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1. Word Family - Mercury

   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 …

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2. Word Family - Autism

   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 …

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3. Word Family - Mississippi

   Introduction

   In which the US states of Mississippi, Michigan, and Massachusetts all have a common ancestor in Algonquian *meʔši-: "large".

   But not Missouri. I checked 4 or 5 times because my mind kept rejecting the answer.

   Teaser

   Michigan, Mississippi, Massachusetts

   Full Text

   • Algonquian *-ʔči-

     • Central Algonquian

       • Ojibwe ᒋ- chi- big …

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4. Word Family - Wolf

   Teaser

   wolf, wolframite, Ralph, Raoul, lycanthrope, lupus

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *welkʷ- dangerous?, wild?

     • Proto-Indo-European *wl̥kʷós

       • Anatolian

         • Hittite 𒉿𒀠𒆪𒉿𒀸 walkuwa-
       • Celtic *ulk(ʷ)os evil, bad or from *h₁elk-: "wound"

         • Old Irish olc evil

           • Irish olc evil, bad, grudge, misfortune, unfortunate
         • Lepontic 𐌖𐌋𐌊𐌏𐌔 ulkos Evil? Wolf? (personal name) ^[1]
       • Indo-Iranian …

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5. Word Family - New

   Teaser

   now, Naples, supernova, novel, announce, novice, Nobel Prize, new, innovate

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *nu now, well, and then

     • Albanian nu when
     • Albanian ni now
     • Anatolian *nu

       • Hittite 𒉡 nu now, and
       • Cuneiform Luwian 𒈾𒀀𒉡𒌦 na-a-nu-un now
     • Balto-Slavic *nu

       • East Baltic

         • Lithuanian nù now, well
       • Slavic *nъ but, however

         • East …

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6. Word Family - Work

   Teaser

   work, work, energy, George, liturgy, surgeon, organic

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- to make

     • Proto-Indo-European *wérǵeti makes

       • Albanian argëtój I entertain, I amuse
       • Celtic *wregeti does, makes

         • Brythonic *gwrėɣɨd

           • Breton gran I make suppletive with ober borrowed from Latin
           • Cornish gwrav I make
           • Middle Welsh gwneuthur

             • Welsh gwneud doing, making …

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7. Word Family - Beryl

   Teaser

   Bangalore, Pavuluri Ganitamu, beryl, brilliant

   Full Text

   • Dravidian *ūr village, settlement

     • Central Dravidian

       • Kolami ūr village
     • Northern Dravidian

       • Brahui ارآ urā house ^[1]
     • Southern Dravidian

       • Kannada ಊರು ūru town, city, dwelling

         • Kannada ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು beṅgaḷūru place name: ?-Town

           • English Bangalore
       • Tamil ஊர் ūr town, village, dwelling, place

         • Tamil …

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8. Word Family - Warm

   Teaser

   fermentation, thermos, warm, petit four, furnace, gore, frantic, adrenaline

   Full Text

   • Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- warm, hot

     • Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰéreti warms root imperfective

       • Pre-Albanian *džera

         • Pre-Albanian *džernja

           • Albanian ziej I boil, I cook
       • Celtic *gʷereti warms

         • Celtic *uɸo-gʷereti
         • Old Irish fo·geir to heat, to warm, to inflame, to irritate
       • Hellenic *kʷʰérō …

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9. Word Family - Combust

   Introduction

   In which we go from Latin ūrō: "I burn" to English bust: "upper torso", with very little semantic or phonological similarity.

   Latin ūrō: "I burn" picks up an extra b- in many inflected forms based on re-analysis of amb-ūrō, leading to Latin bustum: "place for fires".

   Then semantically Latin …

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10. Word Family - Seat

    Teaser

    sit, sedate, obsess, possess, president, sediment, chair, cathedral, polyhedron, strontium, banshee, LED, method, period, session, insidious, saddle, seat, nest

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *sed- to sit ^[1]

      • Proto-Indo-European *sedeti

        • Celtic *sedeti

          • Brythonic

            • Cornish hedhi to stop, to pause
          • Old Irish saidid to sit

            • Irish suigh to sit, to set, to …

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11. Word Family - Loud

    Introduction

    *ḱel-: "to lean", which gives us *ḱlew-: "to hear". The connection is most explicit in *h₂eus-ḱl̥teh₂ye-ti, literally: "leans an ear", which gives Latin auscultō: "I listen, I hear, I heed, I obey".

