AidanEM

Indo-European Ninety-Nines

Aidan — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Indo-European Ninety-Nines

In the coming week, it will be September 9th, 9-9! And this particular September 9th would also be my grandfather's 99th birthday. The corresponding Word Family also came out this week.

Notes

Four-score

As different as they may look, French quatre-vingt and Welsh phedwar ugain are exact cognates …

Word Family - Nine

Aidan — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

In the coming week, it will be September 9th, 9-9! And this particular September 9th would also be my grandfather's 99th birthday.

There is also a chart of Indo-European "99"s over in the Data Visualization section.

It's been speculated that Proto-Indo-European <*h₁néwn̥>»1: "nine" could come from Proto-Indo-European …

Word Family - Sand

Aidan — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800

Teaser

sand, sandwich, Psammead

Full Text

? *sam-ndʰ-? *psam-mbʰ-? *samh₂bʰ-? sand European substrate?
- Pre-Armenian *sabʰa-?
  - Old Armenian աւազ awaz sand, gravel
    
    Armenian ավազ avaz sand
- Germanic *samdaz sand
  - Germanic *kwikwasamdaz living sand, quicksand
    
    North Germanic
    
    Old Norse *kviksandr
    
    Old East Norse
    
    Swedish kvicksand quicksand
    
    Old West Norse
    
    Icelandic kviksandur / kviksyndi
    
    West …

Word Family - Hoku

Aidan — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0800

Introduction

I made a map a couple of years back of this family when I went to see the Hōkūleʻa. Then recently I was working on an upcoming family for another Austronesian root that I want to link to this one, it was time to make it a full family …

Word Family - Shepard

Aidan — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0800

Introduction

By Patreon request! This year, N7 day is a Friday, so we've got Shepard. I'm Word Family Friday, and this is my favorite Indo-European root on the Citadel.

This root appears in many forms in Germanic and Balto-Slavic, but has only marginal/uncertain presence outside those two branches.

(Family …

Word Family - Millenial

Aidan — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

In each Hellenic, Indo-Iranian, and Italic the word for "thousand" is derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰéslo-—apparently "handful"?—but in different forms.

Greek χίλιοι khílioi (kilo-) seems to derive from *ǵʰesliyoy, possibly a plural adjective form?

In Indo-Iranian it's prefixed with *sem- as *sm̥-ǵʰéslom, which could be translated as …

Word Family - Anthology

Aidan — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

Proto-Indo-European *h₂endʰ-: "to bloom" is represented almost entirely by Greek ἄνθος ánthos, but there's just enough smattering across other branches to demonstrate that it's not something the Greeks picked up after they split from the rest of IE.

Teaser

anthology, chrysanthemum, Ianthe

Full Text

Proto-Indo-European *h₂endʰ- to bloom Late …

Word Family - Barrel

Aidan — Fri, 02 May 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Teaser

barrel, metaphor, Veronica, amphora, offer, Lucifer, ferret, wheelbarrow, tidal bore, birthday

Full Text

Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-
- Proto-Indo-European *bʰers- top, tip, point
  - Proto-Indo-European *bʰars *bʰores *bʰr̥es spiky leaves
    
    Albanian bar
    
    Balto-Slavic *buras
    
    Celtic *bar- grain?
    
    Celtic *bargos *barginā bread, cake
    
    Germanic *baraz spiky leaves, awn, barley
    
    Germanic *barizaz barley
    
    East …

Word Family - Potis

Aidan — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

Proto-Indo-European *pótis: "head of household, master, husband"—which I have a tendency to anglicize as a homophone of POTUS—is the origin of words like "despot", "non compos mentis", and "nepotism".

Teaser

Poseidon, power, possible, possible, hospitality, possess, nephew, nepotism, Neptune

Full Text

Proto-Indo-European *pótis husband, master of household …

Word Family - Mercury

Aidan — Fri, 27 Dec 2024 00:00:00 -0800

Introduction

Latin Mercury is fairly mysterious. Mercury as a god of commerce seems obviously related to merx: "merchandise, commodity", and in Faliscan and possibly Oscan votive tablets, a cognate to merx (or rather its dative mercii as expected in context) appears as a divine name: Mercui, Mirikui. But in Latin …

Word Family - Eye

Aidan — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

One neat discovery in this family is that English has words from three different compoundings of *h₃ekʷ- with *h₂énti: "opposite, near, in front" three different times: compounded in Proto-Indo-European *h₂énti-h₃kʷós goes through Latin antiquus to give antique and antic; compounded again in Late Latin as *anteocularis it goes through …

Word Family - Elm

Aidan — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

I met a baby Elowen last week. After initially wondering if it was another example of -wen, I found that it was actually the singulative suffix -en on Cornish elow: "elms"—the equivalent of Welsh llwyfen: "elm", llwyf: "elms".

