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1. Word Family - Check

   Introduction

   All English meanings of "check" derive from the chess term:

   checklist, checkup, checks and balances, checkers, checking account, checkered past, …

   All of them.

   Teaser

   check, chess, checkers, shah, Xerxes

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *tek- to reach for, to take, to obtain, to receive

     • Proto-Indo-European *téketi primary imperfective

       • Balto-Slavic *tektei

         • Lithuanian …

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2. Word Family - Elephant

   October theme: Ancient Borrowings 𒅴

   Teaser

   ivory, elephant

   Full Text

   • Proto-Afro-Asiatic *leb-

     • Chadic

       • West Chadic

         • Tangale labata elephant
     • Egyptian 𓍋𓃀𓅱 ābu elephant, ivory usually with determiner suffix 𓃰 or 𓌟 to distinguish between "elephant" and "ivory"

       • Coptic ⲓⲏⲃ yēb elephant

         • Latin ebur ivory

           • French ivoire ivory

             • English ivory
           • Italian avorio …

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3. Word Family - Mare

   August theme: Horses 🐎

   Introduction

   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 piece in chess and the Welsh word for the knight piece in chess might be …

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4. Word Family - Cavalry

   March theme: March of Horses 🐎

   Introduction

   This is a tricky one—another of these mysterious wanderwords coming out of the steppe. My current best hypothesis, based on the distribution in time and space, is that the Scythians/Northern Iranians picked it up somewhere and spread it around.

   Another theory connects …

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