    There is also *ḱel- and *ḱley- meaning "to shelter, to cover". It's easy to imagine that …

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12. Word Family - Gold

    Introduction

    The colors white, gold, yellow, yellow-green, green, sky blue, and navy blue in various languages. And the chemical elements chlorine, gold and arsenic in English.

    Teaser

    chlorine, yellow, cholera, Glasgow, lapis lazuli, gold, yield, guild, arsenic

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- yellow, green

      • Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰélh₃yeti becomes yellow-green

        • Balto-Slavic

          • East Baltic …

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13. Word Family - Bleak

    January theme: 98 … 99 … 100! 💯

    Teaser

    bleach, blank, black, blue, beluga, flame, Baltic, pool

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- to shine

      • Proto-Indo-European *bʰoltós

        • Balto-Slavic

          • Baltic

            • East Baltic

              • Lithuanian báltas white
            • Latin Balthae

              • Medieval Latin Balticus

                • English Baltic
        • Illyrian *balta swamp

          • Albanian baltë mud
          • Balto-Slavic *balta

            • Latin Balthae

              • Medieval Latin Balticus

                • English …

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14. Word Family - Arbiter

    December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝

    Teaser

    Europe, Maghreb, Arabia, Erebus

    Full Text

    • Semitic *ʿrb *ġrb to depart, to set ^[1]

      • Central Semitic

        • Arabic غ ر ب ġ r b

          • Arabic غرب ġaraba to depart, to withdraw, to set
          • Arabic غرب ġaruba to be a stranger, to be strange, to be difficult …

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15. Word Family - Venom

    November theme: Spiders 🕷️

    Teaser

    win, wish, Venus, Darwin, vanadium, venom, wonder, winsome

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- to love, to want

      • Proto-Indo-European *wn̥h₁néwti? variant ne imperfective

        • Germanic *winnaną *gawinnaną to strive, to work, to gain, to win

          • East Germanic

            • Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 / 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 winnan gawinnan to suffer
          • North Germanic

            • Old Norse …

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16. Word Family - Star

    October theme: Nighttime 🌃

    Teaser

    atrium, arid, Astarte, star, disaster, ash, amaretto, ephemeral

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂eh₁- to be warm

      • Proto-Indo-European *h₂éh₁tis a warming abstract/action noun

        • Celtic *ātis furnace, kiln

          • Old Irish áith oven, grain kiln

            • Irish áith kiln
          • Celtic *ātinos

            • Brythonic *ọdɨn

              • Cornish *oden

                • Cornish odencolc lime-kiln
              • Welsh odyn …

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17. Word Family - Column

    July theme: Architecture 🏛️

    Teaser

    column, excel, hill, Celsius, Stockholm, Sherlock Holmes

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *kelH- to rise, to be tall

      • Proto-Indo-European *kl̥néHti ne- imperfective

        • Italic *kelnezi

          • Italic *eɣskelnezi

            • Latin excellere to elevate, to raise up, to rise, to exult, to excel

              • Italian eccellere to excel
              • French exceller to excel …

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18. Word Family - Celts

    June theme: Celtic Iron Age

    Introduction

    June's theme is linguistic influence early Iron Age Celtic. The rest of the month will focus on words that were borrowed from Gaulish into Latin (more things like the aside in today's families that the very iconic Latin word gladius being borrowed from Gaulish …

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19. Word Family - King

    January theme: Aristocratic Titles 👑

    Teaser

    engineer, cognate, pregnant, nature, genre, Scheherazade, puny, king, genie, kindergarten

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- to produce, to beget, to give birth

      • Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁ti produce, beget, give birth present

        • Celtic *gniyeti

          • Old Irish gníid to do, to work

            • Old Irish do-gní to do, to make

              • Irish …

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20. Word Family - Rex

    December theme: Religion 📿

    Introduction

    This is the family that no matter how long I work on it, it's never done. That's what I get for trying to explore the possibility that two extremely important and productive roots may be connected: *h₂er-, related to cosmic order, and *h₃reǵ-, related to societal …

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21. Word Family - Tepid

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Teaser

    Tbilisi, tepid

    Full Text

    • ?

