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What is the meaning of <tempt> in “contempt”?

May 2006:

Andrés and Francisco are brothers and are relatively new to the idea of a word investigation. This has not inhibited them in any way from taking to the process of word analysis like naturals. They are both methodical and have applied their own unique approach to building word webs and matrices.

As a result of this analysis, Francisco raised the question of the <u> that didn’t seem to be a suffix or part of one.

“Is it some sort of connecting letter?” he asked and so answered his own question.

The First Attempt

A Second Attempt

Fig 2.1: An Etymological Tree by Francisco (16/5/06) and the corresponding matrix.

Fig 2.2. An Etymological Tree by Andrés (23/5/06) and the corresponding matrix.

One of the key principles behind orthographic analysis is the need to know the ‘why’ for any particular spelling rather than the what. The initial error seemed logical at the start, after all <contempt> seems to use the same base. This presented the boys with an opportunity to do a more detailed study that would take them into the realms of etymology.

Figures 2.1 and 2.2 show the results.

Fig 1.1 Francisco’s first attempt at a matrix.

Fig. 1.2 Andres’ first attempt at the word web.

Their first attempt made some assumptions based on the common spelling of <contempt> and <attempt> (see Figures 1.1 and 1.2) but then a question of meaning was raised.

Andrés & Francisco at work

“Contempt” didn’t seem to fit with the idea of ’trying or testing’ - there was a need for further investigation and a bit of an etymological study.