Re: CHAT: Lost (was: Azurian.)

T. A. McLeay wrote:
> Mark J. Reed wrote:
>> Round these here parts, "compost" is /'kOm.post/ and "provost" is
>> /'pro.vOst/.  Obviously YPMV.
>>
>>>> I keep thinking there's a word I know of that ends in -most but which
>>>> doesn't actually come from compounding with the word most, but I
>>>> can't seem to think what it is. (As I recall, it originally ended in -
>>>> mest, which consisted of the final -m of the root and the superlative
>>>> morpheme -est, but was later remodeled by analogy to <most>.)
>>>>
>>> How about "utmost"?
>> No, the "most" in "utmost" feels like the same morpheme as the word
>> "most".  Although I don't know what the ut- is.  Shortened from
>> "ultimate" or something?
>
> I doubt it --- "Ultimate" is Latin whereas "most" is and "utmost" feels
> Germanic. My intuition is that "ut" represents "out", and indeed
> dictionary.com says it's < ME utmest < OE u:tmest, "See OUT, -MOST". As
The OE is actually "u:temest". Sorry for the mistake/double post.

> for -most, it says: [Origin: ME -most; r. ME, OE -mest, double superl.
> suffix, equiv. to -ma superl. suffix (as in OE _forma_ first; cf. L
> _prīmus_) + -EST; later identified with MOST]
>
> So this makes it sounds like lots of -most words, including "utmost" are
> exactly what you thought.
>