While it’s not a “yellow wood” like the one in the famous Robert Frost poem, in the above photo there are two paths, so if you were this girl, which would you choose? There is a “decision” to be made before moving forward. She has to “decide.”
decide — a verb meaning “to make a final choice about something”
decidir — the Spanish cognate of the same meaning
decidere — the Italian cognate of the same meaning
I “decided” to include the Italian cognate this week because it’s the same as the Latin ancestor of all these words — decidere.
That Latin word means “to cut off” something. This word is an example of how I continue to learn new things about words. I was reading a motivational book, and the author wrote about the importance of making “decisions.” She explained the etymology of the word “decide” and how one must “cut off” all the other options and make a choice — in other words, one must “decide.”
After reading that, I had a minor “aha” moment. I’d not given any thought to the word “decide” and its sister and brother words until reading that paragraph of that book.
That “cutting” aspect within the words “decide” and “decision” becomes even clearer when looking at the word “incision.” Ding, ding, ding. I’m not only motivated by the book I’m reading, but I’m also more cognate cognizant now.
The word “decision” is an exact cognate in Spanish, but with an added accent mark — “decisiόn.” A “decision” is a conclusion reached after consideration of options — thus, you’ve “cut off” those other options and come to an ending or a conclusion or a choice. If you’re good at making those decisions and cutting out those other things, then you are “decisive” in English and “decisivo” or “decisiva” in Spanish, depending on your gender.
Making decisions can be difficult, especially when faced with too many options, but the next time you have to make one, “decide” which options to “cut off” and be proud of your “decisive” abilities.
Until next week.
If you’re not yet a paying subscriber, I hope you’ll “decide” to become one. I’ve been writing these weekly posts for two full years as of September 15th, so I’ve made a “decision.” I plan to keep offering the weekly posts to paying subscribers after that date while sending monthly (or perhaps bi-monthly) ones to free subscribers. I do hope you’ll stay on weekly as a paying subscriber. It’s only a few dollars a month. Thanks for being with me this long at least, but I hope you’ll stay for more Cognate Cognizance. And I do hope to turn these posts into a book at some point.
If you “decide” to become a paying subscriber for an entire year today, I’ll give you 20% off the year. Click the first button for that. If you’d like to just try a one-month subscription, then click the second button.
Tammy Marshall
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