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Up until now I have avoided speculative etymologies because they are so much harder to unravel, but I was intrigued by the idea that risk may be connected to a plant root, causing a hazard at sea. There is much written about this, tracing the word back to the Odyssey. And risk is also another very timely word.
The text reads as follows:
English borrowed risk in the 17th century from French risqué, ’danger’, ‘inconvenience’. This can be traced to 12th century post-classical Latin resicum, resicum ‘hazard’ often used in the context of ‘possible harm to goods transported by sea’. Earlier origins of risk remain uncertain. One theory is that resicum comes from resecare, ‘to cut’ hence ‘that which cuts’,‘rock’,‘reef’. Speculation also suggests that resicum is from rhizo ‘root’ in classical Greek, in medieval Greek, rhizikon ‘hazard at sea’. Maybe it is from Arabic risq, ‘that which man is allotted by God for his livelihood’, hence ‘luck, chance’, or maybe from Arabic rizk, ‘tax imposed on a people to maintain an occupying army’. All of these possible origins hold a threat and put one at risk.
