Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of ŝargi
Coloured illustration of ŝargi
#2432 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

to load (a firearm); to charge (a battery)

Word origin

From French charger, from Late Latin carricare, to load a wagon, from carrus, a cart. Esperanto took the same French verb twice, once as ŝargi and once as ŝarĝi, and gave each half of the meaning.

Origin
French
Root
carricare
English cognates
charge, cargo, car

Examples

.

He loaded the pistol with one bullet.

.

I have to charge the phone before we go.

.

The battery is not charged.

One hat apart, and two different words. This is the trap of the band. and ŝarĝi differ by the circumflex on the g, and in the x-system they are sxargi and sxargxi, which is two letters. They are separate roots with separate dictionary entries, and the division between them is clean once you hear it.

is about weight. You put on something that has to be carried: a cart with goods, an animal with a load, a person with responsibility. Ŝarĝo is the burden, and the word goes figurative easily.

is about supply. You put in something the thing needs in order to work: a gun with a cartridge, a camera with film, a battery with electricity, a phone with a charge. Ŝargo is the charge in that sense, and i is to unload a weapon or to discharge a battery.

So a lorry is and a phone is , and if you swap them you have said that the lorry is powered up and the phone is heavy. English hides the distinction behind one word, charge, that does both jobs and several others.

Both come from the same French verb charger, which is the neat part: one etymology, deliberately split into two roots so that Esperanto never has to be ambiguous where English is. Compare logi and loĝi, the other pair in this course separated by nothing but a circumflex, and be equally careful when you type without diacritics.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

ŝargi: worksheet, infographic and listicle

Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "ŝargi" (to load (a firearm); to charge (a battery)): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.

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This word is part of lesson 49.