No Stupid Questions

4287 readers

10 users here now

There is no such thing as a Stupid Question!

Don't be embarrassed of your curiosity; everyone has questions that they may feel uncomfortable asking certain people, so this place gives you a nice area not to be judged about asking it. Everyone here is willing to help.

ex. How do I change oil
ex. How to tie shoes
ex. Can you cry underwater?

Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca still apply!

Thanks for reading all of this, even if you didn't read all of this, and your eye started somewhere else, have a watermelon slice 🍉.

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

admin@lemmy.ca

Why "administrator" instead of "administer"? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago by Nemo@slrpnk.net to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.ca

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Ministrations are performed by a minister, but administration is performed by an... administrator? How did we get here?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Guess out of my butt would be different root words. One would be Latin based the other Germanic(?)

[–] tal@lemmy.today 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

goes to look on etymonline

It looks like both forms of "minister" have a Latin root:

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=minister

minister(n.)

c. 1300, "man consecrated to service in the Christian Church, an ecclesiastic;" also "an agent acting for a superior, one who acts upon the authority of another," from Old French menistre "servant, valet, member of a household staff, administrator, musician, minstrel" (12c.) and directly from Latin minister (genitive ministri) "inferior, servant, priest's assistant" (in Medieval Latin, "priest"), from minus, minor "less," hence "subordinate" (from PIE root *mei- (2) "small") + comparative suffix *-teros. Formed on the model of magister (see master (n.)).

minister(v.)

early 14c., ministren, "to perform religious rites, provide religious services;" mid-14c., "to serve (food or drink);" late 14c. "render service, aid, or medicine; furnish means of relief or remedy" from Old French menistrer "to serve, be of service, administer, attend, wait on," and directly from Latin ministrare "to serve, attend, wait upon," from minister "inferior, servant, priest's assistant" (see minister (n.)). Related: Ministered; ministering.

And for "administrator":

https://www.etymonline.com/word/administrator

administrator(n.)

"one who has been given authority to manage," mid-15c., administratour, from Old French administrateur or directly from Latin administrator "a manager, conductor," agent noun from past-participle stem of administrare "to manage, control, superintend" (see administer). The estate sense is earliest. For ending, see -er.

And "administer":

administer(v.)

late 14c., aministren, later administren, "to manage as a steward, control or regulate on behalf of others," from Old French aministrer "help, aid, be of service to" (12c., Modern French administrer), and directly from Latin administrare "to help, assist; manage, control, guide, superintend; rule, direct," from ad "to" (see ad-) + ministrare "to serve, attend, wait upon," from minister "inferior, servant, priest's assistant" (see minister (n.)).

So while it was an interesting thought, it looks like all four words, "minister" (noun), "minister" (verb), "administrator" (noun), and "administrate" (verb) have Latin roots.

[–] Nemo@midwest.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

If I'm reading your research right, it seems that "administrator" comes to English from the French, while the rest come directly from the Latin. I want to think that's where the difference comes from.