nephology, Niflheim, Nibelungenlied, nebula
original, arboretum, orthodox, run, ride, palfrey, road, ruin
I had a lot of fun playing Supergiant Games's Hades recently, so I put together a run down of word family information for the names in the game, organized according to the in-game Codex! (Minus the Fables section, which is more spoiler-y and generally less etymologically interesting.)
This will …
read more*ḱel-: "to lean", which gives us *ḱlew-: "to hear". The connection is most explicit in *h₂eus-ḱl̥teh₂ye-ti, literally: "leans an ear", which gives Latin auscultō: "I listen, I hear, I heed, I obey".
There is also *ḱel- and *ḱley- meaning "to shelter, to cover". It's easy …
read moreJune is for Justice. Justice is Life. ✊🏿✊🏽✊🏼 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
forever, young, rejuvenate, June, injury, justice
I'm working on a series of "sorceror", "magician", "wizard", etc. But I had to move up warlock: "oathbreaker, truth-liar". It is the confluence of two families: "truth" and "lies".
very, verify, Varangian, warlock,
bloom, flower, flourish, belladonna, blade, chlorophyll
Europe, Maghreb, Arabia, Erebus
win, wish, Venus, venom, wonder, winsome
Bonus word family for Halloween by special request from my 4 year old: "witch".
measure, meal, moon, month, medicine, modem, accommodate
naga, naked, gym, night, nocturnal
municipal, common, communicate, Mithra, mix, mutant, miss
to exchange, to intermingle
service, duty, obligation, public office
citizen (duty-taker)
township, town
town council, town hall, government office
guest and host, hospitality and hostility
to eat
to eat
to eat, to gorge
guest, stranger~"eater"
guest
hall, cellar, lid, color, hell, apocalypse
to cover
to be covering, to be hidingprimary imperfective
to hide, to conceal
to hide, to conceal
Apologies for the sketchy nature. This one exploded on me in several different ways.
female, doe, filial, Tethys, daughter
to produce, to be strong, to be fruitful, to give milk
to milk
pastor, Pan, food, pants, father, pattern
mother, matrix, material, Manchester, mammal
wind, window, nirvana, vent, weather, athlete, fan, atmosphere
Thor, thunder, astonish, tornado, detonate, Tarquinia
isthmus, sudden, transition, count, Mahayana, January
This is the family 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 …
read moreguide, vision, Hades, idol, Rigveda, idea, history, wise
This root has been reconstructed as *ǵʰew-, *ǵʰewH-, *gewH, *gʷewH, *gʷewh₂, with different combinations of the definitions I've listed, but:
*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 …
read moreWe 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 …
read moreI'm not seriously proposing that words for "death" all across the Northern Hemisphere are related, but I'm not entirely not proposing that, or at least that there may be an ancient wander-word (possibly driven by taboo replacement?) that made its way across much Eurasia …
read moreheat, fire
heat, be warm
warm
sweat
sweat
sweat
warm
to be warm, be hot
ether, Aidan, edifice, anneal estivation
brew, broil, breed, ferment, burn, bourbon, broth, bread
fireanimate, elemental fire as opposed to <*péh₂wr̥>: fire as an inanimate/contained substance
fire
fire, light, weapons fire
Here we have three possibly tied groups: Afro-Asiatic *ʔariĉ̣-: "earth" (e.g. eretz), Indo-European *h₁er-: "earth" (e.g. earth) and Indo-European "to plow" (e.g. arable)
There are several indicators that *h₁ was pronounced as a glottal stop, including a number of other …
read moreAugust and September will be element themed, starting with two "earth" families.
chthonic, Demeter, George, geometry, Daoine Sidhe, human
creole, create, crescent, kore, cereal
Eärendil, Easter, air, soar, east, Austria, Australia, early
hippopotamus, equestrian, zebra