andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>
> Why doesn't someone look things up in the OED?
I did -- but the OED isn't that useful for full etymologies. It is more concerened with the history of the word _in English_. The AHD is better. I have misplaced my old copy of Webster's New World, which was good on etymologies. Partridge's _Origins_ didn't help in this instance. What one needs to satisfy Doug's companions is the IE origin of the words, which I found in the AHD's Appendix of IE roots. *tera(dry) for terra, *tres (tremble) for terror. But people who are possessed by a folk etymology, a conspiracy theory, or a just-so story in biology are always hard to convince.
Carrol