2268: doubt and 2 Mar 2, 2021
Though it may not be too surprising that the word for ‘doubt’ is also related to words for ‘two’ including ‘duo’ and indeed ‘two, but keep in mind this replaced an earlier word with the same quality: Old English ‘twēo’ (doubt) from the same root as ‘two’. Likewise, the German word for doubt is ‘Zweifel’ which clearly has the root ‘zwei’ (two) in it. Moreover, the Latin root ‘dubitāre’, which led to the current English word is thought to come from habeō (I have), combined with the Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ “two” as in ‘holding two’ making the word seemingly even more literal, but actually the sense in Latin would be closer to ‘hesitate’.
Notably, the word ‘doubt’ in Middle English was not spelt with a B, but this was added later to correspond with the Latin root even though the Old French root, and the modern French derivative ‘douter’ (to doubt) aren’t spelt that way.
2256: Pro-, Far, Portable, and Porous Feb 18, 2021
'Fare', 'far', and 'ferry' are all related to each other and are obviously connected semantically (the sense of 'fare' also as money initially in reference to paying for travel) but the connection spans across many Indo-European languages. For instance, all the words related to 'pro-' and 'fore-' as a prefix, as well as other words like the Latin 'per' (through). Moreover, words like the Latin 'portare' (to carry) and Greek (peran) meaning 'pass through. Indeed, that root would as well connect this to the English 'pour' and by extension 'porous'. There are many more words in this family, but even here it goes to show that there is the possibility for far-reaching roots to develop into nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and even prefixes at once.
2245: sneeze Feb 6, 2021
There is an Proto-Indo-European root *snu- that has led to a number of semantically related words including just in English ‘nose’, ‘snot’, and ‘snout’. In that, ‘sneeze’ should not be included, though its association would be obvious on first glance. Consider that the word in Middle English was ‘fnese’ from the earlier Old English ‘fnēosan’, related to a number of other Germanic words like the Dutch ‘fniezen’. Many sources will say this change over time is due to a misprint, but people don’t often cause change of common words in their own language for this sort of thing, and the change is historically attested from [f] to [s] in other words too, including ‘snore’ with all word-initial [fn] falling out of use by the 15th century. That said, once [fn] had been lost, it could certainly have been influenced both by other semantically related word (even if not etymologically related) and indeed spelling.
2207: nurse and nutrition Dec 30, 2020
'Nurse' and 'nourish' related based off of a common Latin root meaning 'suckle', as discussed yesterday. These words are also related to 'nutrition' and 'natal', though less directly. All of these words are understood to come from the Proto-Indo-European root *sna- meaning 'to swim; flow'. This is the root of 'natant' and 'natal' (in reference to a child in the womb) but also with reference to the flow of milk and hence 'nurs[ing]' and of course its connotations to nourishment. The link between 'nurse' and 'nutrition' are less clear cut than between 'nurse' and 'nourish', though even those come from the Latin root 'nūtriō' and most people would acknowledge the Proto-Indo-European connection.
2181: Names for Cardinal Directions Dec 4, 2020
At this point the cardinal directions in English—North, East, South, and West—are basically stripped of their original meanings, but unsurprisingly they are related to the Sun. Most directly so is with 'South' thought to come from the Proto-Germanic *sunthaz, understood to mean literally 'sun-side', which being so far north geographically would mean the Sun is usually seen towards the South. 'North' is uncertain, but it either comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁ner- (inner, under) or the *ner- (left, or also 'below) and if the second is true, then it would likely be as a reference to being on the left as the Sun is rising. 'East' and 'West' both come through a different sort of pattern: Roman deities, kind of. While not necessarily directly from these sources, 'east' is related to the Latin 'aura' or Greek αὔρα (auos) meaning 'dawn', and a minor deity. Likewise 'west' is related to the Latin 'vesper', the evening star, and a minor deity.
2168: *Ghos-ti-: guest and host Nov 21, 2020
There is a theorized root *ghos-ti-which is the origin of 'stranger; guest', (but not 'ghost') and illustrates a pattern of relation between being a guest and being a host. Indeed, 'guest', 'host' and even 'xeno-' (as in 'xenophobia') all come from the same root. This Proto-Indo-European root, like with the relation between words mean 'give' and 'take', leads to words meaning both 'host' and 'guest' and it is estimated that the original root of the word would have referred to someone with whom one has reciprocal roles in hospitality. In the case of the Greek 'xeno-', this was extended beyond 'guest' to 'stranger' and then now 'foreigner'.
2159: 'Frau', Meaning 'Lord' (*frawjǭ) Nov 12, 2020
Yesterday’s post discussed the odd pronunciation of ‘women’, but consider that most Germanic languages do not use this word. The German ‘Frau’, Dutch ‘vrouw’, Swedish ‘fru’ and so on all come from the same root *frawjǭ meaning ‘lady’, as in the female form of ‘lord’. More on this word tomorrow. Indeed, this root word referred to nobility but also normal women not unlike ‘lady’ does today. The Old English ‘frōwe’ for instance was connected to the OE ‘frēa’ meaning ‘lord’ or also ‘husband’. It is also related to the Russian пра́вый (právyj) meaning ‘right’ (also connected to words for a judge or a master), related to пра́вда (pravda), as in the infamous newspaper meaning ‘truth’. This Russian word is also related to the Latin ‘prōvincia’ (territory; dominion) and might help to elucidate why the connection to lordship exists.
