2674: Meadow and Mow: How Spring & Sweetness are Related
The word 'mead' as in fermented honey, and a 'meadow' are related. There is an older form of meadow as 'mead' too such as in the Middle English poem "Sumer is Icumen in" that has the line
Groweþ sed (grows seed)
and bloweþ med (and the meadow blooms)
As it happens, both of those words ultimately are from the same root, but there are other words too like the Russian word for 'bear', медведь (medved), the word 'mow' in English, as well as the German 'Matte' (pasture) and Latin 'metere' (to harvest). The root in Proto-Indo-European related to growth, blossoming, and eventually sweetness. Many languages, especially of the ancient world, had related words meaning 'sweet wine', and eventually that came to mean 'drunk'. Even the name 'Maeve' comes from the same root as 'mead', from the Middle Irish 'medb' from the root meaning 'sweet' but in this case it means literally 'intoxicating'.
2646: nuptial Mar 16, 2022
The word nuptial meaning 'of wedding' has a fairly simple etymology, from the Latin 'nuptialis', literally 'of a wedding'. Beyond that, things are more complicated, since it is unclear the exact root, and what it would be related to, though it is probably from the Proto-Indo-European root *sneubh- meaning "to wed". An early theory put this as a cognate with the Latin 'obnubere' (to veil) from 'nubes' (cloud) but this has been rejected. It may also be related to the word 'nymph' (in Greek νύμφη) which means 'bride' or indeed the mythical nymph, but this is also not certain. It is definitely related to 'nubile; nubility', which denotes a marriageable woman.
2596: crab, crib, & carve Jan 23, 2022
The word 'crab' is ultimately traced back to the Proto-Indo-European *gerbʰ- meaning 'to twist; to scratch; to claw', but so are 'carve', 'crib', and 'crèche'. Much of this has to do with leading to varied understanding, such as 'crab' and 'crayfish’ from Proto-Germanic *krabbô (to crawl) as opposed to 'crib' from Proto-Germanic *kribjǭ (wickerwork, basket) from the sense of twisting & weaving material. This led to a sense of 'clump; group' and then 'crèche' was born. 'Carve' is from the sense of this word as scratching, and is related to the Old Prussian gīrbin (number) from the idea of tallying.
2587: felt, filter, anvil, and felon Jan 13, 2022
Filters can be made out of a plethora of materials and are used in all sorts of situations, but historically this would have been felt. This is why the Latin 'filtrium' and the English 'felt' came to be distantly related, but the material of felt has used to have a more generic meaning. The root *pel- meaning 'to beat' references this process of creating felts by crushing and rolling materials, and it is this same root that is found in 'anvil' and 'to fell' fairly sensibly, and 'felon' perhaps more surprisingly. This last word is from the same root but over time took on meanings of wickedness in certain languages like Latin before coming to English.
2554: taut, tie, tough Dec 10, 2021
The word 'taut' (once 'taught') is now only an adjective, but originally it was a participle from Old English 'toen' meaning 'drag; pull'. This would connect it with the word 'tow' which has retained the earlier meaning more than 'taut' has. Furthermore, not only would this give another English connection to 'tie' but also 'tough'. This is from the Proto-Indo-European *dewk-, also the source of the Latin 'dux' meaning 'lead', and this Italian 'duce' (leader).
2545: glass, chlorine, & arsenic Dec 1, 2021
The word 'glass' in other languages shares a root with many color-words, but that is far from where the root *ghel- ends. Meaning 'shine', this word also led to many light-associated words like 'glaze', 'glow', 'gold', 'glimmer' 'glare' and more, but also many related to bile like 'chlorine', cholera, and 'gall'. Even 'arsenic' comes through this root, though it was adopted into English through many other languages, ultimately from Old Iranian *zarna- (golden).
2544: glass Nov 30, 2021
Although 'glass' refers to a material in English, throughout Indo-European languages the root of this word often led to other meanings for a variety of colors. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *ghel- meant 'shine' and as a result eventually came to mean 'glass' in Germanic languages, but also led to words for the colors yellow such as Old English 'glær' or Latin 'glaesum' (amber) or indeed Modern English 'yellow'. In Old Irish 'glass' meant 'green' and in Welsh 'glas' means 'blue'.