      • Afro-Asiatic *dVp- heat, fire, steam ^[1]

        • Chadic

          • Hausa dafa to cook
        • Cushitic *daf- steam, sweat

          • Gedeo daffa sweat
          • Oromo damfa steam

            • Oromo damfisa boil, heat in water
        • Semitic *d-p-ʔ- heat, be warm

          • Central Semitic

            • Arabic دفئ dāfiʾ warm
      • Kartvelian *ṭep- ^[1]

        • Georgian …

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22. Word Family - Aidan

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Teaser

    ether, Aidan, edifice, anneal, estivation

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- ignite, fire

      • Proto-Indo-European *h₂éydʰ-eti burning, igniting primary verb

        • Indo-Iranian *Háydʰati

          • Indo-Aryan

            • Sanskrit 𑀏𑀥𑀢𑁂 édhate to spread, to grow, to increase, to prosper
        • Hellenic

          • Classical Greek αἴθω aíthō To kindle, to light, to burn

            • Classical Greek αἴθων a …

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23. Word Family - Brew

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Teaser

    brew, broil, breed, ferment, burn, bourbon whiskey, broth, bread

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- to bubble, to boil, to brew

      • Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁ti primary verb

        • Albanian mbruaj to knead
        • Celtic

          • Old Irish bruithid boils, seethes, cooks

            • Irish bruith to boil, to bake, to burn
        • Germanic *brewwaną to brew …

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24. Word Family - Fire

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Introduction

    *péh₂wr̥ means "fire" as an inanimate substance (grammatically neuter), as opposed to *h₁n̥gʷnis, which is animate, elemental fire (grammatically animate in earlier PIE, masculine in later PIE).

    *péh₂wr̥ is though to contain the (é)-wr̥ suffix that derives nouns from roots, though there are no …

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25. Word Family - Ignite

    September theme: Fire 🔥

    Introduction

    Proto-Indo-European had (at least) two words *h₁n̥gʷnis: "fire" (grammatically animate) and *péh₂wr̥ (grammatically inanimate).

    Effectively all descendants of *h₁engʷ- have lost the labialization, so distinguishing it from reconstructed **h₁eng- is not immediately obivous. It mostly survives only in languages that merge *g and *gʷ (Balto-Slavic …

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26. Word Family - Aqua

    August theme: Elements So Slow 🌎🌊

    Teaser

    Avon, Punjab, island, Scandinavia, aquarium, sewer, sober

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- water, body of water

      • Anatolian *h₂epo river

        • Hittite *hapa river

          • Hittite 𒄩𒉺𒀀 ḫa-pa-a toward the river
      • Balto-Slavic

        • Lithuanian ùpė river
      • Celtic *abonā river

        • Brythonic *aβon

          • Cumbric *avon

            • Cumbric *Ir Avon Fresh-Water or Green-River …

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27. Word Family - Water

    August theme: Earth and Water 🌎🌊

    Introduction

    *wed-: "water" and some potentially related other roots

    I love how Indo-European *udrós, "aquatic", became the word for "otter" in 4 out of the 5 branches where it is attested, except for Greek where it became "sea serpent".

