The engagement of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce likely means there’ll be wedding bells in their near future, and etymologically that’s worth a wager. Engage originally meant “to deposit or make over as a pledge; to bind or secure by a pledge”, from Old French engagier “bind (by promise or oath), pledge; pawn”, from the phrase en gage “under pledge”, from gage “pledge”, which came through Frankish ultimately from the Proto-Germanic root *wadja “pledge”. When the Franks, who were originally speakers of a Germanic language, brought their word into French, the native French speakers had trouble with that /w/ sound so they stuck a /g/ before it (which is also why the French form of William is Guillaume and why we have the pair warranty/guarantee). This Germanic root also came into Old English as weddian “to pledge oneself, covenant to do something, vow; betroth, marry” and weddung “state of being wed; pledge, betrothal; action of marrying”, giving us Modern English wed and wedding. The word wager also comes from this same Germanic root, but came into English directly through the Northern French dialect of the Normans (who were also Germanic speakers who later switched to French), so that original /w/ remains.
The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is ENGAGEMENT/WEDDING/WAGER #wotd #engagement #wedding #wager #taylorswiftengaged #taylorandtravis