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  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. 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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