Unearthing the ancient etymology of �thuto�

The Setswana name for ‘education’ is thutho. As the astute reader will discern, it seems to relate to ‘tutor’ and ‘tutelage’ and many will wonder if the words are primordially related. Per my ever-expanding and upcoming Dictionary of Protolanguage Terms, there words are cognates (i.e. they spring from the same root), and in this article we will find out why.

The active tense for thuto is ‘ruta’ (teach). In my Protolanguage Dictionary, ruta it is of the same etymology as the English word ‘rote’ whose etymology English dictionaries are unclear about. It implies that learning is typically imbibed through repetition (rota). In fact, rota (‘urinate’ in Setswana) is likely to be derived from the necessary morning routine: there is something wrong if an individual does not do this in the morning.