Doing things

Two thirds of the way down sits evitar, and opposite it stands an English word that looks like its twin and is no relation at all. Evitar comes straight from Latin evitare, built on vitare, to shun or keep clear of, and French éviter and Italian evitare are its brothers. « Avoid » was put together somewhere else entirely. It reached English from Anglo-Norman avoider, and behind that stands Old French esvuidier, to empty out — the same vuidier that gave us « void ». The first sense here was that literal one: to empty a place, to clear people out of it. The lawyers never moved on, which is why a court that « avoids » a contract makes it void rather than steers around it. From emptying a place the word slid to withdrawing from it, and only then to keeping away from a thing, which is where it finally met evitar without ever meeting its family. Vitare did reach English, but through a single door: it is sitting inside « inevitable ».