By Anatoly Liberman
All modern dictionaries state that the adverb ajar goes back to the phrase on char, literally “on the turn” (= “in the act of turning”). This is, most probably, a correct derivation. However, such unanimity among even the most authoritative recent sources should be taken with caution because reference books tend to copy from one another. Recycling a plausible opinion again and again produces an illusion of solidity in an area notorious for debatable results. That is why it is so interesting to read books published before Skeat’s dictionary (1882) and the OED came out. After their appearance, the lines of English etymological research hardened and few people took the trouble of questioning the giants’ conclusions.
First, let us look at the accepted explanation. The etymon of ajar is said to be on char (1510; cf. at char, 1708; Jonathan Swift). Char(e) is related to Old Engl. cierran “to turn.” Its root can be detected in charwoman and chore. Today we remember the latter word only with the sense “an unpleasant task” (“a job of work”), and it usually occurs in the plural (chores). Its meaning accords well with that of charwoman, even though the cause of the variation char ~ chore remains unclear (but see below).
In its present form ajar surfaced only in 1786. For this reason, it doesn’t occur in pre-nineteenth-century dictionaries; it is absent even from the first editions of Webster’s (1828). Later editions listed the word without any derivation, but in 1864 C.A. F. Mahn revised Webster’s etymologies, explained ajar as a + jar (a self-evident move), and cited its Dutch synonym akerre (sic), but he also referred to jar “harsh sound.” In his opinion, the connecting link between “harsh sound” and “partly open” was provided by Shakespeare’s usage: jar “a vibration of the pendulum of a clock.” However, jar “turn” and jar “vibrate” are different words, and if ajar is related to Dutch op een kier (this is the modern gloss for ajar), it has nothing to do with a discordant noise. To be sure, when a door is ajar it often vibrates (and while vibrating creaks) and turns on its hinges, but only one of the two verbs, namely “to turn,” is akin to Old Engl. cierran, Dutch keren, and German kehren. The other jar is a sound imitative verb (or so it seems).
Along the way from on char to ajar, ch must have undergone voicing. James A. H. Murray, while editing the letter A for the first edition of the OED, suggested that the association with ajar “in a jarring state, out of harmony, at odds” caused the confusion. In a way, it is a variation on Mahn’s idea. The confusion is quite possible, the more so as the Holstein phrase in de Kirr indicates both being not tightly closed and creaking (and see what is said above), but the story of a door at war with itself does not end here.
Later scholars tried to find a phonetic analog of the change. According to a well-known rule, s sometimes alternates with z, depending on the place of stress in a word; compare ’exhibition (ks) ~ex’hibit (gz), ’execute (ks) ~ ex’ecutor (gz), and so forth. In such examples (note the value of x in the word example), s acquires voice when it stands after an unstressed syllable. It has been surmised that in the string on char, in which ch also stands after an unstressed syllable, it yielded j for the same reason. Even though events may have developed this way, the question remains open or, if I may take such liberties, ajar. Initial ch– hardly ever became j– in the history of English. The only two instances may be jowl in cheek by jowl and jaw; neither is certain. To complicate matters, the local variant jarwoman “an occasional assistant in the kitchen” exists. One should also bear in mind that Engl. j– often has a strong expressive value in both word initial and word final position, as in jig, jog, job, budge, nudge, grudge, and many others. To account for its emergence, one does not always need a phonetic law.
I would like to point to an amazing number of similar sounding synonyms of ajar in the Germanic languages. The closest of them is Scots ajee (also spelled agee). It means the same as ajar but has a different root. Gee (jee) is a call to a horse. It also functions as a verb and means (at least in some British dialects) “to move (to one side), stir, alter one’s position,” as in fowls go gee (or chee, as it was generally pronounced in Kent!) when they go to roost; my evidence is dated to 1875. Agee is less limited in its use than ajar, for in Scots one can also look “agye,” that is, aside, while in English only doors and windows can be (or stand) ajar.
Then there is British dialectal ashore (with the variants ashard and ashare) with early antecedents. In reference to a door it means “ajar” (this ashore isn’t allied to ashore “on a shore”). If you voice sh– in ashore, you will get ajore, a form not too different from ajar, especially in light of the fact that Engl. char alternates with chore. In Low (northern) German, we encounter enkarich, corresponding to Dutch aankerre (their southern German cognate is achar), while Frisian has in ‘t kier. As we have seen, the Old English verb related to char was kierran. Middle English k regularly became ch before i. Once again try to voice ch in the German, Dutch, and Frisian forms cited above and you will get something like English dialectal ashore with j in place of ch. This ashore may be related to Modern Engl. askew (a word of French origin). In any case, it isn’t a cognate of ajar “on the turn.” Of the several Icelandic phrases corresponding to ajar I’ll mention only á gaur, with its variant á gaul. Kentish chee ~ gee, Engl. dialectal jarwoman, and the Scandinavian g-forms weaken the idea that jar for char in ajar is the product of final stress.