*h₁elmos: "wych elm (Ulmus glabra)" shows up with identical meaning …

Word Family - Kai

Aidan — Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

A quick Austronesian word family inspired by my friend Kai's birthday: Malayo-Polynesian *tasik: "sea, coastal water, saltwater, tide" -> Hawaiʻian kai: "sea, saltwater, coast, tide".

The Oceanic compound *taqu-tasi: "expert sailor" (lit. "sea-able, sea-knowing") is such a cool word, I included Austronesian *tsaqu: "to know how, to be able", too …

Word Family - Peacock

Aidan — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0800

Introduction

I was very excited to realize tawus and peacock were related!

Full Text

Turkic *tiakï hen
- Tungusic *tiaku hen
  - Manchu ᠴᠣᡴᠣ coko chicken
- Turkic *tiakïgu hen, fowl
  - Oghur
    
    Chuvash чӑх čăh hen
    
    Hungarian tyúk hen
  - Common Turkic
    
    Oghuz
    
    East Oghuz
    
    Turkmen towuk hen
    
    West Oghuz
    
    Azerbaijani toyuq hen, chicken …

Word Family - Silhouette

Aidan — Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0800

Introduction

Étienne de Silhouette, a French politician of Basque ancestry, was the Controller-General of Finances under Louis XV in 1759. His measures to curb the national debt, notably by imposing new taxes on the rich and the nobility prompted a backlash and ultimately his dismissal after less than a year …

Word Family - Letter

Aidan — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0800

Introduction

There are two words from Sumerian whose descendants are still used all over the world today: gi: "reed"—what they wrote with—and dub: "tablet"—what they wrote on.

Just in case you wonder how important Sumerian writing was in world history.

The word tablet (Latin tabula) is probably …

Word Family - Brother

Aidan — Fri, 27 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Teaser

brother, pal, friar

Full Text

Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr brother
- Anatolian
  - Lydian 𐤡𐤭𐤠𐤱𐤭𐤳𐤦𐤳 brafrsis brother, community member
- Pre-Armenian *rbayr regular *Br → *rB metathesis
  - Old Armenian եղբայր ełbayr brother
    
    Armenian եղբայր ełbayr brother
- Balto-Slavic *brā́ˀtē
  - East Baltic *brote
    
    East Baltic *broterė́lis diminutive
    
    Lithuanian brólis brother
  - Slavic *bràtrъ
    
    East Slavic братъ …

Word Family - Autism

Aidan — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew: "away from, since, again" cannot be formally tied to *h₂epó: "off, away", but the similarity is suggestive. Perhaps Pre-Proto-Indo-European *b became either *p (by fortition) or *w (by lenition) in almost all cases, accounting for the paucity of *b in PIE.

In any case, the later (re …

Word Family - Cook

Aidan — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Teaser

cook, cook, coach, quiche, cake, kitchen, culinary, abrecock, Pepsi-Cola, biscuit, Budapest

Full Text

Proto-Indo-European *pekʷ- to cook, to ripen
- Proto-Indo-European *pékʷeti to ripen, to be cooking root imperfective
  - Pre-Albanian *peka
    
    Albanian pjek bake, broil, roast
  - Balto-Slavic *pektei to bake
    
    East Baltic *keptei metathesis
    
    Latvian cept
    
    Lithuanian kèpti
    
    Slavic *peťì …

Word Family - Hawaii

Aidan — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Introduction

Dr. Melenaite Taumoefolau makes a compelling and intriguing argument: that Nuclear Polynesian *sawaiki: "traditional/mythological homeland"—whence Hawaii—may be a cognate of *sau ʔariki borrowed from the Tongic branch into Nuclear Polynesian. (Note that *sawaiki can only be reconstructed to NP, it is not present in Tongic or …