It has long been noted that the Ancient Greek λέων léon: "lion" (whence the word for lion in nearly all Balto-Slavic, Germanic, and Italic languages, as well as a few others) looks almost like it comes from Semitic *labu, but not quite. Pre-Classical Greek would …
read moreAll English meanings of "check" derive from the chess term:
checklist, checkup, checks and balances, checkers, checking account, checkered past, …
All of them.
check, chess, checkers, shah, Xerxes
There's a very cool fact: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, kohlrabi, and others are all the species of plant, namely Brassica oleracea, selectively bred for different parts of the plant. (https://www.google.com/search?q=brassica+oleracea+selection)
Only recently did I realized that many …
read moreFind the Path
A few weeks ago, I picked up my phone to look up the etymology of "Pontic", but got distracted and looked up the etymology of "path" first. And it turned out they were the same! But wait, how does that work, cause Grimm's Law?
*paþaz is …
read morecrystal, crust, custard, crustacean, cryo-
(Tegurala introduction: I have a D&D setting I have developed, which I call Tegurala. 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. Giants use Uralic languages)
I present two families for "pig" here, partly because Armenian խոզ xoz is derivable from either family (see footnote [1])
Family 1, Indo-European *suH- pig, sow?", possibly related to Akkadian 𒊺𒄷𒌑 še-hu-u₂ and Sumerian 𒋚 šah; and family 2, Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰóryos: "pig", probably central PIE …
read moreI get a little speculative here, if not downright provocative. There are words for dog all over Eurasia that recall each other. These could be onomatopoeic, but they do not much resemble the common forms you find in words that actually used as dog sound …
read moreIn which "olive oil" is redundant.
The Greek and Armenian words are often interpreted as being from a Mediterranean substrate word. But then there's the Slavic *lȏjь: "tallow, suet". And then the Old Chinese lɯw: "oil, grease", which is plausibly from the Tocharian equivalent of Slavic …
read morebloom, flower, flourish, belladonna, blade, chlorophyll
In which "dryad" and "druid" are basically the same word, "trust" and "tryst", "trees" and "truce". Plus horse racing history.
true, endure, tree, derby, larch, druid, dryad, tray
root, orchard, radio, radish, eradicate
Pterodactyl. Two cool realizations about Greek "pter-". 1) "Helicopter" is so strongly segmented as "heli-copter" in English, it's fun to realize that the Greek construction is actually "helico-pter": "twisting (helix) wing". 2) More recently I realized it's an awesome example of Grimm's Law: apply …
read moreAnkylosaurus! And as an unexpected bonus, I found Azhdarchid pterosaurs deep in the family, too. Pterosaurs are probably my very favorite Mesozoic animals (stay tuned for next week!). Also in this family: various spiders and snakes and fears and sins in various languages.
I … read moresteganography, detect, Stegosaurus, thug, thatch, deck
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 …
Greek, Charles, corn, grain, grenade
to grow old, to mature
to ripen
to ripen, to mature
to ripen, to grow, to form
edema, Oedipus, oat, atter, attercop
win, wean, wish, wont, Venus, venereal, venerate, Edwin, Baldwin, Winfred, venom, wonder, winsome, venial
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
Bonus word family for Halloween by special request from my 4 year old: "witch".
Got out of hand, never managed to finish, as yet.
curve, search, circle, cross, ring, cyborg, clavicle, close
measure, meal, moon, month, medicine, modem, accommodate
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
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
"My language is my awakening, my language is the window to my soul."
I have a D&D setting I have developed, which I call Tegurala. When I started working on it, I decided to use real world languages for the fantasy languages, for naming language …
read moreelse, Alsace, eldritch, allo-, allele, alias, alien, alienate, altruism, alter, adulter, altercation, other
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 …
June's theme is linguistic effects of the Celtic Hegemony of the early Iron Age. The rest of the month will focus on words that were borrowed from Gaulish into Latin (things like very iconic Latin word gladius being borrowed from Gaulish, which appears in …
read morefemale, 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 …
Thor, thunder, astonish, tornado, detonate, Tarquinia
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 …
Ethiopia, ether, ethereal, Hugh, O'Hea, Hayes, Aidan, Enya, Egan, MacEgan, Keegan, Maddoc, Mogue, Kenneth, edify, edifice, anneal, mareel, estivation
brew, fervent, ferment, brand, firebrand, brandish, burn, bourn, broth, bulgogi, broa, bread
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, island, Scandinavia, aquarium, sober
I love how Indo-European *udrós, "aquatic", became the word for "otter" in 4 out of the 5 branches where it is attested, except for Greek where it became "sea serpent".
vodka, whiskey, water, hydrogen, otter, hydra, wash
earth, soil
earth
valley
land, earth, country, ground
earth
August and September will be element themed, starting with two "earth" families.
chthonic, Demeter, George, geometry, Daoine Sidhe, human
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, edge, axe, hammer, hear, acoustic, coin, cuneiform
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 moreIt is the right and proper state of a people or nation to be free, generous, honorable, hairy, libertine, and liberal children and vegetables.
Ragnar Lothbrok, deliver, liberty, Luther
avatar, 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 …
Easter, air, Austria, Australia
On St. Patrick's Day, I reveal the secret reason I did horses in March.
Also, this one is really cool and just might go back all the way to the original domestication of horses in Central Asia. Maybe—just maybe—the Thai word for the knight …
read more