you ever notice that the word "elaborate" is literally "having-put-labor-into-it"? etymonline says elaborate (adj.) 1590s, "wrought by labor", which I think is a canny way to put it. hey that thing has detail and/or a kind of grandeur. someone worked to make it so
other ones:
- disintegrate is dis-integrate is "undo integration"
- i've heard that "wisdom" (wise-dom) had original meaning something like "ability to see the world clearly"
- information as in-formation as "a bunch of data put into a meaningful structure"
- individuation as in-dividuation as in-division
sometimes these things really change how i look at a word. just wish i could remember any of the ones ive thought of 🤒. (of the above, only the first is "mine", and that one doesn't feel that insightful to me)
