‘You’re easily pleased.’ said my husband when I told him how satisfying I found a chance discovery. It was about green grass growing, and I’m still pleased with it.
Grow comes from an ancient Germanic root gro-. Green derives from the same source, and the greenery that grew was called grass, a third derivative from the root. Grass even shares an origin with the Latin gramen ‘grass’, which had an earlier form grasmen, the –men part being a suffix indicating a noun.
My simple satisfaction at these etymological connections is countered by a discomfort at the way growth is used. From a different perspective I share the opinion of Harold Wilson, who when prime minister in 1965 told the Oxford Times: ‘I am now fighting a losing battle on another word I dislike – growth – which had a certain medical and agricultural connotation.’
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