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1. Word Family - Linen

   Introduction

   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 …

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2. Word Family - Camel

   June theme: Domestic Animals 🐕

   Teaser

   camel, gamma

   Full Text

   • Semitic *gamal- camel

     • Central Semitic

       • Arabic جمل jámal camel

         • Maltese ġemel camel
       • Northwest Semitic

         • Aramaic

           • Classical Syriac ܓܡܠܐ gamlā’ camel
         • Canaanite

           • Hebrew גמל gamal camel
           • Phoenician

             • Ancient Greek κάμηλος kámēlos camel

               • Greek καμήλα kamíla camel
               • Latin camēlus camel

                 • Old French

                   • English …

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3. Word Family - Cow

   June theme: Domestic Animals 🐕

   Introduction

   Proto-Indo-European has *gʷṓws: "cow, cattle" and *woḱéh₂: "(female) cow". The expected feminine of the *gʷṓws would be something like **gʷow(s)éh₂. *woḱéh₂ looks similar, but not quite there.

   Sino-Tibetan *ŋwa: "cattle, ox" is also highly reminiscent of *gʷṓws. If there was a Central Asian …

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4. Word Family - Swine

   June theme: Domestic Animals 🐕

   Introduction

   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 …

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5. Word Family - Canine

   June theme: Domestic Animals 🐕

   Introduction

   I 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 …

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6. Word Family - Stegosaurus

   April theme: Dinosaurs and Friends🦕

   Teaser

   steganography, detect, Stegosaurus, thug, thatch, deck

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- to cover s-mobile root

     • Proto-Indo-European *(s)tég-eti primary verb

       • Balto-Slavic

         • Lithuanian stíegti to roof, to thatch
       • Hellenic

         • Ancient Greek στέγω stégō to cover, to wrap, to make watertight

           • Ancient Greek στέγη stégē roof …

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7. Word Family - Triceratops

   April theme: Dinosaurs and Friends🦕

   Teaser

   horn, unicorn, cheer, migraine, carrot, Triceratops

   Full Text

   • Proto-Afro-Asiatic

     • Egyptian *qar- horn

       • Egyptian qr.tj horns (dual)
     • Semitic *qarn- horn

       • Central Semitic

         • Arabic قَرْن qarn horn, century

           • Maltese qarn horn
         • Northwest Semitic

           • Aramaic קַרְנָא
           • Canaanite

             • Hebrew קֶרֶן …

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8. Word Family - Weasel

   Teaser

   virus, weasel, bison

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *weys- slime, poison, flow, melt

     • Proto-Indo-European *wisós action noun, zero-grade variant

       • Hellenic *wihós

         • Ancient Greek ῑ̓ός īós poison, venom

           • Greek ιός iós venom, virus
       • Indo-Iranian *wišás

         • Indo-Aryan *wíṣas

           • Dardic *biṣá

             • Kalasha biṣ poison
           • Sanskrit विष viṣá poison, venom, bane

             • Sauraseni 𑀯𑀺𑀲 visa …

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9. Word Family - Attercop

   November theme: Spiders 🕷

   Teaser

   edema, Oedipus, oat, atter, attercop

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyd- to swell, abcess, tumor

     • Proto-Indo-European h₂oydéy-eti

       • Old Armenian այտնում aytnum to swell, to be inflamed, to be bloated
       • Hellenic

         • Ancient Greek οἰδέω I swell, I become swollen

           • Ancient Greek οἴδημᾰ oídēma a swelling, a tumor

             • English edema …

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10. Word Family - Web

    November theme: Spiders 🕷

    Teaser

    sweep, weave, web, wasp, Vespa, whip, veer, vibrate

    Introduction

    *ksweyb- is a _very_ weird root. It has too many consonant, and way too many in the onset. It has a /*b/ which is an unusual/marginal phoneme in PIE. It is related to a number of …

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11. Word Family - Spider

    November theme: Spiders 🕷

    Teaser

    spin, spider, span, poise, peso, ponder

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen- to stretch, to spin

      • Proto-Indo-European *(s)penH-

        • Proto-Indo-European *(s)penH-ti primary verb

          • Balto-Slavic *pinˀtei to braid, to stretch

            • Lithuanian pìnti to braid, to twine, to chatter
            • Slavic *pęti to stretch

              • East Slavic пꙗти pjati

                • Russian …

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12. Word Family - Moa

    April Theme: Birds 🐦

    Teaser

    moa, manuk

    Full Text

    • Sino-Austronesian?

