horn, unicorn, cheer, migraine, carrot, Triceratops
This is the 100th Word Family Friday in 100 weeks, and the last before I take a break for a few weeks to work on infrastructure and pad my buffer. I originally had a different idea, but then I realized I of course had …
read moreblue, beluga, flame, bleach, black
to shine
white
swamp
mud
swamp, mud
virus, virulent, weasel, wisent, bison
slime, poison, flow, melt
poison, venom
venom, virus
poison
Europe, Maghreb, Arabia, Erebus
to depart, to set
sunset, evening, (Sabbath) eve
Western shore of the Aegean,\nmainland Greece\n(as opposed to …
Punic, phoenix, Phoenicia, Tisiphone, bane
carpenter, woodcutter
woodcutters, Canaanites, Syrians
trade commodity of some sort
Phoenician, purple or crimson, date palm, a guitar-like instrument from Phoenicia, phoenix
a Phoenician …
to create?, to begin?
Ptah, self-created divinity of craft and creation
Temple of the Soul of Ptah, Memphis
Egypt, the Nile
Egypt
Greek, Charles, corn, grain, grenade
to grow old, to mature
to ripen
to ripen, to mature
to ripen, to grow, to form
to swell, abcess, tumor
to swell, to be inflamed, to be bloated
to swell, to become swollen
a swelling, a tumor
wish, Venus, Edwin, venom, wonder
to love
to strive, to work, to gain, to win
to suffer
to accomplish
to win …
sweep, weave, web, wasp, Vespa, whip, veer, vibrate
to swiftly, to swing, to shake, to cast
to revolve, to sway, to stray
to rove, to ramble, to swerve …
spin, spider, span, poise, peso, ponder
to separate, to choose, to consecrate
witch
measure, meal, moon, month, medicine, mode, moderate
to measure
to measure, to mark off
big, great
big, great
large …
to be dry, to burn, ashes, hearth
I am dry, I am parched, I am withered
dry, withered, arid, shrivelled, uninspired
arid, barren …
to hang loosely, to be weak, lip, to lick
to fall down? to relax?primary verb
to sleep
to sleep
to sleep
Juneberry
berry
(wild) berry or fruit
saskatoon berry
fruit, berry, grain
berry
high-bush …
naga, naked, gym, night, nocturnal
bare
naked thing, naked onenoun
naked
naked
naked
naked
naked
naked
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
enclosure
stronghold, rampart
hill fort, hill
fort
fort, fortress
fort, fortress, refuge, haven
Fort of Foreigners, Donegal
hill …
complete, supply, full, poly-, folk
to fill
in-fill (perfective)
to fill
guest and host, hospitality and hostility
to eat
to eat
to eat, to gorge
guest, stranger~"eater"
guest
I have a once-and-future D&D world, which I call Tegurala (previously called "DungeonWorld"). When I started working on it, I decided to use real world languages for the fantasy languages, for naming language consistency without having to create a bunch of new ConLangs.
Elves in …
read morebeyond, other
other, another
another, other, alien, foreign, also, however
other, but
also, too, anymore
again, more
other, second
droid, androgynous, Nero, Andrew
(adult/married) man
man
(adult) man, husband, mortal
(adult) man, husband
to be part of (a group or family)?, to owe allegiance to?, to change owernship?
to associate with, to go over to, to change allegiance
inheritance?plural: <*h₃orbʰyéh₂>
inheritanceplural: <*orbyā>
I was preparing a family this week that I thought included the English word, wall. But as I researched it, I found that English wall is from Germanic *wallą from Latin vallum, but it is Germanic *waigaz (meaning "wall", no direct relation) that connects to the family …
read moreto rise, to be tall
to rise
I elevate, I raise up, I rise, I exult, I excel
to excel
hall, cellar, lid, color, hell, apocalypse
to cover
to be covering, to be hidingprimary imperfective
to hide, to conceal
to hide, to conceal
to …
female, doe, filial, Tethys, daughter
to produce, to be strong, to be fruitful, to give milk
to milk
moa, manuk
bird
bird
bird
bird, chicken
chicken
bird
bird
bird
bird
bird …
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 …
read moreidol, Rigveda, guide, vision, Hades, idea, history, wise
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:
*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 …
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 to Germanic t …
read moreinnocent, noxious, necromancer, nectar
to perish, to disappear
perishes, disappearsimperfective
to be lost, to perish, to disappear, to be gone
A root meaning "to run, to depart" can be reconstructed from Hellenic and Indo-Iranian. But in Northwest branches, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic, and possibly Italic, there is a phonologically identical root meaning "to die". So it's probably a euphemism coined in a Late Northwest Indo-European …
read morequick, biology, vitamin, zoology, hygiene
to live
to be alivefirst person *gʷíh₃woh₂: "I live"
to live, to inhabit
to live, to reside
water
water
water
water, rain, sea, lake
water
water, drinkchildish
flower, blossom
to blossom
flower
flower
flower
lily
lily
lilyplural …
I'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 moreelephant
elephant, ivory
elephant
ivory
ivory
ivory
ivory
elephantrare; `हस्त …
reed
reed
cross bar?
cane, stick, reed, windpipe
reed, reed mat
reed, cane, pipe, flute …
heat, fire
heat, be warm
warm
sweat
sweat
sweat
warm
to be …
ignite, fire
burning, ignitingprimary verb
to spread, to grow, to increase, to prosper
To kindle, to light, to burn
Ethiopian
to boil, to brew
to knead
to boil
boils, seethes, cooks
to boil, to bake, to burn
to brew
fire, bonfire
fire, torch, campfire, fever
remains of a fire, ashes, cinders
couch grass
couch grass
fireanimate, elemental fire as opposed to <*péh₂wr̥>: fire as an inanimate/contained substance
fire
fire, light, weapons fire
fire …
Avon, Punjab, Jersey, Scandinavia, aquarium, inebriate
water, body of waterpassive, standing water as opposed to active, elemental water: <*wed->
river
river
toward the river
river
river
wateranimate, elemental water as opposed to passive, standing water: <*h₂ep->
wateroblique form: <*udén->
water
water
water
water, flow, current
earth, soil
earth
valley
land, earth, country, ground
earth
chthonic, Demeter, geometry, Daoine Sidhe, human
earth
earth
earth
earth
land, earth
Earth Mother goddess
continent
earth, soil, land
earth, soil …
creole, create, crescent, kore, Ceres
to grow, to increase
to make growtransitive
I create, I give birth to, I prepare, I choose
to create
to create, to appoint, to …
oxygen, vinegar, axe, hammer, hear
sharp
sharp
sharp, pointed, clever, swift
oxygenGreek technical formation "sharp-forming", for oxygen's role in forming acids
a witty saying …
be, hobbit, kit and (ca)boodle, physician, prove, tribe
to become, grow, appear
become, get
to be
to be
to be
to be
This week begins a very loose July "theme" of a handful of miscellaneous everyday words, before we move into some strongly themed months for most of the rest of the year.
For 2017-07-07, I just had to do "seven".
All words mean "seven" unless otherwise specified …
read moreavatar, trans-, nectar, through
to cross over, pass through, overcome
pass over, float, swim
to float
overcame …
fit together, fitting, make
to decorate, to beautify
to fit, to be fitting
to happen, to be appropriate
thrive …