SC - Seething with enthusiasm here...

[Mordonnade]

In a message dated 98-01-04 23:46:16 EST, you write:

<< 
 Without going into typing in all the little bitty italic fine print, the
 gist is that the verb "seeth" is derived, according to my dictionary,
 from a sort of all-purpose Anglo-Saxon verb, meaning to cook or boil.
 "Steep" (as in infuse) is derived from another, Germanic verb, via
 Middle English, meaning "to pour out", which, oddly enough, is what you
 do with tea _after_ you steep it.
  >>

Hokay, I'll buy that.
But that just puts the question back a few generations, as "Anglo-Saxon" is
itself mostly Germanic.  Were the original verbs that different in meaning?  

The modern English language is a totally "borrowed" language with roots in
almost every corner of the planet.  Sorting out where the root of a word lies
is sometimes difficult and intricate.  Somewhere on the order of trying to
uproot a single strand of crabgrass.

Mordonna 
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