Virtual/Enhanced/World #etymology

Virtual reality tech can create an enhanced or alternate world, and etymologically that makes sense. Virtual had the original sense of “inherently powerful or effective owing to particular natural qualities”, but gained the sense of “that is such in essence, potentiality, or effect, although not in form or actuality” from the notion of “producing, or being capable of producing, a particular result”. It comes ultimately from Latin virtus “strength, vigor, bravery, courage, excellence”, literally “manliness, manhood” from vir “man” (because, of course, for the very patriarchal Romans these were manly virtues). This can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European *wi-ro- “man” from the root *weiə- “to go after something, pursue with vigour, desire; force, power”. PIE *wi-ro- also came into the Germanic branch, producing Old English wer “man” (as in werewolf “man-wolf”), which is part of the word world (OE weorold), a compound meaning literally “age of man”, with the second part *ald “age” coming from PIE *al- “to grow, nourish”. PIE *al- is also the root behind Latin altus “high” (literally “grown tall”), with the compound inaltare “to raise, exalt” becoming Old French enhaucier “make greater, make higher or louder; fatten, foster; raise in esteem”, and thus English enhance. Alternate, by the way, comes from an unrelated PIE root *al- meaning “beyond” which became Latin alter “the other” (with the comparative suffix -ter) and alternus “one after the other, alternate, in turns, reciprocal”.