      • Proto-Austronesian *manuk bird

        • Malayo-Polynesian

          • Bajau memanuk bird
          • Javanese ꦩꦤꦸꦏ꧀ manuk bird
          • Malayic *manuk

            • Malay manuk bird, chicken
          • Phillipine

            • Tagalog manók chicken
          • Oceanic

            • Micronesian

              • Chuukese machang bird
              • Kiribati man bird
            • Polynesian *manu bird

              • Tongan manupuna bird
              • Nuclear Polynesian

                • Samoan manu bird …

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13. Word Family - Duck

    April theme: Birds 🐦

    To be uploaded

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14. Word Family - Thrush

    April theme: Birds 🐦

    Teaser

    thrush, ostrich

    Full Text

    • ?

      • Northwest Indo-European *tr(o)zdos ^[1]

        • Balto-Slavic

          • East Baltic

            • Lithuanian strazdas thrush
          • Slavic *drȏzdъ thrush

            • East Slavic

              • Russian дрозд drozd thrush
            • South Slavic

              • Serbo-Croatian дро̏зд drȍzd thrush
            • West Slavic

              • Polish drozd thrush
        • Celtic *trezd

          • Gaulish *tresd

            • Gaulish *tresdina

              • French draine mistle …

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15. Word Family - Avian

    April theme: Birds 🐦

    To be uploaded

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16. Word Family - Bee

    March theme: Bees

    Teaser

    La bohème, bee, antisphexish

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *bʰewh₂- to hit, to strike

      • Proto-Indo-European *bʰewh₂ti primary verb

        • Proto-Albanian *bajā

          • Albanian bahe sling
        • Balto-Slavic

          • Lithuanian bausti to chastise, to punish
        • Celtic

          • Old Irish fo-botha threaten lit. "under-*beat"
        • Italic

          • Latin *fūtō

            • Latin confūtō

              • Western Romance

                • French

                  • English confute …

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17. Word Family - Honey

    March theme: Bees 🐝

    To be uploaded

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18. Word Family - Mead

    March theme: Bees 🐝

    To be uploaded

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19. Word Family - Hive

    March theme: Bees 🐝

    To be uploaded

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20. Word Family - Water

    August theme: Elements So Slow 🌎🌊

    Introduction

    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".

    Teaser

    vodka, whiskey, water, hydrogen, otter, hydra, wash

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *wed- water

      • Proto-Indo-European …

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21. Word Family - Light

    Teaser

    Lucifer, light, Waterloo, Roxane, lunar, lynx

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *lewk- to shine, to see

      • Proto-Indo-European *léwks shine noun

        • Old Armenian *loycʿ-

          • Old Armenian լուցանեմ

            • Armenian լուցել
        • Italic

          • Latin lūx light

            • Translingual lux SI unit of illumniation (1 lumen/m²)
            • Latin lūcifer light bringer, morning star (Venus)

              • English Lucifer ^{[1 …}

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22. Word Family - Cat

    To be uploaded

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23. Word Family - Small Horse Families

    March theme: Horses 🐎

    Introduction

    Two final, small "horse" families.

    Teaser

    ride, palfrey, road,

    and

    henchman

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- to ride

      • Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ-ti primary verb

        • Germanic *rīdaną to ride

          • North Germanic

            • Old Norse ríða to ride

              • Danish ride to ride
              • Icelandic ríða to ride
          • West Germanic

            • Old English rīdan to …

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24. Word Family - Cavalry

    March theme: Horses

    Teaser

    capercaillie, chivalry, cavalier, cavalry

    Full Text

    • ??

      • Turkic

        • Old Turkish käväl horse? ^[1]
        • Persian ?
        • Proto-Slavic *kobyla mare (female horse)

          • Russian кобы́ла kobýla mare
          • Polish kobyła mare
      • Saka kabä
      • Ancient Greek καβάλλης kabállēs nag, pony
      • Proto-Celtic *capallos

        • Brythonic *kappilos horse

          • Welsh ceffyl horse

            • English Cavall ^[2]
            • English …

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25. Word Family - Mare

    March theme: Horses 🐎

    Introduction

    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 …

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26. Word Family - Horse

    March theme: Horses 🐎

    Introduction

    In which "horse" and "car" turn out to be almost identical words! Both from <*kr̥sos>: "running thing".

    Teaser

    course, car, charge, cargo, walrus, horse, rush

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *k̑ers- to run

      • Proto-Indo-European ḱr̥sé-ti primary verb

        • Italic *korzō

          • Latin currō I run

            • Eastern Romance …

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27. Word Family - Equus

    March theme: Horses 🐎

    Teaser

    hippopotamus, equestrian, zebra, Afghanistan

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European h₁éḱwos horse ^[1]

      • Anatolian *ʔeḱu-

        • Hittite 𒀲𒆳𒊏𒍑 ekkus horse
      • Armenian էշ

        • Latin asinus donkey

          • Old English assen donkey, ass

            • English ass
          • Latin assellus small/young donkey

            • Germanic *asiluz donkey

              • East Germanic

                • Gothic 𐌰𐍃𐌹𐌻𐌿𐍃 asilus donkey
              • Slavic *osilu donkey

                • East …

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