    Teaser

    wash, otter, hydra, vodka, whiskey …

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28. Word Family - Earth

    August theme: Earth and Water 🌎🌊

    Introduction

    Semtic *ʾartɬʼ-: "earth" and Proto-Indo-European *h₁erTeH: "earth". I connect these for several reasons (beyond the obvious). First, there are several indicators that *h₁ was pronounced as a glottal stop, including a number of other words that are apparent correspondences between PIE *h₁ and Semitic …

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29. Word Family - Human

    August theme: Earth and Water 🌎🌊

    Teaser

    chthonic, algorithm, humus, Demeter, Gaea, George, geometry, chameleon, camomile, humility, Daoine Sidhe, human

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰéǵʰm̥ earth singular

      • Anatolian

        • Hittite 𒋼𒂊𒃷 te-e-kán / tēkan earth
      • Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰōm the earth, the lands collective
      • Albanian dhe earth
      • Anatolian

        • Hittite *tagān

          • Hittite ta-ga-an-zi-pa-aš earth-goddess
      • Balto-Slavic *źemē earth …

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30. Word Family - Create

    Introduction

    *ḱer(h₁)-: "to grow, to make grow, to increase" is mostly in the western IE languages; *ḱer-: "to braid, to weave, rope" is mostly in the east, with only Greek and Armenian having both forms. I would suspect the western *ḱerh₁-: "to make grow" form is a derived root …

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31. Word Family - Edge

    Teaser

    oxygen, acid, eager, vinegar, tear, lachrymose, edge, axe, hammer, hear, acoustic, coin, cuneiform, cone

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱ- sharp

      • Proto-Indo-European *h₂oḱós sharp

        • Hellenic

          • Classical Greek ὀξύς oxús sharp, pointed, clever, swift

            • French oxygène oxygen Greek technical formation "sharp-forming", for oxygen's role in forming acids

              • English oxygen
              • Translingual O
            • Classical …

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32. Word Family - Two

    June theme: Pride In Words 🏳️‍🌈

    Teaser

    two, neodymium, duet, biceps, bi-, biscuit, duplicate, Maldives, doppelganger, icosahedron, twin, nonbinary

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ two

      • Old Armenian երկու erku two ^[1]

        • Old Armenian կրկին krkin double, doubled, iterated

          • Armenian կրկին krkin double, again, once more
        • Armenian երկու erku two
      • Italic *duō two …

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33. Word Family - Sun

    April theme: Miscellaneous light and cat words 🦁

    Teaser

    helium, solar, sun, south

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ sun ^[1]

      • Balto-Slavic *sáuli sun

        • East Baltic *saulē

          • Lithuanian sáulė sun
        • West Baltic

          • Old Prussian saule sun
        • Balto-Slavic *sulnika

          • Slavic *sъlnьce sun

            • East Slavic

              • Russian солнце solnce sun
              • Ukrainian сонце sonce sun
            • South Slavic …

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34. Word Family - Light

    Teaser

    light, Lucifer, Nowruz, berkelium, Waterloo, Roxana, lunatic, lynx

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *lewk- to shine, to see

      • Proto-Indo-European *lowkéh-ti to be shining, to be visible stative

        • Balto-Slavic *laukeitei to look for?

          • East Baltic

            • Lithuanian láukti to wait, to expect, to hope for
          • Slavic *lučìti to see? to find? to accomplish …

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35. Word Family - Easter

    Introduction

    The root *h₂ews-: "sunrise" may be connected to *h₂ew-: "away from, since, again" and *h₂ewg-: "to increase, to enlarge", compare for example *h₂éwgeh₂: "sunrise, dawn" (literally, "the increase") from *h₂ewg-.

    Teaser

    Eärendil, Easter, air, soar, east, Austria, Australia, early

    Full Text

    • Pre-Proto-Indo-European *qʷ:eb-??

      • Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew away from, since …

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36. Word Family - Equus

    March theme: March of Horses 🐎

    Teaser

    hippopotamus, equestrian, zebra, alfalfa, Azores

    Full Text

    • Early Proto-Indo-European

      • Proto-Indo-European *h₁eḱ- swift, fast ^[1]

        • Proto-Indo-European *Heḱu-péth₂r̥ swift-winged?, sharp-winged?, hawk

          • Balto-Slavic

            • Slavic *àstrę̄bъ hawk

              • East Slavic ꙗстрѧбъ jastrębŭ

                • Russian ястреб jastreb hawk
              • South Slavic

                • Serbo-Croatian јастреб / јастријеб / jastreb / jastrijeb hawk
              • West Slavic

                • Czech jestřáb …

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