As long as we analyze the words featured here one by one, each seems to have an acceptable etymology, but the group in its entirety gives us pause. Is it possible that on char (which must have passed through the stage achar before becoming ajar), agee (ajee), ashore (ashare), and á gaur are quite unconnected? And whence this fixation on half-open doors? Outside Germanic, it is hard to find even one word with such a meaning. Why was it so important to have a multitude of synonyms for this situation? Who used them with such insistence? Perhaps, at least initially, the word(s) referred to doors that refused to close well, and phrases with the senses “askew, aslant, on the turn, on the go, off the beam,” to mention some of them, served the purpose well. In English, such doors were also “out of harmony” and this circumstance may have contributed to the survival of ajar. Carpenters were employed to make repairs, and the term for “half-open” (or rather, “not closing properly”) became part of their lingua franca, a common language of wandering handymen. The initial term may have been coined in Germany or elsewhere and, once adopted, changed in every land by folk etymology.
I realize how shaky my hypothesis is, but, in my opinion, it is almost unbelievable that so many look-alikes designating a marginal state of a door and a window should have sprung up independently and acquired a similar form. Even if what I suggested here cannot be accepted as the basis of a viable etymology, people may start thinking anew about the origin of the enigmatic English adverb ajar. (The alliteration at the end of the last sentence — all the words there begin with a vowel — is intentional. I needed a final flourish for a poetic reinforcement of a crazy idea.)
Anatoly Liberman is the author of Word Origins…And How We Know Them as well as An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction. His column on word origins, The Oxford Etymologist, appears here, each Wednesday. Send your etymology question to him care of [email protected]; he’ll do his best to avoid responding with “origin unknown.”
Image credit: Vermeer’s Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, ca. 1662. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Photo by dmadeo via Wikimedia Commons.
Kwa Anatoly Liberman Kamusi zote za kisasa zinasema kwamba adverb ajar inarudi kwenye kifungu cha char, kihalisi <unk>on the turn<unk> (= <unk>in the act of turning<unk>). Hii ni, pengine, derivation sahihi. Hata hivyo, umoja huo hata kati ya vyanzo vya hivi karibuni vyenye mamlaka zaidi unapaswa kuchukuliwa kwa tahadhari kwa sababu vitabu vya marejeo huelekea kunakili kutoka kwa vingine. Kurudisha maoni ya kuaminika tena na tena hutokeza udanganyifu wa uthabiti katika eneo linalojulikana kwa matokeo yenye utata. Kwa hiyo ni jambo la kupendeza sana kusoma vitabu vilivyochapishwa kabla ya kamusi ya Skeat (1882) na OED kutolewa. Baada ya kuonekana kwao, mistari ya utafiti wa etymolojia ya Kiingereza ilizidi kuwa ngumu na watu wachache walichukua shida ya kutilia shaka hitimisho la majitu. Kwanza, hebu tuchunguze ufafanuzi unaokubaliwa. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika tafsiri ya tafsiri ya ""Ajar"" katika tafsiri ya ""Char"" (1510), ""Ajar"" ni ""Ajar.""" (Kutoka kwa Yohana, 178, na Jonathan Swift, 178) Char(e) inahusiana na Old Engl. cierran <unk>kugeuka.