1436: Germanic Roots: walk Nov 16, 2018

English is a Germanic language, but this doesn't mean that all words will have a cognates with other Germanic languages; even words of Germanic origin may not share the relation. For instance, 'walk' is a word with Germanic roots, but in any other Germanic language the translation doesn't even sound similar. In German and Yiddish the word is 'spazieren', in West Frisian 'rinne' (related to 'run') and in just about all of them, a word with the same root as 'go' can be used in relation to walking in a way that is uncommon in English. This is because 'wealcan'—the root word from Old English—originally meant 'to roll' and sometimes 'to wander'. Technically therefore it is of Germanic origin, but it this does not mean that there is a 1-1 correspondence with translations in Germanic languages.

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