So, an “employer” “employs” (v.t.) an “employee.” That’s simple enough.
But a “guarantor” (as on a debt) makes a promise to a person or agency (the debt holder) who is not called the “guarantee”, nor does that term “guarantee” refer to the person whose debt he is promising to make good on as a backstop (the debtor), but instead to the promise itself. What?
For that matter, why do I get a product “warranty” as a “guarantee” that it will work properly for a good amount of time? Why is it not a “guaranty”?
And just who is doing exactly what in “manating” the manatees???
I’m freaking out here, man, help me out (or get me in deeper)!
Why doesn’t a ‘planer’ fly planes? Instead of shaping wood. Wouldn’t a wood shaper be a ‘wooder’?
How is a ‘saw’ a cutting tool and tall tale?
How is ‘sage’ a spice, a bush and a wise person?
The terminology is confusing, I agree; but it may make more sense if you think of it in different terms.
Party A is willing to loan money to Party B (a simple loan contract). Let’s call Party A the Obligee, and Party B the Principal. The Obligee wants to make darn sure that it gets paid back, so it asks for a third party to guarantee the repayment: Party C, who acts as a guarantor, but whom we will call the Surety. Now, if the Principal fails to repay the debt on time, the Surety will pay the Obligee the amount of the loan.
This is a very simple explanation–“surety bonding,” as it is known, can get very complex. But using the proper terms for the parties involved (i.e. staying away from “guarantor” and “guarantee” and “debtor” and “creditor” and so on), helps:
– Principal: The party who owes money, or some other obligation.
– Obligee: The party to whom the Principal owes money, or some other obligation.
– Surety: The party who makes sure the Obligee gets paid regardless.
All English is simple enough. It just takes thorough thought. Keep ploughing through, though.
My bold. I trust I did.
j
Apologies:
To speakers of American English: I had to use the English english “ploughing” (plowing) - sorry, it’s too convoluted to work “bough” (of a tree) in. (PS: in English english “thorough” is yet another pronunciation of ough - a kind of “uh” sound.)
To (most of) those whose first language is not english: just sorry, really.
To everyone: I had to omit “hiccough” and “lough” for reasons of convolution.
They’re homophones, but you didn’t run 'em all together in sequence. I’m a simple man, with a simple mind, I need them all lined up like that. “The tough coughs as he ploughs through the dough” sort of thing. You’re too articulate!
The ‘thorough’ and ‘thought’ threw me too. So Toodaloo, caribou.
There is a story, probably apocryphal, about Mark Twain hearing someone going on about spelling reform. The speaker said, “Do you know that the word sugar is the only word in the English language in which the sh sound is spelled su?” Twain interrupts him to say, “Are you sure?”
Then there is a pair on antonyms that are spelled and pronounced exactly the same: cleave.
Returning briefly to ough - there’s a fine Dave Gorman joke in which he recounts looking at a hoarding on the site of the new Loughborough University London Campus. For those that don’t know, Loughborough University the UK’s foremost student athlete establishment, and is pronounced Luff-Burra. As he is standing there, Gorman is asked by a passing, puzzled American tourist: how do you say that? to which he replies: Low-Brow.
Nitpick-ish: strictly autoantonyms. Looking at this list, same pronunciation appears to be the norm. My fave (not on the list) is Horrorshow, now used to mean something awful, but invented by Anthony Burgess to mean good.
“Warranty” and “guarantee” reveal how English has deep Germanic roots, and also shallower (Norman) French influence. They both derive from the same Germanic (and Proto-Indo-European root), but the latter is filtered through medieval French. There are other such doublets. (Usually the Germanic root came into French via Frankish, the Germanic language spoken in much of medieval France).
(Two other such doublets are “yard” and “garden,” and — would you believe? — “whore” and “cheer”).
”Cheer” is a little different, in that it entered French via that language’s Latin roots, not Frankish Germanic — but they do share the same Indo European root, the ones from which we get “care,” “charity,” and “mon cherie”.