<unk> Mizizi yake inaweza kugunduliwa katika charwoman na kazi. Leo tunakumbuka neno la mwisho tu kwa maana ya "kazi isiyo ya kupendeza" ( "kazi ya kazi") na kwa kawaida hutokea katika wingi (kazi za nyumbani). Maana yake inapatana vizuri na ile ya charwoman, hata ingawa sababu ya tofauti ya char ~ chore inabaki wazi (lakini angalia chini). Katika hali yake ya sasa, ajar ilionekana tu mwaka wa 1786. Kwa sababu hii, haionekani katika kamusi za kabla ya karne ya kumi na tisa; haipo hata katika matoleo ya kwanza ya Webster (1828). "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika toleo la baadaye, neno ""kijana"" lilitumiwa katika tafsiri ya Kiingereza ya Biblia ya Biblia ya Kikristo ya 1864." "F. Mahn alibadilisha etymologies ya Webster, alielezea jar kama ""jar"" (harakati ya kujitokeza), na alitaja neno lake la Kiholanzi ""akerre"" (sic), lakini pia alirejelea jar ""sauti kali"" na ""ufunguzi wa sehemu"" kwa maoni yake, kiungo cha kuunganisha kati ya ""sauti kali"" na ""shabiki wa sehemu"" kilitolewa na matumizi ya Shakespeare: jar ""mzunguko wa penduli ya saa.""" "Hakika, wakati mlango ni ajar mara nyingi vibrates (na wakati vibrating creaks) na inageuka juu ya hinges yake, lakini moja tu ya vitenzi viwili, yaani ""kugeuka,"" ni sawa na Old Eng." cierran, Keren ya Kiholanzi, na Kehren ya Kijerumani. Chupa nyingine ni kitenzi chenye kuiga sauti (au hivyo inaonekana). Katika njia kutoka juu ya char kwa ajar, ch lazima kuwa kupitia voicing. James A. H. Murray, wakati wa kuhariri herufi A kwa ajili ya toleo la kwanza la OED, alipendekeza kwamba ushirika na ajar <unk> katika hali ya kuchanganyikiwa, nje ya maelewano, katika tofauti <unk> ilisababisha kuchanganyikiwa. Kwa njia fulani, ni tofauti juu ya wazo la Mahn. "Hiyo ni kwa sababu maneno ya Holstein katika De Klerk yanaonyesha kuwa ""si kufungwa kwa nguvu na creaking"" (na angalia kile kilichotajwa hapo juu), lakini hadithi ya mlango katika vita na yenyewe haikomi hapa." Baadaye wasomi walijaribu kupata neno linalofanana na hilo katika lugha ya lugha. Kulingana na sheria inayojulikana, s wakati mwingine hubadilika na z, kulingana na mahali pa mkazo katika neno; linganisha <unk> exhibition (ks) ~ ex<unk>hibit (gz), <unk> execute (ks) ~ ex<unk>ecutor (gz), na kadhalika. Katika mifano kama hiyo (tazama thamani ya x katika mfano wa neno), s hupata sauti wakati inasimama baada ya silabi isiyo na mkazo. Imedhaniwa kwamba katika kamba juu ya char, ambayo ch pia inasimama baada ya silabi unstressed, ilitoa j kwa sababu hiyo hiyo. Ingawa matukio huenda yametokea kwa njia hii, swali hilo bado liko wazi au, ikiwa naweza kuchukua uhuru kama huo, limefungwa. Ch <unk> ya awali haijawahi kuwa j <unk> katika historia ya Kiingereza. Mifano miwili tu inaweza kuwa jowl katika shavu na jowl na taya; wala ni uhakika. Ili kufanya mambo yawe magumu zaidi, kuna aina ya mwanamke anayeitwa jarwoman - msaidizi wa mara kwa mara jikoni. Mtu anapaswa pia kukumbuka kwamba Engl. J  mara nyingi ina thamani ya kuelezea nguvu katika nafasi ya kwanza ya neno na ya mwisho ya neno, kama katika jig, jog, kazi, budge, nudge, chuki, na wengine wengi. Ili kueleza jinsi ilivyotokea, si lazima mtu awe na sheria ya sauti. "Kama vile tunavyojua, kuna maneno mengi yanayofanana na ""ajar"" katika lugha za Kijerumani." Jina la karibu zaidi kati yao ni ajee ya Scotland (ambayo pia huandikwa agee). Linamaanisha sawa na ajar lakini lina mzizi tofauti. (Gee) ni wito kwa farasi. Pia inafanya kazi kama kitenzi na inamaanisha (angalau katika lahaja zingine za Uingereza) <unk>hamia (kwa upande mmoja), changanya, badilisha msimamo wa mtu,<unk> kama katika kuku kwenda gee (au chee, kama ilivyotamkwa kwa ujumla huko Kent!) "Kama ni kweli, ""kuenda kwa roost"" ni ushahidi wa tarehe ya 1875." Agee ni chini ya kikomo katika matumizi yake kuliko ajar, kwa ajili ya katika Scots mtu anaweza pia kuangalia <unk>agye,<unk> kwamba ni, kando, wakati katika Kiingereza tu milango na madirisha inaweza kuwa (au kusimama) ajar. Kisha kuna lahaja ya Uingereza ashore (na variants ashard