Its All Fine

Its All Fine It’s All Fine It’s All Fine By Mark Nichol The two diverse meanings of fine- as a noun or a verb referring to payment of a penalty and as an adjective denoting quality- stem from a common root. Fine and its various derivations come from Latin finis, meaning â€Å"border,† â€Å"limit,† or â€Å"end†; from the early days of the printing press until into the modern era, this term was often printed at the end of a book regardless of the language of the text in the volume, and aficionados of French cinema are familiar with its Gallic descendant, fin, shown at the conclusion of many French-language films. The verb finish, meaning â€Å"to bring or come to an end,† and the noun form, describing a conclusion, as well as a surface coating intended to complete a crafted object, also derive from finis, as does the noun final, which pertains to that which comes or happens last; it is also often employed as an adjective, though adjective-noun phrases such as â€Å"final competition† or â€Å"final examination† are frequently truncated to merely final. The adjective fine, meaning â€Å"of high quality† or â€Å"pure,† comes from the Old French term fin, a back-formation of finis. By extension, fine also became synonymous with structural delicacy and intricacy, as well as monetary value and moral standing. It is also used casually to mean â€Å"good† or â€Å"satisfactory,† though when uttered with an edge, it is being delivered sarcastically to indicate that the situation is anything but that. (In print, to indicate a speaker’s or writer’s sarcastic emphasis, the word is best treated in italics to convey this sense.) In medieval times, the word meant â€Å"end of life† or â€Å"termination†; although this sense eventually became obsolete, the word survived in the later sense of â€Å"payment for compensation or punishment.† The verb form originally meant â€Å"pay,† but the sense was subsequently reversed to mean â€Å"impose payment.† Another word related to fine in the monetary sense is finance, which was borrowed directly from the French word meaning â€Å"payment† or â€Å"settlement.† The noun acquired a verb form meaning â€Å"ransom†; the sense, as well as that of the noun form, was later extended to refer to money management in general. Other terms descended from finis include affinity, meaning â€Å"natural attraction† and referring to relationships in scientific and other scholarly contexts; it is descended from the Latin term affinis, meaning â€Å"adjacent.† The noun confine, almost invariably in plural form, refers to boundaries or limits; confinement developed as a euphemism for the period in which a pregnant woman prepares to give birth. The verb confine originally meant â€Å"border on† but later acquired the sense of â€Å"keeping within limits.† To define was originally to end, but from the sense of â€Å"limit† it acquired the meaning of â€Å"explain†; the sister adjectives definite and definitive, respectively, mean â€Å"clear† or â€Å"unmistakable† on the one hand and â€Å"settled† and â€Å"most accurate or complete,† or â€Å"best,† on the other. Definition first meant â€Å"decision† or â€Å"establishment of boundaries† but followed the semantic shift of the verb form, developing a sense of â€Å"statement of what something means.† Later, it came to apply to the meaning of a term and then to the degree of distinctness in an image. Infinite, meaning â€Å"limitless,† is also descended from finis; related terms are the noun form infinity, as well as the adjective infinitesimal (â€Å"infinitely small†) and the noun infinitive (â€Å"uninflected form of a verb†). The Latin phrase â€Å"ad infinitum† (literally, â€Å"to infinity†), adopted into English, means â€Å"endlessly.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of†The Possessive ApostropheList of Prefixes and Suffixes and their Meanings