"This is tantamount to treason!" Yes, we all know what it means. But, uh, what does it mean, exactly?
I think most readers will agree that it means something like "this is an equivalent of treason". But does anyone have a clue as to the etymology of this word? I certainly don't.
But as it's my job here to guess, I will put forth a feeble Greek origin to the tanta- prefix. But -mount doesn't sound very Greek to me. This is one of those words where the deeper I get into guessing, the deeper I get in the muck. So let's find out the truth while we still can...
Yeah, it's a hybrid. But no, not Greek. "Tant" means 'so much, so great' and comes from the Latin tantum and "amount" apparently comes from the Old French amunter, a variant of amonter. You say amonter and I say amunter, let's call the whole thing... uh, sorry--I got distracted.
(P.S.--I tried to find a suitable image, but nothing quite worked. However, I'm open to suggestions...)
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Not to mention that one will occasionally see this word misused in place of paramount.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I think I actually got a bit tricked by this one. If I had thought of the Spanish tanto or tanta, so much or so many, I would have pieced it together better. Paramount is one sort of cousin, but I think the word that really threw the wrench is was 'catamount', which I know, or at least believe, is some kind of wild animal, and which probably doesn't have to do with amounts.
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I'd thought about this one from time to time but never enough to investigate its meaning. This may due to its use as a vehicle of inflationary rhetorical puffery -- you know, "Voting yes on this bill is tantamount to treason."
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/