2152: man Nov 5, 2020
One of the oldest and certainly significant root across all Indo-European languages is 'man'. For sure it has broad-reaching senses that gave us many modern derivatives, but not only is it unclear where it comes from, but also across Germanic languages it pushed out an earlier word 'wer'. One theory on its origin connects it to another root *men- giving 'mind' and more obviously the Latin 'mēns', hence 'mention', 'admonish', 'demonstrate', and 'automatic' through Greek, but other linguists contest this idea. Another theory points to Germanic mythology involving a figure known in Latin as Mannus who was the progenitor of people, known in the language as *Mannaz. Either way, it was used as a generic term for humanity and the pronominal use—still seen in German 'man' for 'one'—before it pushed out 'wer' (hence 'werewolf') as a word for 'man' (as in male) by the 13th century. This process is similar to the generic Latin term 'homo' (hence the French 'homme') pushing out 'vir' for specifically male. In all these words though, it also had the sense of 'husband'.
2144: black, bleach, bleak, blank... Oct 28, 2020
The word 'black' and the word 'blank', going way back are related, and while the base assumption might be that they are both void, this is not the source. Indeed, 'blanch', 'bleak', and 'bleach' which actually means 'make white' comes from the same root. There is a presumed Proto-Indo-European root *bʰleg- relating to fire, and drawing from the sense both of darkness from soot and other combustion, but also radiance—such as the Sanskrit भर्ग (bharga) 'radiance'—relating to white light and also probably ashes. This is relates the French and Spanish 'blanc/o' to 'black', all of which have a Germanic root; that said, the Modern German 'schwartz' is obviously not related, and instead shares a root with 'swarthy' meaning 'dark; dirty'.
2143: Productivity of 'fruit' Oct 27, 2020
The idea of fruit having a more generic sense of 'productivity' is fairly obvious considering phrases like "fruit of the womb" (children) and its tongue-in-cheek offshoot "fruit of the loom" (clothing) or just 'fruitful' all having meanings not relating to tree-fruit. Indeed, etymologically this is true many times over considering words like the Latin 'frui' (enjoy), German 'brauchen' (to need), and so forth all originate from the Proto-IndoEuropean root *bʰruHg- (to benefit from). This pattern of success, enjoyment, and physical productive creation exists across many other languages. The sense in English for many centuries was anything that came from the ground, including vegetables, which, like with apples, gained more specific meaning over time. NB the English 'blade'—for both swords and leaves, as in grass—originated with the botanical meaning, and shares an etymological root with this very productive 'fruit'.
2133: The Basics of 'Basis' Oct 17, 2020
A lot of basics principles (and quirks) of English language history can be seen through the word 'basis'. First off, although the Greek is βάσις (básis) the root first entered English as 'base', and 'basis' entered via a more direct etymological path a few centuries later. Moreover, although it looks completely different, the word is related to 'come'. In Greek, the word means 'step' as in a stair, and likewise even 'step' in English means in a basic sense 'platform' or a measure of walking. Both 'basis' and 'come' are traced back to a Proto-Indo-European root *gʷem-.
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2055: Words for Wine across Linguistic Boundaries Jul 31, 2020
Wine is something that has been shared around the Mediterranean and beyond, both literally and also linguistically. Old, basic concepts tend to have lots of related cognated across related languages, but in the case of 'wine' it is actually shared across unrelated languages as well. 'Wine' in English comes from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root '*uoin-a-', and there are plenty of other PIE-descended words too, like the Latin 'vinum'. Likewise, there are many related non-PIE words like the Georgian ღვინო (gvino), the Armenian գինի (gini), the Hebrew יין (yáyin), the Amharic ወይን (wäyn), and the Swahili 'mvinyo'. Of course, many of these words, including those of Africa and Northern Europe especially will be borrowed, but there is no consensus as to whether this original root is from a Semitic, Indo-European, or even Kartvelian language; some theories will be more convincing than others though.
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1682: Hymen and hymen Jul 23, 2019
The Greek deity of marriage is referred to as Ὑμήν ('hymen') but this is not the express origin the homophone denoting female anatomy. For one thing, the deity was conceptualized as a man, but more importantly the physiological term comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *syu-men- with *syu- meaning 'sew' or 'bring together ('sew' coming from the same root). To be clear, the name of the Greek mythical is estimated to generally come from the same derivation but in the sense of bringing two people together through a wedding itself.
818: Giving and Taking in PIE (nimble and metronome) Mar 5, 2017
There are no known writings of the people who spoke Proto-Indoeuropean; in fact, there are still a number of disputes as whether they came from modern-day Ukraine or Anatolia, but through some linguistic clues, people can start to gain some idea of the culture of this people. For example, words meaning 'to take' in one language, and 'to give' in other Indo-European languages often are cognates of each other, which perhaps means that they were related culturally. This is evidenced in a somewhat surprising pair of words: 'metronome' and 'nimble'. The latter comes from the Old English 'nǣmel' meaning, ‘quick to seize or comprehend,’ and is related to 'niman' which meant ‘take’; the -B- was added to 'nimble' as it is is easier to pronounce that way. While 'niman' is related to a number of other Germanic words, it is also related to the Greek, 'nemein' meaning, 'distribute' or 'manage', and along with that, it is related to the Greek word for 'law', 'nomos'. 'Metronome', on the other hand, is an early 19th century that comes from a compound of the the Greek 'metron' meaning ‘measure’ and the aforementioned 'nomos' in the sense of "giving out". The relationship between giving and taking through this Proto-Indoeuropean root could signify their acknowledgement of that connection inherent in bartering. For more on how people can speculate on this long-dead culture, see these links:
Religion in Proto-Indoeuropean
Family in Proto-Indoeuropean