Hello everyone! Today, we actually have a double etymology! It’s based around the etymology of “Nemesis”, which actually has a pretty interesting history!
As you may already know, it comes from the Ancient Greek goddess “Nemesis”, a deity of revenge and retribution. The name “Nemesis” comes from the Ancient Greek “nemein”, which is a verb that literally means something like “to distribute”, plus the nominalization suffix “-sis”. So, the name essentially means “Distribution”, or perhaps more accurately, “Retribution”.
Interestingly, the verb “nemein” is cognate to the Old English verb “niman” meaning “to take”. Though the Modern English descendant “nim” isn’t widely used, the past participle is a pretty common word, can you guess what it is? Well, keep in mind that the “b” at the end was added through analogy with words like “comb” and “climb”, but it’s the word “numb”! Literally, it means “taken”.
Well, hope you enjoyed today’s etymology! Remember to not make etymology your nemesis… Mwahahahaha!
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