Two random things about conservatives: they can’t define habeas corpus and they often want to prohibit bare midriffs, and strangely that’s etymologically appropriate. Habeas corpus, the legal principal that a detained person must be brought before a court to make sure their detention is lawful, is a Latin phrase that literally means “(you should) have the person”. Habeas, the 2nd person singular present subjunctive form of the verb habere “to have”, can be traced back to the Proto-Indo-European root *ghabh- “to give or receive”, which is also the source of English give (but surprisingly not have). When combined with the prefix pro- “away, forth” Latin habere becomes prohibere “to hold back, restrain, hinder, prevent”, with the past participle prohibitus that came into English in the 15th c. as prohibit. Latin corpus meaning “body” comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *kwrep- “body, form, appearance” (which as a verbal root probably had the meaning “to appear”), and this root also came into the Germanic languages as the Proto-Germanic root *hrefiz- which became Old English hrif “belly”, a word which only survives today in the compound word midriff.
The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is HABEAS CORPUS/PROHIBIT/MIDRIFF #wotd #HabeasCorpus #prohibit #midriff