A-Z of English words with surprising origins

On Thu, 27 Nov 2008, DVH wrote:

Regatta, from Venetian

The enquiries I did in april showed that "regata" derives from Latin
"re-captare" i.e. "to catch again" or "to CAPTure again".

Is there a reason you think it's not derived from "rigare"?

Many reasons. One is that a verb "rigare" does not exist as a standalone
intransitive verb, except in the idiomatic expression "rigare diritto".
As a transitive verb, it means "drawing or carving lines or grooves on a
sheet of paper or other material". Another is that the alternance i - e
is not a typical italian - venetian alternance (like e.g. c - g). So
my ear would never associate "regata" as an alteration of "rigare". On
the contrary "regata" may look like the feminine participle past of a
verb "regare" which does not exist at all (the verb for "make a
regat(t)a" is "regatare"). Last but not least because I found the
etimology "re-captare" around, and it looks plausible to me.

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