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SANITY originally meant "health" from the 1400s
SANE originally meant "healthy"
HEALTHY came into use as SANITY shifted to mean "soundness of mind"
SANITARY & SANITIZE enter the language in the 1800s, after it was discovered that clean surgery led to fewer infections https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/1252809567630528514">https://twitter.com/MerriamWe...
SANE originally meant "healthy"
HEALTHY came into use as SANITY shifted to mean "soundness of mind"
SANITARY & SANITIZE enter the language in the 1800s, after it was discovered that clean surgery led to fewer infections https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/1252809567630528514">https://twitter.com/MerriamWe...
SANE referred to physical health at first (this corresponds to the modern French word & #39;sain& #39;/& #39;saine& #39;).
As late as 1828, Noah Webster gave as his first definition:
Sound; not disordered or shattered; healthy; as a sane body.
#etymology #languagechange
As late as 1828, Noah Webster gave as his first definition:
Sound; not disordered or shattered; healthy; as a sane body.
#etymology #languagechange
By the time SANITARY, SANITATION, & SANITIZE were introduced in the 1800s, enough time had passed that there was no direct connection with physical health (SANITARY was never a synonym of HEALTHY as SANE had been), because of the evolution of the related terms.
