Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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1066 AD. After extensive travail, I discovered my ancestry Trailed back to William the Conqueror, 8th Duke of Normandy. As we sort of learned from the smutty comic scene in Henry the Fifth, The conquest introduced, over several centuries, French into England's Anglo-Saxon verbiage. There are a myriad of examples, but one I love is our 'in lieu of ', Which in English means 'in place of '. 'Lieu' in French, of course, also means literally 'place'. I find it fascinating that this word jumped literally From one language to another. The 'nuance!', however, shifted from 'someone acting in place of another' To the evolved meaning of 'one thing done or provided instead of another'. Also the introductory moment was in the 15th century and not 1066. But my fantasy of 1066 was not shattered. After 1066, English was open to accepting Anglo-French vocabulary, With numerous examples welling up, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries: Fatherly became paternal, brotherly became fraternal, Of course motherly became maternal, But somehow sisterly did not even exist until the late 1500's, Not to mention a competing French form. Eventually soral appeared, but sisterly maintained its prevalence. As we know, sorority is used from the Latin root, soror, meaning 'sister'. The transfer of a word from one language to another Is often because of the fancy of the speakers. In spite of it all, 'lieu' appears to have sounded sexier (?) than 'place'-- Sort of emphasizing words, originally shadowing from 1066. Frank Maurer 10 February 2024 1305 Hours.