2465: lamb & yean Sep 9, 2021
Old English had the word 'ēanian' (now 'yean') for 'to lamb' as a verb, but 'lamb' is an Old English word anyway too. This disparity comes from two different roots, but the verbal form is related to many Romantic or Slavic nouns like the Latin 'agnus' (lamb) or Serbo-Croatian ја̏гње (jȁgnje). 'Lamb' on the other hand is mostly related to modern Germanic cognates, and even the English 'elk'. These both come from different Proto-Indo-European roots that converged into the same meaning, and in some languages one became dominant. By the Middle Ages, 'lamb' won out in English.
2432: θεός & Deus: Unrelated Aug 18, 2021
The Greek θεός (theos) meaning 'god' or 'divine' and the Latin 'deus' meaning 'god' are not related, despite the clear similarity in sound and meaning. θεός comes from a root meaning 'to place' in Proto-Indo-European while 'deus' is from a root meaning 'sky' and is related to the Greek 'Zeus' and 'Iupiter' as well as the 'Tiw' of 'Tuesday'. The Greek word is also related to the Latin 'fēriae' (festival), 'fānum' (temple), and 'fēstus' (festive).
2425: Cakes and Existing: wastel, victual, & gâteau Aug 11, 2021
The French cake 'gâteau' and the far more obscure English word 'wastel' also meaning 'cake' both happen then to be from a root meaning 'to be'. This relation between pastries and existing did not originate with desserts, but with the idea of sustenance. It was in this sense of general food that came out of the Proto-Indo-European *wes- (to be). In the interim period as well, the Old English 'wist' (to exist) and Latin 'victus' hence English 'victual' meaning 'food; sustenance' related also to 'vital' show that this process was not taken exactly at the same time around the world.
2423: Is 'Taurus' (Bull) Semitic? Aug 9, 2021
The Latin 'taurus', Greek ταύρος (tauros) and Lithuanian 'tauras' all could come from the Proto-Indo-European PIE *tau-ro- meaning 'bull', but this could actually be Semitic. The Aramaic for 'bull' is תור (tor), in Hebrew שור (shor), and Arabic ثور (thawr) and so on throughout the whole Semitic family. Meanwhile, many Indo-European languages do not have a word descended from this root, such as in many Indo-Iranian languages, or other related languages spoken further the East. Some notably may have exceptions to this, as in Persian or Avestan with a similar word for horses, or Sanskrit sthura- (thick; standing firm) related to the Old English 'steer'. It could be that those missing cases are simply lacking data, or that this is a wanderwort.
2391: ululate, howl, & owl Jul 6, 2021
There are umpteen synonyms out there with formal-informal distinctions, like the words 'ask' and 'question' or even 'interrogate', but in the case of 'howling' and 'ululation', these are distant cognates. Both of these are traced back to the Proto-Indo-European *u(wa)l- meaning and leading to 'wail'. Plenty of words come from this, including 'owl', so called for the screeches it makes. Indeed, a number of languages around Europe have this same pattern of owls and howling being connected etymologically, though of course there are many birds named for their sounds, most obviously perhaps being the cuckoo.
2377: moustache, mandible, & kemp Jun 21, 2021
The word 'mustache' (or 'moustache') has been the word for the hair above the upper-lip since the 16th century, from French but ultimately the Ancient Greek μύσταξ (mústax) meaning 'upper lip'. This in turn is from the root *mendʰ- (to chew) thereby connecting this word to 'mandible': an animal's jaw bone, as well as the French 'manger' (to eat). Before this, English used the word 'kemp'—itself related to 'chin' and more surprisingly, 'camp'. In Middle English, 'kempe' referred to coarse hairs but is not related to other words like 'comb' or 'unkempt'.
