Jerry Friedman wrote:
> What word has contributed a silent letter to two unrelated English
> words?
In Middle English the word "scissors" was spelt "sisours" or "cysowres";
it comes from Old French "cisoires" (from Late Latin *cisoria). The
unrelated Germanic word "scythe" was "sith" in Middle English.
If these are the words you mean, then we have to find the word that
contributed the silent letter. That could be Latin "scissor" (cutter).
--
James