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  1. Word Family - Arbiter

    December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝

    Teaser

    Europe, Maghreb, Arabia, Erebus

    Full Text

    • Semitic *[ʕ/ġ]rb to depart, to set
      • Central Semitic
        • Arabic ġaraba
        • Northwest Semitic
          • Aramaic ערובה ʿrōbā sunset, evening, (Sabbath) eve
          • Canaanite
            • Phoenician *'irōb
              • Homeric Greek Εὐρώπη Eurṓpē Western shore of the Aegean,\nmainland Greece\n(as opposed to …
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  2. Word Family - Egypt

    December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝️

    Teaser

    Egypt, Hephaestus

    Full Text

    • Afro-Asiatic *ptḥ to create?, to begin?
      • Egyptian ptḥ Ptah, self-created divinity of craft and creation
        • English Ptah
        • Egyptian ḥwt-kꜣ-ptḥ Temple of the Soul of Ptah, Memphis
          • Mycenaean Greek *ai-ku-pi-to
            • Ancient Greek Αἴγυπτος Aíguptos Egypt, the Nile
              • Latin Aegyptus Egypt
                • Western Romance …
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  4. Word Family - Witch

    Halloween Bonus Family

    Teaser

    witch, Vé, victim

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *weyk- to separate, to choose, to consecrate
      • Proto-Indo-European *wiknéh₂-ti
        • Germanic *wikkōną
          • West Germanic *wikkōną
            • Old English wiċċian
              • English (be)witch
            • Frankish *wikkon
            • Old High German *wikkōn
              • German wicken
            • West Germanic *wikkô
              • Old English wiċċa
                • English witch
                • Scots wich witch
                • English …
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  5. Word Family - Moon

    October theme: Nighttime 🌃🎂

    Teaser

    measure, meal, moon, month, medicine, mode, moderate

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- to measure
      • Proto-Indo-European *miméh₁-ti reduplicate imperfective
        • Indo-Iranian *mimáHti
          • Indo-Aryan
            • Sanskrit मिमीते mimīte to measure, to mark off
          • Iranian
            • Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬀𐬨𐬍𐬨𐬀𐬚𐬁
      • Proto-Indo-European *moh₁ros big, great
        • Celtic *māros big, great
          • Brythonic *mọr
            • Welsh mawr large …
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  6. Word Family - Community

    September theme: Community 🏘️

    Teaser

    municipal, common, communicate, Mithra, mix, mutant, miss

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *mey- to exchange, to intermingle
      • Proto-Indo-European *moyno-s
        • Italic *moinos
          • Latin mūnus service, duty, obligation, public office
            • Latin mūniceps citizen (duty-taker)
              • Latin mūnicipium township, town
                • Western Romance
                  • Italian municipo town council, town hall, government office
              • Latin mūnicipālis …
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  7. Word Family - Guest

    September theme: Community 🏘️

    Teaser

    guest and host, hospitality and hostility

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European gʰes- to eat
      • Proto-Indo-European gʰese-ti primary verb
        • Indo-Iranian
          • Indo-Aryan
            • Sanskrit घसति ghásati to eat
          • Iranian
            • East Iranian
              • Avestan 𐬔𐬀𐬵 gah to eat, to gorge
      • Northwest Indo-European gʰóst-is guest, stranger ~"eater"
        • Balto-Slavic
          • Slavic *gȏstь guest
            • East Slavic
              • Russian …
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  9. Word Family - Rex

    December theme: Religion 📿

    Introduction

    This is the #WordFamilyFriday that no matter how long I work on it, it's never done. That's what I get for trying to explore the possibility that two extremely important and productive roots may be connected: *h₂er-, related to cosmic order, and *h₃reǵ-, related to societal …

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  11. Word Family - Geyser

    December theme: Religion 📿

    Introduction

    This root has been reconstructed as *ǵʰew-, *ǵʰewH-, *gewH, *gʷewH, *gʷewh₂, which is an unusually high amount of variation, and with different combinations of the definitions I've listed, but:

    1. It's an unusual amount of variation in the phonological reconstruction, but still awfully similar.
    2. Looking at any …
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  12. Word Family - Bid

    December theme: Religion 📿

    Introduction

    *bʰewdʰ- vs. *gʷʰedʰ-: two families that end up being super confusing in Germanic languages, since *bʰ and *gʷʰ merge at the beginning of a word. In English, they end up being homophones with complementary/opposite meanings: "offer" vs. "ask for".

    I had to do these two …

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  13. Word Family - Diurnal

    December theme: Religion 📿

    Introduction

    We start religion words with *dyḗwos ph₂tḗr, Old Father Shining-Sky himself.

    Interestingly English "day" is not from this root, despite similarity to many IE words for day, e.g. Latin diēs, etc. Germanic d corresponds to Latin f (PIE dʰ); Latin d corresponds to Germanic t …

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  15. Word Family - Tepid

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Teaser

    tepid

    Full Text

    • ? Unknown original source
      • Proto-Afro-Asiatic *dp- heat, fire
        • Semitic *di/ap(a)ʔ- heat, be warm
          • Central Semitic
            • Arabic دَافِئ dāfiʾ warm
        • Cushitic
          • Blin dif sweat
          • Gedeo daffa sweat
          • Somali dhidid sweat
      • Proto-Kartvelian *ṭep-
        • Georgian თბილი tbili warm
      • Proto-Indo-European *tep- to be …
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  16. Word Family - Aidan

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Teaser

    Aidan, edify, estivation

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- ignite, fire
      • Proto-Indo-European *h₂éydʰe-ti burning, igniting primary verb
        • Indo-Iranian *Háydʰati
          • Indo-Aryan
            • Sanskrit एधते édhate to spread, to grow, to increase, to prosper
        • Hellenic
          • Ancient Greek αἴθω aíthō To kindle, to light, to burn
            • Ancient Greek Αἰθίοψ Aithíops Ethiopian
              • Ancient …
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  17. Word Family - Ignite

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Teaser

    Agni, ignite, wonga

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥gʷnis fire animate, elemental fire as opposed to <*péh₂wr̥>: fire as an inanimate/contained substance
      • Balto-Slavic *ungnis
        • Lithuanian ugnìs fire
        • Slavic *õgnjь
          • East Slavic
            • Russian ого́нь ogónʹ fire, light, weapons fire
          • South Slavic
            • Serbo-Croatian о̀гањ òganj fire …
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  19. Word Family - Human

    Elements So Slow 🌎🌊

    Teaser

    chthonic, Demeter, geometry, Daoine Sidhe, human

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰōm earth
      • Albanian dhe earth
      • Anatolian
        • Hittite 𒋼𒂊𒃷 te-e-kán earth
      • Balto-Slavic *źemē earth
        • Lithuanian žẽmė land, earth
          • Lithuanian Žemyna Earth Mother goddess
          • Lithuanian žemýnas continent
        • Slavic *zemljà earth, soil, land
          • East Slavic
            • Russian земля́ zemljá earth, soil …
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