And I mean that sincerely. Sometimes, if an etymology seems too good to be true, it is.
I’ve written on this blog before about false etymologies, and about how I read Palabra del Día (PdD), the Word of the Day email from elcastellano.org. Often, when I see something interesting there about a word that has a cognate in English, I also go to etymonline.com to see what they can tell me about it.
Enter “sincere.”
PdD says that “sincero” comes from the world of apiculture (beekeeping). “Sin cera” in Spanish literally means “without wax,” and PdD says that “sincero” comes from the Latin equivalent, “sincerum.” The idea being that the product is pure honey, with no mixing or nothing false about it. Thus, a sincere person is true in their statements and motivations.
Trouble is. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), according to Etymonline, dismisses this etymology “out of hand” and suggests a couple of other possibilities, one coming ultimately from an Indoeuropean root meaning “whole.”
It’s always such a disappointment when an etymology that seems so lovely is false. What’s a language lover to do? We can do nothing but live with the uncertainty, a skill which we all must have in so many ways.