The words guerrilla and war have a very clear shared history (1 Viewer)

Ahsoka · 3 July 2026

They look fairly different now in spelling (though of course the meaning is obviously related). Both go back to the Frankish word werra (meaning conflict, disorder, or confusion), which English borrowed directly to get the word war. Guerrilla had a longer route. First it was borrowed into French, where it became guerre (meaning war, it was common for words starting with w in Germanic languages to change to gu). This was borrowed into Spanish, which later got the diminutive ending “illa”, meaning small scale warfare, especially by irregular bands. And finally, English borrowed it directly to get guerilla. So even though they look pretty different, guerrilla and war have a surprisingly clear and traceable etymological history.

Ahsoka · 3 July 2026

Language taglist:
@athenaaa @Lexie @Dreamer_of_Songs @Nina @velvet @PrincessChohee @MyLovelyLove @alo @eclipsoul @Villains @Moguri @uran @Chiara @Snailmin

dark_tranquility · 3 July 2026

True another history lesson thanks

ChiaraStar169 · 3 July 2026

interesting!

LoveYooShaSha · 3 July 2026

Ahsoka said:
They look fairly different now in spelling (though of course the meaning is obviously related). Both go back to the Frankish word werra (meaning conflict, disorder, or confusion), which English borrowed directly to get the word war. Guerrilla had a longer route. First it was borrowed into French, where it became guerre (meaning war, it was common for words starting with w in Germanic languages to change to gu). This was borrowed into Spanish, which later got the diminutive ending “illa”, meaning small scale warfare, especially by irregular bands. And finally, English borrowed it directly to get guerilla. So even though they look pretty different, guerrilla and war have a surprisingly clear and traceable etymological history.

I knew "Guerre" means war (from book/media titled "La guerre" sthg sthg maybe a movie in French adapted into English?) But dint connect guerrilla to guerre/war since the term "guerrilla warfare" is probably how I first heard it. Kinda redundant yeah-War war!!!!

Ahsoka · 3 July 2026

LoveYooShaSha said:
I knew "Guerre" means war (from book/media titled "La guerre" sthg sthg maybe a movie in French adapted into English?) But dint connect guerrilla to guerre/war since the term "guerrilla warfare" is probably how I first heard it. Kinda redundant yeah-War war!!!!

In Spanish it was meaning something like “little war”, so if taken literally it would be “little war war”. Definitely redundant

But in English it was brought in not as a noun meaning little war, but as an adjective for type of warfare. Specifically the form of warfare done in a “little war”. I find it pretty interesting when languages will borrow words but make them into new parts of speech that the original didn’t have because of how that changes meaning.