Is there someone knowledgeable in ethymology who could tell me if these two words come from the same roots, what they mean and what are the similarities and differences between the two of them.

I'd very much appreciate! thanks.

From the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary link near the top of the page.

for cult:
French & Latin; French culte, from Latin cultus care, adoration, from colere to cultivate

for culture:
Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin cultura, from cultus, past participle

So, yes, they come from the same root: cultus: a Latin word meaning care, adoration, and even worship in some other sources.



Etymology Online traces it back one more step, to Proto-Indo-European quel-, quol- "move around, turn." Proto-Indo-European is a theoretical language based on the idea that Indo-European languages have a root language in common.

We can find a root for both in Latin, without going as far back as any hypothetical language.

Here the root word is 'colere'. It means initially, to till,take care of, a field or garden, to cultivate. Then it went on to mean to bestow care upon a thing, to care for, to look after. Now we are getting to how it is involved with religion. The Romans worshipped at temples and places sacred to individual gods. These places were cared for, looked after, protected, by the gods concerned and it was hoped that they would care for the area around them too; so Plautus writes 'I do homage to the gods and goddesses who 'look after and protect' ( 'colunt': 3rd person plural from'colere') this town' The past participle of colere is cultus ( protected etc )and so the place where there was worship and by extension those who worshipped at that god's temple were 'looked after, protected' by the god. Latin went on to use cultus as a noun in its own right and in this connection, meaning veneration, an act of adoration.

Meanwhile, back on the farm: our 'colere' for tilling the fields and cultivating soon created the noun 'cultura' meaning the act of cultivating, of raising crops, which could be 'of a field' = 'agri' or 'of a garden' = 'horti', giving us agriculture and horticulture. It's easy to see how the careful raising and growing of crops could be extended to the careful cultivation of the mind, the arts and so on and Latin speakers did that, too. Cicero wrote 'philosophy is the cultivation ('cultura') of the mind'. So that's culture for you

well FredPuli, this is more than useful and will make me sound very knowledgeable at cocktail parties!

Hopefully I'm not pushing too far by asking if the word 'colère' in french comes from the same root. It means anger and I wonder how it could be linked to the words mentionned before.

thanks again!

'cult - 1617, "worship," also "a particular form of worship," from Fr. culte, from L. cultus "care, cultivation, worship," original pp. of colere "to till," from PIE base *quel-, *quol- "move around, turn." Rare after 17c.; revived mid-19c. with reference to ancient or primitive rituals. Meaning "devotion to a person or thing" is from 1829.


culture - 1440, "the tilling of land," from L. cultura, from pp. stem of colere (see cult). The figurative sense of "cultivation through education" is first attested 1510. Meaning "the intellectual side of civilization" is from 1805; that of "collective customs and achievements of a people" is from 1867. Slang culture vulture is from 1947.'

www.etymonline.com

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Originally posted by le_berger:
Hopefully I'm not pushing too far by asking if the word 'colère' in french comes from the same root. It means anger and I wonder how it could be linked to the words mentionned before.

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Hello? Anyone? Oh wait, did Newnick just answer this?

Patience, Jusork.

Colère comes from the Latin word cholera, which, in turn, comes from Greek kholera. The connection between cholera and anger is that bile (khole), was supposed to cause both the disease and irritablility. Of course, in English we have the word choler from the French colère, but it's not exactly common anymore .

There is a word coulter. A coulter is a ploughshare, the blade of the plough/plow. That in old Latin was 'culter' but by classical Latin times culter meant only a 'cook's ,or any ordinary, knife' (our 'cutlery' is a misspelled descendant of it). Now wouldn't it be neat if that was from colere/ cultus ? After all what more obvious implement for tilling could there be than that? Well, it would but the similarity of the words is not from their having a common root in Latin. Culter seems to be from an old Latin word for killing or wounding and is rooted in a Sanskrit word. However it seems that the forming and spelling of culter was influenced by the imagined relationship; a 'culter' was a thing you did 'cultus' or 'cultura' with Such are the mysteries and curiosities of etymology.

ever feel like you're invisible?

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Originally posted by methos:
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So, yes, they come from the same root: cultus: a Latin word meaning care, adoration, and even worship in some other sources.

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Originally posted by FredPuli:
We can find a root for both in Latin, without going as far back as any hypothetical language....

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Originally posted by methos:
Etymology Online traces it back one more step ...

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Originally posted by newnickname:
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www.etymonline.com

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