Guarantee vs Warranty

There are some words in English which aren't at first sight obviously related, even though on closer analysis, there might be only a letter or two distinguishing them.

The above example, Guarantee+ vs +Warranty+... is one of them. On closer analysis there is the +g+ to +w transition or swap involved here, and if you look at the origin of these words, there is a good reason for this.

But even though I was more acutely aware of such possibilities after becoming aware of this type of thing, I was still tripped up on the following...

Many places in Germany where you mght visit - a theatre or museum - will have a garderobe, right? This is where you might hand over your coat to that kind(?) lady (for a price?).

Well, of course, as a good Germanic language does, this word was once absorbed or adapted into the older English language...
I never had made the connection between this and the present day English word until the other day... wardrobe.

Can you give other good examples of this, as I am sure now that there must be other (obviously, not just g+ to +w ) examples of this..

Many thanks.

The meanings of the words guarantee and warranty are related to most people speaking English, but the words themselves may not be seen to be related as evolving from the same or similar word... is I guess what I mean, to make it clearer.

I'm no linguist, but I think garde-robe/wardrobe came into English from French rather than German.

That "g" to "w" switch seems quite a common one. See "Guillaume" to "William", "Galles" to "Wales", or "guerre" to "war" for example.

Edited by: etcap

Thanks. Yes, the g to w thing seems to be a French one, but the Germans (most unlike them, don't you think, considering that it takes some (and then some) for them to use a latin root) took the garderobe concept on, and it is this which led to the surprise, I guess.

Thanks, but I was trying to look beyond the g to w idea.

toot, something similar happens in Spanish with words that start with gua- , which are pronounced gwah- . Many dialects (particularly Central American ones) of Spanish have dropped the g entirely and now pronounce it as wah- even though the gua- spelling is retained.

I think the switch is not from g to w in your examples, but gu to w.

Thanks #4.
I think there is a Latin twang to all of this. But in English, the transition from guarantee to warranty, or garderobe to wardrobe isn't that obvious to many English speakers (the contributors to this board, of course, excepted).

OP, are you just looking for words that are etymologically the same word that most people don't think of as related?

I have a little list:

corsair/hussar
cushion/quilt
sacristan/sexton
champagne/campaign
canopy/canapé
canvas/hemp
etiquette/ticket
exit/issue
crypt/grotto

and in French

dîner/déjeuner

There must be thousands more.

Thanks.

Well, I feel a little humbled, as I thought there were not so many words which would confuse the English speaker - perhaps tens, hundreds(?), but not thousands...

Anyway, many thanks...

Perhaps elaborate on the "top 20 "wouldn't think of as related" words, rather than the thousands of other possibilities..

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that these words confuse anyone. They don't.

No, no... you're working on the right track for me.... the confuse relates not to the words themselves, but to the "that they have anything to do with each other"...aspect

If you are visiting a mediaeval castle and find a room labelled as "Garderobe", you will find that it is a toilet not a wardrobe.

Words that are etymologically the same includes:
head - chef - capital - cape (headland meaning, not coat meaning) - captain - (dumb)kopf

I'm not quite sure about kaput (broken) though. It is said to come from French capot, which I think is the same as cape in the coat meaning, which is rather than cape in the headland meaning.

Many dialects (particularly Central American ones) of Spanish have dropped the g entirely and now pronounce it as wah- even though the gua- spelling is retained.

I would say "particularly the southern cone". The G is pronounced very hard in -gua- words in Guatemala, (and not just in the name of the country, which in early texts is often seen as Coatemala).