Todays post is something bit different and perhaps a bit niche, but I’d like to share an image about the name evolution of my hometown, Alston. Alston has a population of only about 1000 people, and is nestled among the hills of the North Pennines in Cumbria, England. It is England’s highest town, and probably […]
Etymology
Indo-European Words for ‘Tongue’
My newest image using this template, here’s the word for “tongue” in 64 living Indo-European languages, and a bunch of dead ones. If it doesn’t look HD, try clicking on it to open the image in a new window: This is my second image in this style. For the previous one, in which I go […]
Indo-European Words for ‘Name’
I’ve created a huge tree to show the relationship between 64 living Indo-European languages, and many dead or extinct ones.With this template I’m planning on making a series of images to show how various words in these languages have shared etymologies. This is the first image in that series: words for “name”. If it doesn’t […]
Norman French Doublets in English: ‘w’ vs ‘gu’
Warranty/Guarantee, Warden/Guardian, reWard/reGuardHave you ever wondered why English has some very similar pairs of words, but with one having a ‘gu’ where the other has a ‘w’? The origin of this phenomenon turns out to be quite interesting, and requires understand a little bit of the history of the French language, and its influence on […]
Surprising Doublets: brother, friar, and pal
When several words in the same language share an origin, they are called “doublets”.Because English has words from so many different Indo-European sources, it is full of examples like these.
Surprising Doublets: Wheel, Cycle, and Chakra
The English words “wheel” and “cycle” are related, as is the word “chakra” (a centre of spiritual energy within the body, in Hinduism). When two words have a shared etymology within a language, we call them “doublets”. Another surprising doublet of these is “Ku Klux Klan”. The “Ku Klux” bit comes from the Greek “Kuklos”. […]
Surprising doublets: Horse, Chariots, and Car
There are several pairs of doublets (related words) in English where one is from Norman and has a ‘c’, and the the other is from Old French and has a ‘ch’.‘car’ vs ‘chariot’ is a example, and they have the bonus of also being related to “horse”.Others include ‘castle’ vs ‘chateau’, ‘cattle’ vs ‘chattel’, ‘canal’ […]
The Etymology of English Weekdays
The idea of the 7 day week was introduced to Germanic peoples by the Romans, and so Germanic speakers mostly just replaced the Latin names of these days with Germanic gods or words that seemed like the best translations of the Roman words. The 7 names the Romans gave to their weekdays coincided with the […]
The Etymology of Planets and Dwarf Planets in English
The etymologies of the English names of the planets and dwarf planets of our solar system All the planet names come from Greek and Roman gods, except Earth. The dwarf planet names are also from gods, but from much more varied languages: in the 21st century it has become increasingly common for astronomers name solar […]
Surprising Doublets: Grime, Christ, and Ghee
Grime, Christ, and ghee share the same Indo-European root! The word “grimace” is also cognate, coming from French “grimace”, from Frankish *grima (mask), from the Proto-Germanic *grīmô. Greek Khristos is a calque of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (māšīaḥ), also meaning “anointed”. Māšīaḥ was also borrowed into Greek and Latin, eventually reaching English as the word “messiah”. […]