November theme: Spiders 🕷

Teaser

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
Proto-Indo-European h₂oydro-s swollen basic adjective
- Hellenic
  - Ancient Greek οἰδῐ́ος oidíos swollen ^[1]
    
    Ancient Greek Οἰδῐ́πους Oidípous Swollen-Foot personal name
    
    Latin Oedipūs
    
    English Oedipus
Proto-Indo-European *h₂éydō basic noun
- Old Armenian այտ ayt cheek
- Balto-Slavic
  - Slavic *jadъ
    
    East Slavic
    
    Russian яд jad poison, venom
    
    South Slavic
    
    Old Church Slavonic ꙗдъ jadŭ poison
    Serbo-Croatian jа̏д jȁd sorrow
- Germanic *aitǭ swelling, gland, nodule
  - West Germanic
    
    Old English āte
    
    English oat
    
    Frankish
    
    Dutch eit ear wax
    
    Old High German eiz abcess, boil
    
    German Eiß ulcer, sore
Proto-Indo-European *h₂oydós agentive noun
- Hellenic
  - Ancient Greek οἶδος oîdos tumor, swelling
Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydrom instrumental noun
- Germanic *aitrą boil, sore, pus, poison
  - North Germanic
    
    Old Norse eitr poison
    
    Danish edder
    Icelandic eitur poison
  - West Germanic
    
    Old English ātor poison, venom ^[2]
    
    English atter
    
    Frankish *ētar
    
    Dutch etter pus
    
    Old High German eitar pus
    
    German Eiter pus
  - Germanic *aitrąkuppaz spider lit. "poison-head" or "pus-head"
    
    North Germanic
    
    Old Norse
    
    Danish edderkop spider
    
    West Germanic
    
    Old English ātorcoppe spider
    
    English attercop
    
    Frankish *ētarkopp
    
    Dutch etterkop peevish, disagreeable person
Proto-Indo-European *h₂idsth₂-os
- Balto-Slavic *iˀst-
  - Lithuanian ìnkstas testicle
  - Slavic *jьsto
    
    South Slavic
    
    Old Church Slavonic исто isto kidney, testicle, entrail
- Germanic *aista- testicle
  - North Germanic
    
    Old Norse eista testicle
    
    Icelandic eista testicle
Proto-Indo-European *h₂oydskeh₂
- Albanian eshke kidney

Visual

Collected English words

Footnotes

Ancient Greek οἰδῐ́ος oidíos: "swollen" is not the origin of English odious, which is from Latin ōdī: "I hate, i destest" from PIE *h₃ed-: "to stink". It wouldn't be surprising if *h₂eyd-: "pus" and *h₃ed-: "stink" were connected in Pre-Proto-Indo-European.

The poisonous snake adder is not formally related, being the result of a segmentation error from older nadder ("a nadder" -> "an adder"). nadder is from PIE *nh₁trih₂, compare Latin nātrīx: "water-snake" or Irish nathair: "snake, adder". You could certainly see how the segmentation error could have been influenced by the similar sounding word for "poison", though.

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 …

Introduction

*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 …

AidanEM

Other articles

Word Family - Spider

November theme: Spiders 🕷

Teaser

Full Text

Word Family - Create

Introduction

Other articles

November theme: Spiders 🕷

Teaser

Full Text

Introduction

social