May theme: Plants 🌱

Teaser

root, orchard, radio, radish, eradicate

Full Text

• Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds root

  • Old Armenian *rgat

    • Armenian արքատ arkʿat branch trimmings
  • Germanic *wrōts

    • North Germanic

      • Old Norse rót root, origin ^[1]

        • Danish rod root
        • Icelandic rót root, origin
        • Old English rōt

          • English root
  • Proto-Indo-European *wr̥h₂dés of root genitive

    • Germanic *wurtiz of roots lre-analyzed as base form in some descendants ^[1]

      • East Germanic

        • Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍄𐍃 waurts root
      • West Germanic

        • Old English wyrt

          • English wort
        • Frankish *wurta

          • Dutch wort
        • Old High German wurz

          • German Würze spice, aroma
      • Germanic *urtiz ^[1]
      • North Germanic

        • Old Norse urt

          • Danish urt herb
          • Icelandic jurt plant, herb
        • Germanic *urtōną to plant, to cultivate

          • West Germanic

            • Old High German orzōn to cultivaate, to tend a field
        • Germanic *urtgardaz garden, orchard lit. something like "plant-yard" or "herb-garden"; *gardaz is the root of both "yard" and "garden"

          • East Germanic

            • Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍄𐌹𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 aurtigards orchard, garden
            • Old Church Slavonic врътоградъ vrŭtogradŭ herb garden, kitchen garden
          • North Germanic

            • Old Norse *urtgarðr

              • Swedish örtagård herb garden
          • West Germanic

            • Old English ortġeard

              • English orchard
  • Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂dm̥s accusative plural

    • Italic *wrādmos

      • Latin rāmus branch

        • Eastern Romance

          • Romanian ram branch, bough
        • Western Romance

          • Old French raim branch
          • Spanish ramo bouquet, bough, branch
        • Latin rāmificō I branch, I cause to have branches

          • French ramifier

            • English ramify
        • Vulgar Latin *ramellus

          • Western Romance

            • French rameau
        • Vulgar Latin *dērāmō I prune? lit. "I take away branches"

          • Eastern Romance

            • Romanian a dărâma to prune, to demolish
            • Albanian dërmoj I demolish
          • Western Romance

            • Italian diramare to broadcast, to release, to prune a tree
            • Spanish diramare to spill
  • Proto-Indo-European *wrh̥₂dnio

    • Albanian rrënjë
    • Celtic *wrednā

      • Brythonic

        • Welsh greddf instinct
      • Old Irish

        • Irish fréamh root, source, origin, radical
  • Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dyos

    • Celtic *wredios

      • Brythonic

        • Welsh gwraidd root
    • Italic

      • Latin radius ray (of light), spoke (of a wheel), rod or several other possible origins

        • Eastern Romance

          • Romanian rază
        • Western Romance

          • French rai

            • English ray
          • Italian raggio
        • English radius
        • Latin radiō I radiate, I shine

          • English radiate
          • English radio-

            • English radiophone

              • English radio
          • Latin radiāns shining, beaming

            • English radiant
  • Proto-Indo-European *wredih₂

    • Hellenic

      • Ancient Greek ῥίζα rhíza root, source, foundation

        • Greek ρίζα ríza root
        • English rhizome
  • Proto-Indo-European *wreh₂dih₂s

    • Hellenic

      • Ancient Greek ῥάδιξ rhádix
    • Indo-Iranian

      • Iranian

        • Western Iranian

          • Kurdish reh
          • Old Persian raēša

            • Persian ریشه rīše root, basis, origin
    • Italic *wrādīks

      • Latin rādīx

        • Western Romance

          • Italian radice

            • French radice
          • Spanish raíz
        • Old English redic

          • English radish

            • Māori rātihi
        • English radix
        • Old High German rātih

          • German Rettich
          • Yiddish רעטעך
        • Latin radīcīna

          • Eastern Romance

            • Romanian rădăcină
          • Western Romance

            • French racine
        • Latin rādīcālis rooted, pertaining to roots, addressing the root of a matter

          • French radical

            • English radical
        • Latin ērādīcō I root out, I annihilate

          • Western Romance

            • French arracher
          • English eradicate
          • French éradiquer
          • Spanish erradicar
  • Proto-Indo-European *wr̥dikeh₂

    • Tocharian

      • Kushean witsako root *wirtsako expected, irregular loss of r

Visual

Collected English words

root, wort, orchard, ramify, ray, radius, radiate, radio-, radiophone, radio, radiant, rhizome, radish, radix, radical, eradicate

Footnotes

1. ^

   Three variations on the Germanic stem *wrōt-: *wrōt-, *wurt-, and *urt-. These are not unusual variations: the second is the oblique stem expected in genitive/dative/instrumental cases, and the third is form of the second where the very similar sounds w and u in sequence have collapsed into a single u. But unusual things seem to have happened to them. While these would almost certainly have been clearly one word to speakers of Pre-Germanic and Early Common Germanic, by the time of Late Common Germanic, it is not clear if these are understood as one, two, or three different words!

   The basic stem *wrōt- is attested only in (or through) North Germanic, but is absent in East and West Germanic.

   In East and West Germanic *wrōt- is replaced with a backformation of the oblique stem *wurt, giving Gothic waurts and English wort. East and West Germanic also seem to have a separate *urt- stem, but it is only attested in derived forms: *urtōną and *urtgardaz, so maybe it is not a separate stem, just compounds failing to preserve the stem perfectly.

   But then things are complicated by the Old Norse urt as separate from Old Norse rót. Old Norse has a compulsory collapse of Germanic *wu into Old Norse u, so this form could come from either Germanic *wurt- or *urt-.

   The lexicalization of the split could have been in Late Common Germanic, with the *wrōt- later lost in East and West Germanic. Or re-analysis of a phonologically difficult direct form could have occurred repeatedly in different ways in the different branches. Or there could be some cross-dialect borrowings as these three branches (plus whatever other branches there once were, now extinct and unattested) diverged into distinct but mutually intelligible dialects of Late Common Germanic.