related words, like "dubious" and "indubitalbly," which were subsequently borrowed into English from the same Latin root, "dubitare". Understanding these historical connections not only helped us to spell "doubt," but also to understand the meaning of these more sophisticated words. But the story doesn't end there. If we look even deeper, we can see beyond the shadow of a doubt, just how revealing that "b" can be. There are only two base words in all of English that have the letters "d-o-u-b": one is doubt, and the other is double. We can build lots of other words on each of these bases, like doubtful and doubtless, or doublet, and redouble, and doubloon. It turns out that if we look into their history, we can see that they both derive from the same Latin forms. The meaning of double, two, is reflected in a deep understanding of doubt. See, when we doubt, when we hesitate, we second guess ourselves. When we have doubts about something, when we have questions or confusion, we are of two minds. Historically, before English began to borrow words from French, it already had a word for doubt. That Old English word was "tweogan," a word whose relationship to "two" is clear in its spelling as well. So the next time you are in doubt about why English spelling works the way it does, take a second look. What you find just might make you do a double-take.
人們常常認為「doubt(懷疑)」 這字的拼法有點瘋狂, 因為裡頭的字母「b」。 由於它不發音, 大多數人不知道它是幹什麼用的。 然而,儘管我們在學校已被教導 發音永遠不是 拼寫英語單詞時 所需的最重要面向, 我們必須首先考慮 一個詞彙的歷史和含義。 「懷疑」意謂著「詢問」、 「躊躇」、 「猶豫不決」。 作為一個名詞,它指的是 一種困惑或不確定性。 現今的英文單詞「懷疑」 源於拉丁詞「dubitare」, 在它首次從拉丁語轉變為法語時, 它失去了字母「b」和「buh」的音, 接著在十三世紀時,它轉變為英語。 大約一百年後, 懂英語也懂拉丁語的經學家 開始將「b」重新植入這個詞, 即便當時沒人這麼發音。 但為何他們這麼做呢? 為什麼有人會把 一個不發音的字母 重新植入一個詞彙中呢? 嗯,因為他們懂拉丁文。 經學家知道「懷疑」的字根有個「b」。 隨著時間的推移, 即使更少的識字人懂拉丁文, 「b」一直存在在那兒, 因為它被認為是重要的, 它被認為是一個有意義的連接詞, 並且聯繫著其他相關的詞彙, 比如說「可疑的(dubious)」 和「不容置疑地(indubitalbly)」, 隨後英文借用同一個拉丁字根「dubitare」。 隨後英文借用同一個拉丁字根,「dubitare」。 瞭解這些歷史的關聯 不僅幫助我們拼寫「懷疑(doubt)」, 同時也幫助我們理解 這些更為複雜詞彙的含義。 但故事並非到此為止, 如果我們更深地探究它, 我們可以理解在這個懷疑(doubt)之外 「b」是多麼深具啓發性。 在所有英語中, 只有兩個基本詞有「d-o-u-b」的拼寫: 其中一個是 doubt(懷疑)、 而另一個是 double(雙)。 我們可以由此 建立許多其他詞彙, 比如 doubtful (令人懷疑的)、 doubtless(無疑的)、 或 doublet(成對物)、 redouble(加倍)、 和 doubloon(達布隆: 古西班牙雙金幣)。 事實證明,如果我們回顧它們的歷史, 我們便知道它們都源於 同一拉丁文形式。 double(雙重)的意義—— 兩個—— 反映了對懷疑的深刻理解。 看,當我們懷疑時 當我們猶豫時, 我們批評、糾正自己(second guess ourselves)。 當我們懷疑某事時, 當我們遇到問題或感到困惑時, 我們猶疑不定(of two minds)。 從歷史上看,在英語開始 從法語那兒借字前, 英文已經有了懷疑這詞。 在古英語中,這單詞是 「tweogan」, 「懷疑(tweogan)」與「兩個(two)」之間的關聯性 在拼寫上也很明白地顯示出來。 所以,當下次你對 英文的拼寫方式感到懷疑(in doubt)時, 再仔細瞧瞧第二次(take a second look), 也許之後你便會恍然大悟(double-take)了。