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  1. Word Family - Turtle

    Introduction

    Turtledoves are not named after turtles, in fact "turtle" has meant the bird for longer than it meant the reptile.

    In Middle English tortu meant "turtle" (from Latin tortuca) and turtel mean "turtledove" (from Latin turtur), then they collapsed into "turtle". The modern meaning of "turtle" won out, and …

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  2. Word Family - Heron

    Introduction

    I've been thinking about herons and egrets a lot recently. For the past year or so, our morning walk goes by a half mile of drainage ditch with an amazing variety of water birds. We regularly see 4 different species of heron: great blue heron, great egret, snowy egret …

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  3. Word Family - Gossamer

    Introduction

    The period of unseasonably hot weather after an initial autumn cooling—now often called "Indian summer"—was previously called "goose summer" in English because it corresponds with the beginning of goose hunting season. Compare Irish fómhar beag na ngéanna: "warm period in Autumn (Indian summer)", literally "little autumn of …

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  4. Word Family - Pterodactyl

    April theme: Dinosaurs and Friends🦕

    Introduction

    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 …

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  5. Word Family - Moa

    Teaser

    moa

    Full Text

    • Sino-Austronesian
      • Austronesian *manuk bird
        • Malayo-Polynesian
          • Bajau memanuk bird
          • Javanese manuk bird
          • Malayic *manuk
            • Malay manuk bird, chicken
          • Philippine
            • Tagalog manók chicken
          • Oceanic
            • Micronesian
              • Chuukese machang bird
              • Kiribati man bird
            • Polynesian *manu bird
              • Tongan manupuna bird
              • Nuclear Polynesian
                • Samoan manu bird
                • Eastern Polynesian
                  • Rapa Nui manu bird …
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  6. Word Family - Avian

    Introduction

    Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwis: "bird" and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ówis: "sheep" appear to be umlaut variants, presumably through the more sparsely attested root *h₂ew-: "to put on clothes, to cover". *h₂éwis: "bird" would be from a passive participle, "a clothed (in feathers)". *h₂ówis: "sheep" from an active participle, "a clother (in wool)".

    Teaser …

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