Tony Sidaway wrote:
Jimmy Wales said:
Ray Saintonge wrote:
Jimmy Wales wrote:
My daughter recently asked Danny why the word 'receipt' has a 'p' in it. Well, he gave a decent answer but I think he made it up out of thin air. That's the best that most of us can do, even very well educated and smart people.
The irony with such situations arises when you answer "I don't know", and somebody still insists on an answer. So you just oblige them with a made-up answer. Those insisting on an answer are not just children.
I should note based on what I said, that Danny didn't make up a crazy answer, and he properly couched it in terms of being a possible theory. He offered that perhaps a long time ago people pronounced with with a p. So his answer was perfectly fine, and properly indicated his own doubt. :-)
My own answer was much worse: "Beats me, ask Danny."
Receipt, like debt, is a post-hoc latinization of a Middle English word derived from Norman French. dette by way of debitum was latinized to debt. Receite by way of recepta (neut pl) was latinized to receipt. The letters p and b in these cases were almost certainly always silent.
I'm sure there was no deceipt intended. :-)
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