Finale—Master Class Introduction

A. Many of you may have expected that the subject of this series would occasion more reference to words’ histories. I have resisted dwelling on these too much, out of a sense that only after we have a full conception of how inherent change is to language can these etymologies be understood as more than isolated “just so” stories.

B. But now that we are at the end of our journey, it will be useful to take a simple sentence of English and examine the extent to which it is but one snapshot along an endless process of mutation. The histories of the words are now useful to us in illuminating how this has happened in various ways.

C. Our sentence is:

While the snow fell, she arrived to ask about their fee.