1982: charlemagne May 19, 2020

Charlemagne is a name and an honorific all wrapped into one. This perhaps clearest in the German version, 'Große Karl', i.e. 'Karl [Charles] the Great'. His name was actually 'Charles le Magne', from the Latin 'magnus' (great) making the French '-gn-', also with 'champagne' or 'vigne' (20), or even the English version as with 'sign' a little less odd seeming. There will be more about this in the next post.

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1983: How 'Karl' Came to Mean 'King' in Slavic May 20, 2020

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1981: Hand: Give and Take in PIE May 18, 2020