Word Family - Duck

April theme: Birds 🐦

Teaser

Donald Duck dives to the deep abyss of Dover in a Bathysphere! (What a dope.)

A graph showing the text 'Donald Duck dives to the deep abyss … in a Bathysphere! (What a dope.)' across the bottom, and word family graph deriving seven of the words in the text all from the Proto-Indo-European root <*dʰewb->

A comic book panel showing Donald Duck on a boat preparing a bathysphere to dive.

Full Text

  • Proto-Indo-European *dʰewb- deep, hollow
    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbti goes deep, sinks, dives primary verb
      • Balto-Slavic
        • Slavic *ďubati to peck
          • East Slavic
            • Russian дю́бать djúbatʹ
      • Germanic *dūbanã to dive, to sink
        • West Germanic
          • Old English dūfan to dive, to sink
            • English dive
        • Germanic *dūkanã to duck, to dive under intensive -k-? compare hear/hark and smile/smirk
          • West Germanic
            • Old English *dūcan to dive, to dip, to plunge
              • English duck
              • Scots douk to duck, to dive
              • Old English dūce duck (bird) lit. "diver"
                • English duck
                • Scots deuk duck
            • Frankish *dūkan
              • Dutch duiken to dive
                • Dutch duiker diver, culvert, loon (bird), duiker (antelope)
                  • English duiker
            • Old High German tūchan
              • German tauchen to dive, to bathe
                • German Taucher diver, loon (bird), grebe (bird)
    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰowbéyeti makes deep, submerges causative verb
      • Germanic *daubijanã
        • North Germanic
          • Old Norse
            • Icelandic dýfa to dip, to dive
        • West Germanic
          • Old English dȳfan to dive
            • English dive
        • Germanic *daupijanã
          • West Germanic
            • Old English dīepan
              • Scots depe to dip, to incline
        • Germanic *dupjanã variant
          • East Germanic
            • Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 daupjan to dip, to immerse, to baptize
          • North Germanic
            • Old Norse deypa
              • Danish døbe to baptize, to name
          • West Germanic
            • Old English dyppan
              • English dip
            • Frankish *dōpen
              • Dutch dopen to dip, to immerse, to baptize, to name
                • English dope
            • Old High German toufen to dip, to immerse, to baptize
              • German taufen to baptize
              • Lombardic *taufan
                • Italian tuffare to plunge, to dip
    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰéwbus deep adjective
      • Proto-Albanian *deubeta
        • Albanian det sea
      • Balto-Slavic *dubus
        • Lithuanian dubùs deep, hollow
      • Germanic *deupaz deep
        • East Germanic
          • Gothic 𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍀𐍃 diups deep
        • North Germanic
          • Old Norse djúpr deep
            • Danish dyb deep, profound
            • Icelandic djúpur deep
        • West Germanic
          • Old English dēop deep
            • English deep
            • Scots depe deep, profound
          • Frankish *diop
            • Dutch diep deep, low, profound
          • Old High German tiuf
            • German tief deep, low
              • English tiefling
            • Yiddish טיף tif deep, profound
        • Germanic *diupiþō deepness, depth
          • East Germanic
            • Gothic 𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍀𐌹𐌸𐌰 diupiþa depth
          • North Germanic
            • Old Norse dýpt
              • Danish dybde depth
              • Icelandic dýpt depth
          • West Germanic
            • Old English *dīepþu
              • English depth
              • Scots deepth
            • Frankish *diopitha
              • Dutch diepte depth
      • Hellenic *butʰós metathesis
        • Classical Greek βῠθός buthós depth, deep water, bottom of the sea metathesis from *thubós
          • Classical Greek ἄβῠσσος ábussos bottomless, unfathomable, abyss a-buthos: "without bottom"
            • Latin abyssus abyss
              • Western Romance
                • Italian abisso abyss, gulf
              • English abyss
              • French abysse abyss, deep sea
              • Late Latin *abyssimus abyssal, abysmal
                • Western Romance
                  • Old French abisme
                    • French abîme abyss, chasm, hell
                    • English abysm
                      • English abysmal
                    • Spanish abismo abyss
          • Classical Greek βένθος bénthos the depths [1]
            • English benthic
            • Classical Greek βᾰθῠ́ς bathús high, deep, profound, intense zero-grade form [1]
              • English bathy-
                • English Bathysphere
    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰubnós deep
      • Balto-Slavic *dubno
        • Lithuanian dùgnas bottom, background
        • Slavic *dъnò bottom
          • East Slavic дъно dŭno bottom
            • Russian дно dno floor, (river) bed, bottom
          • South Slavic
            • Serbo-Croatian дно̏ dnȍ bottom
          • West Slavic
            • Polish dno bottom, (river) bed
      • Celtic *dubnos depth, world
        • Brythonic *duβn
          • Breton don deep
          • Welsh dwfn
        • Old Irish domun world, Earth, country, realm
          • Irish domhan world, earth, domain, universe
        • Celtic *Dubnorix World-King (personal name)
          • Gaulish Dumnorix
        • Celtic *Dubnowalos World-Chief (personal name)
          • Brythonic *Duβnowal
            • Welsh Dyfynwal
          • Old Irish Domnall
            • Irish Domhnall
            • Latin Donvaldus
              • English Donald
        • Celtic *Dubnotalos World-head?, World-boss? (personal name)
          • Gaulish Dubnotalus
    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰubrós deep
      • Balto-Slavic *dubrā́ˀ
        • Lithuanian Dubrà
        • Slavic *dьbrь
          • East Slavic дъбрь dŭbrĭ valley
            • Russian де́бри débri thicket, jungle, wilderness
            • East Slavic Дьбрꙗньскъ Dĭbrjanĭskŭ Thicket-Town? (place name)
              • Russian Брянск Bryansk
                • English Bryansk
          • South Slavic
            • Serbo-Croatian дебри debri
      • Celtic *dubros water
        • Gaulish
          • German Tauber
        • Celtiberian
          • Galician Dubra
        • Brythonic *duβr water
          • Welsh dŵr water
          • English Dour
          • Brythonic *duβras waters, Dover
            • Latin (Portus) Dubris Dover
              • Old English Dofras Dover
                • English Dover
              • Brythonic *wenduβras white waters
                • English Wendover
        • Celtic *dubrokū otter lit. "water-dog"
          • Brythonic *düβrgi
            • Welsh dyfrgi otter
          • Old Irish doburchú otter
            • Irish dobharchú otter
      • Tocharian *täpre
        • Arshian tpär
        • Kushean tapre high, tall, fat
          • Kushean tparṣke shallow

Visual

Image is a visual representation of the text content above.

Collected English words

dive, duck, duck, duiker, dive, dip, dope, deep, tiefling, depth, abyss, abysm, abysmal, benthic, bathy-, Bathysphere, Donald, Bryansk, Dour, Dover, Wendover

Footnotes

  1. ^

    Most sources say bathús is probably not related to buthós. But the ablaut alternation between benthos and bathos points to an Indo-European origin (equivalent to *bendʰ- vs *bn̥dʰ-), and this is by far the most likely IE origin I can think of.

    Alternatively it could be from the "language of the geminates", a northern European substrate language that apparently had grammatical alternation in prenasalization of internal consonants like -th-/-nth-. But of course Greek is not northern European, so that weakens that possibility (that substrate is primarily seen in Celtic, Germanic, and Finnic).

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