May theme: Plants 🌱

Introduction

In which "olive oil" is redundant.

The Greek and Armenian words are often interpreted as being from a Mediterranean substrate word. But then there's the Slavic *lȏjь: "tallow, suet" and Old Chinese lɯw: "oil, grease", which is plausibly from the Tocharian equivalent of Slavic *lȏjь, and all three could plausibly derive from a PIE form along the lines of *h₁loiwom?, or some other shared source.

Teaser

olive, oil, petrol, gasoline

Full Text

• ?

  • Greco-Armenian

    • Old Armenian եւղ ewł oil

      • Armenian յուղ yuł oil
      • Georgian იუღი iuɣi oil
    • Hellenic *elaíwā

      • Mycenaean Greek 𐀁𐀨𐀷 e-ra-wa olive tree
      • Classical Greek ἐλαία elaía olive, olive tree

        • Greek ελιά eliá olive, olive tree
        • Latin olea olive, olive tree
      • Etruscan 𐌄𐌋𐌄𐌉𐌅𐌀 eleiva

        • Latin olīva olive, olive tree

          • Western Romance

            • French olive

              • English olive

                • English oilve oil
      • Hellenic *élaiwon

        • Classical Greek ἔλαιον élaion olive oil, any oily substance

          • Byzantine Greek ἐλᾴδιον elā́idion

            • Greek λάδι ládi oil, olive oil
          • Latin oleum olive oil

            • Western Romance

              • Old French oile

                • French huile
                • English oil

                  • English oilve oil
            • English petroleum

              • English petrol ^[1]
            • English linoleum
            • English Cazeline

              • English gasoline

                • English gas ^[2]
            • West Germanic *oli olive, olive oil

              • Old English ele oil, olive oil
              • Frankish *oli

                • Dutch olie oil
              • Old High German oli

                • German Öl oil
                • Yiddish אייל eyl oil
              • Old Saxon *oli

                • Low German Ööl
                • Danish olie oil
              • West Germanic *olibaʀi olive "olive berry"

                • Old English eleberġe olive
                • Old High German oliberi

                  • Yiddish איילבערט eylbert olive, sunflower seed
              • West Germanic *olibaum olive tree

                • Old English elebēam olive tree
                • Old High German oliboum

                  • German Ölbaum olive tree
  • Proto-Indo-European *h₁loiwom?

    • Balto-Slavic

      • Slavic *lȏjь tallow, suet

        • South Slavic

          • Old Church Slavonic лои loi tallow
          • Serbo-Croatian ло̑ј lȏj tallow, suet, fat
        • West Slavic

          • Polish łój sebum, tallow, suet
    • Tocharian *läwe?

      • Old Chinese lɯw

        • Middle Chinese 油 jɨu oil, grease, to paint

          • Mandarin 油 yóu
          • Shanghainese 油 hhieu
          • Cantonese 油 jau4
          • Korean 유 yu oil
          • Vietnamese dầu oil, fat, grease
        • Taiwanese 油 yù

Visual

Collected English words

olive, oilve oil, oil, petroleum, petrol, linoleum, Cazeline, gasoline, gas

Footnotes

1. ^

   A mineral oil distillate was sold under the name petrol, short for petroleum (lit. "rock oil"). It was originally sold as a solvent by a company called "Carless", founded by Eugene Carless.

   This name became rather funny in retrospect after petrol was found a suitable fuel in internal combustion engines. But the surname is probably derived from an Old English nickname Carlēas, which is really related to "careless" not to "cars".

2. ^

   gas—short for gasoline—is unrelated to the word gas meaning a vapor, except that it probably influenced the distortion and clipping of Cazeline. Cazeline is a brand name of lamp oil; presumably a portmanteau of (John) Cassell (who invented and sold it) and linoleum (literally "flax seed oil").

   When John Cassell asked Samuel Boyd to stop selling counterfeit Cazeline Oil, Boyd changed the name to gazeline, and so gazeline, later gasoline became the generic brand of Cazeline.