Answers follow questions.
What is the full meaning of the word answer?
: something spoken or written in reply, especially to a question.: a correct response.
answer (n.)
Middle English answere, from Old English andswaru “a response, a reply to a question,” from and- “against” (from PIE root *ant- “front, forehead,” with derivatives meaning “in front of, before”) + -swaru “affirmation,” from swerian “to swear” (see swear). The proposed etymology suggests an original sense of “sworn statement rebutting a charge.” The meaning “solution of a problem” is from c. 1300.
Remarkably, the Latin expression for answer is made up exactly the same way, from the verb spondere, signifying to engage for, to assure. [Hensleigh Wedgwood, “A Dictionary of English Etymology,” 1859]
A common Germanic compound (cognates: Old Saxon antswor, Old Norse andsvar, Old Frisian ondser, Danish and Swedish ansvar), implying a Proto-Germanic *andswara-.
The simpler idea of “a word in reply” is expressed in Gothic anda-vaurd, (German Antwort).
answer (v.)
Middle English answeren, from Old English answarian “make a statement in reply,” from and- “against” (from PIE root *ant- “front, forehead,” with derivatives meaning “in front of, before”) + swerian “to swear” (see swear), suggesting an original sense of “make a sworn statement rebutting a charge.”
The meanings “conform, correspond” and “be responsible for” are from early 13c; that of “suffer the consequences of” is from late 13c.; that of “respond in antiphony” is from early 15c. The sense of “respond in act or action, give back in kind” is from 1570s; that of “solve, find the result of” is from 1742. Related: Answered; answering. The telephone answering machine was so called by 1961.
I started blogging, looking for answers. I got mine. Read, even if it doesn’t fit. Make it work. Ask questions; you’ll find answers.
WE&Pby: EZorrillaM.