2337: get, nascent, and a word family of birth May 12, 2021
The words 'beget' and 'nascent' both relate to birth (as of course do a great many other words) but these can be proven to be related by a common root. The word 'get' is related to a root *ghend- meaning 'to take; to grab; to hold' is also related to *ǵenh₁- and *gene- both meaning 'to give birth' or 'produce' leading to the Latin gnāscor (hence 'nascent') and 'get' along with 'generate' and all its derivatives, also 'gene', 'genealogy', 'pregnant', ‘beget‘, 'kind', 'naive', 'indigenous', 'gonad', and so many more.
2330: prehensile & get (*ghend-) May 5, 2021
The word 'prehensile' is from the Latin 'prehēnsus' (ultimately from prehendō) meaning 'to grab' denotes something with gripping capabilities such as in the phrase 'prehensile tail'. It is also from the same root that we get 'apprehend' and 'apprehensive' the latter of which lost its physical meaning and now is used only in the mental sense. Further back though, the root *ghend- has led to all sorts of words, including but not limited to these just in English: get; guess; depredation; and enterprize. Moreover, some less obvious ones include: comprehensive; comprise; and reprehend.
2326: gymnasium #2 May 1, 2021
The word 'gymnasium' in English is usually refers to a place where exercise is done, and in German it is the name for a type of a lower school usually at a high academic standard, but in Greek γυμνός (gumnós) means 'naked'. Indeed this word belongs to a larger family of European words descended from the Proto-Indo-European root *nogw- meaning 'naked'. In Ancient Greece, it was a standard community feature to have an open-air area for sports, all done in the nude, but eventually this developed into a place of training the body and even the mind, hence the English and German senses.
2315: Italy, Włochy, and Olaszország—How Are These Related? Apr 19, 2021
Many names for Italy follow a similar format: Italien, Italia etc. Some clear exceptions to this exist however in the Polish Włochy and Hungarian Olaszország. In the case of Polish, this word actually has an old Germanic root, despite Germanic languages by and large not using this anymore for 'Italy' from *walhaz meaning 'Roman; Romance', and having the same root as 'Wales' and 'Wallonia'. Similarly, 'Olaszország' is also ultimately of this same proto-Germanic, and proto-Slavic root, possibly related to the Latin 'Volcae', the name of a Celtic tribe. At any rate, only the first half of this comes from the 'Vlasi' root, and the rest is a suffix, as can be seen in Hungarian's related word 'Oláh' for a Romanian.
2306: magic & machine Apr 9, 2021
Although magic and science don't have much to do with each other, 'magic' and 'machine' are etymologically related. Indeed, the Proto-Indo-European root includes not only words directly adjacent to those before like 'mage', 'magi' and 'mechanism', but also 'may' and its derivatives, along with 'might' (both senses). The root '*magh-' is estimated to have had the meaning of 'ability' or 'power'. 'Main' is also among these with this common root. The sense of 'magic' in a purely sorcerous sense really comes from the 14th century, though in the sense of being an illusionist by trade without any actual spiritual component, the early 19th century.
2284: cut, shear, and carve Mar 18, 2021
Now replaced by the word 'cut', the words 'shear' and 'carve' used to have more general meanings. 'Carve' now is restricted to cutting a material into a certain shape, engraving, or cutting meat. In the case of 'shear', this actually comes from the same Indo European root as 'cut', that being *ker-, leading to other words including 'carrion', 'curt', 'skirmish', 'skirt', 'scrap', 'shard', 'scar' and many more. That said, now 'shear' also has a fairly specific, restricted use especially relating to hair and other cuttings of top-layers of things.
2277: Optative Voice Mar 11, 2021
In certain languages, there is another mood along with indicative, subjunctive, imperative and the like known as the optative expressing a wish, as might be covered in English by 'if only...'. This was common verbal mood across Indo-European languages historically but these have usually been lost in a gradual process of morphological and syntactic simplification, reducing many distinct specific features for less precise periphrastic constructions. Some languages like Sanskrit and Ancient Greek are well known for this, but it is retained in Albanian, Armenian, and Kurdish, as well as non-Indo-European languages like Navajo, Yupik, Turkish and Georgian. English cannot neatly express this, but modal verbs like 'may' in "may you have good health" convey a similar intent, though this is also possible even with the present tense as in "G-d help us". In Albanian this is known as "mënyra dëshirore" or literally "wishing mood".