Proto-Indo-European *h₂endʰ-: "to bloom" is represented almost entirely by Greek ἄνθος ánthos, but there's just enough smattering across other branches to demonstrate that it's not something the Greeks picked up after they split from the rest of IE.
anthology, chrysanthemum, Ianthe
I was very excited to realize tawus and peacock were related!
cook, coach, quiche, cake, kitchen, culinary, apricot, Pepsi, biscuit, Budapest
albino, auburn, daub, oaf, elf, Alfred, Oberon, Elbe, Arpad, Alps
In which we go from Latin ūrō: "I burn" to English bust: "upper torso", with very little semantic or phonological similarity.
Latin ūrō: "I burn" picks up an extra b- in many inflected forms based on re-analysis of amb-ūrō, leading to Latin bustum: "place for fires".
Then semantically Latin …
read moreA Mediterranean/Caucasian substrate word approximately like *wion: "violet (flower)", was borrowed into Hellenic, Iranian, and Italic.
Greek Ionia is probably not related, since the Mycenaean shows 𐀂𐀊𐀺𐀚 i-ja-wo-ne for "Ionians" with digamma in a different position than the *wion expected for "violet" , and Egyptian 𓇌𓅱𓈖𓏭𓉻𓂝𓏛 ywnj-ꜥꜣ supports that …
read moreruby, roan, red, rowan, russet, robust, corroborate, julep, rose
Rob Roy, Rufus, Eritrea, Rousseau, Russell, Paso Robles, Rosetta Stone
While *linom: "flax" and *līnom: "flax" obviously must be connected in some way, the difference in vowel length cannot be reconciled by any regular changes.
All versions with the long vowel are plausibly attributable to derivation from Latin līnum. All the short vowel versions could theoretically be from Greek …
read moreThere'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 moreI'm in the process of expanding this family, after merging the original Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃-: "flower" with Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ-: "to swell" (originally under title word a href="/word-family-budget.html"Budget/a)—and putting both under Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-: "to blow, to swell up".
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
tulips and lilies from Egyptian
*ḱer(h₁)-: "to grow, to make grow, to increase" is mostly in the western IE languages; *ḱer-: "to braid, to weave, rope" is mostly in the east, with only Greek and Armenian having both forms. I would suspect the western *ḱerh₁-: "to make grow" form is a derived root …
read morethrow, dreidel, tribade, attrition, thresh, tour, turn, tournament, thread, detergent
hippopotamus, equestrian, zebra, alfalfa, Azores