Science and research

First on this list is la ricerca, and the English pair facing it turns out to be two states of one word. Late Latin had circare, to go round, to go about a place, formed on circus, a ring. Old French wore it into cerchier, and English took that over as « search », so that searching a house was at the outset walking round it. Put the Latin re- in front and the verb becomes recercher, to go round it a second time, which arrived in English as « research ». Italian inherited the same pair by the direct road instead of the borrowed one: cercare is circare worn down at home, and ricercare and la ricerca carry the identical prefix in front of it. The two languages therefore hold the same two words, built in the same order, one step apart. What is worth keeping is the picture still inside them, visible in English « circle » and « circuit »: neither language says look, and neither of them says find. Both say go round the thing once more, which is a fair description of the work.