na ashare) na antecedents mapema. Katika kumbukumbu ya mlango inamaanisha <unk>ajar<unk> (hii pwani haihusiani na pwani <unk>kushoto pwani<unk>). "Kama wewe sauti sh <unk> katika ashore, utapata ajore, fomu si tofauti sana na ajar, hasa katika mwanga wa ukweli kwamba Engl. """"" Chari ni mbadala wa kazi ya nyumbani. Katika Kijerumani cha Chini (kaskazini), tunakutana na enkarich, inayolingana na Kiholanzi aankerre (mfano wao wa Kijerumani cha kusini ni achar), wakati Kifrisia kina in ‘t kier. Kama tulivyoona, kitenzi cha Kiingereza cha Kale kinachohusiana na char kilikuwa kierran. K-k ya Kiingereza cha Kati mara nyingi ilibadilika kuwa ch kabla ya i. "Kama unajaribu tena kusema ""ch"" katika lugha za Kijerumani, Kiholanzi, na Kifrisia zilizotajwa hapo juu, utapata kitu kama Kiingereza cha lahaja ya ""shore"" na ""j"" badala ya ""ch.""" Pwani hii inaweza kuhusiana na Engl ya kisasa. askew (neno la asili ya Kifaransa). Kwa vyovyote vile, si jamaa wa ajar <unk>on the turn.<unk> Kati ya misemo kadhaa ya Kiislandia inayolingana na ajar nitataja tu á gaur, na tofauti yake á gaul. Kentish chee ~ gee, Engl. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""jar"" ni jina la lugha ya Kiswidi, na ""g"" ya Scandinavia hupunguza wazo kwamba jar kwa char katika ajar ni bidhaa ya mkazo wa mwisho." Kama sisi kuchambua maneno featured hapa moja kwa moja, kila mmoja inaonekana kuwa na etymology kukubalika, lakini kundi katika ukamilifu wake inatupa pause. Je, inawezekana kwamba juu ya char (ambayo lazima imepita katika hatua ya achar kabla ya kuwa ajar), agee (ajee), ashore (ashare), na á gaur hazihusiani kabisa? Na ni kwa nini unavutiwa sana na milango iliyo wazi nusu? Nje ya Kijerumani, ni vigumu kupata hata neno moja lenye maana kama hiyo. Kwa nini ilikuwa muhimu sana kuwa na maneno mengi yanayofanana kwa ajili ya hali hiyo? Ni nani aliyetumia maneno hayo kwa bidii sana? Labda, angalau mwanzoni, neno (s) lilirejelea milango ambayo ilikataa kufungwa vizuri, na misemo yenye maana ya <unk>askew, aslant, on the turn, on the go, off the beam,<unk> kutaja baadhi yao, ilitumika vizuri. Katika Kiingereza, milango hiyo pia ilikuwa "nje ya upatano" na hali hii inaweza kuwa imechangia kuokoka kwa ajar. Wasanii waliajiriwa kufanya marekebisho, na neno <unk> nusu-kufungua<unk> (au badala yake, <unk> si kufunga vizuri<unk>) ikawa sehemu ya lugha yao ya kawaida, lugha ya kawaida ya wafanyabiashara wa kutembea. Huenda neno hilo la kwanza lilitumiwa huko Ujerumani au mahali pengine, na baada ya kutumiwa, lilibadilishwa katika kila nchi kwa sababu ya etimolojia ya watu. Najua jinsi nadharia yangu ni dhaifu, lakini, kwa maoni yangu, ni karibu ajabu kwamba wengi kuangalia-like, kuashiria hali ya marginal ya mlango na dirisha, lazima kuwa sprung up kwa kujitegemea na kupata fomu sawa. Hata kama kile nilichosema hapa hakitakuwa msingi wa etymolojia inayofaa, watu wanaweza kuanza kufikiria upya juu ya asili ya adverb ya Kiingereza ya ajar. (Utangulizi ulioko mwishoni mwa sentensi ya mwisho <unk> maneno yote yanayoanza kwa vokali <unk> ni wa makusudi. Nilihitaji maua ya mwisho kwa ajili ya kuimarisha mashairi ya wazo wazimu.) Anatoly Liberman ni mwandishi wa Neno Origins... na Jinsi Tunavyowajua pamoja na Kamusi ya Uchambuzi wa Etymolojia ya Kiingereza: Utangulizi. Safu yake juu ya asili ya maneno, The Oxford Etymologist, inaonekana hapa, kila Jumatano. Kutuma swali lako etymology kwa huduma yake ya [email protected]; yeye <unk>tafanya bora yake ili kuepuka kujibu na <unk>asili haijulikani.<unk> Image mikopo: Vermeer <unk>s Young Woman na Water Pitcher, ca. 1662 - Mwaka wa 1662 Jumba la Makumbusho la Sanaa la Metropolitan, New York. Picha na dmadeo kupitia Wikimedia Commons.