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  1. Word Family - Barrel

    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 …
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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 - Wheel

    Introduction

    This is quite a large family with a number of borrowings into other language families. Because, it turns out, the Indo-European speakers' relationship with wheels is pretty important in a lot of people's history, like the Sumerians' relationship with reeds.

    There is also a root *wel(h₁)-: "to turn …

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  4. Word Family - Tree

    May theme: Plants 🌱

    Introduction

    In which dryad and druid are basically the same word, trust and tryst, trees and truce. Plus horse racing history.

    Teaser

    tree, true, true, endure, druid, dryad, larch, derby, tray, tray

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *drew- hard, firm, strong, wood, tree [1]
      • Proto-Indo-European *droweh₂yéti
        • Germanic *trūwijaną
          • North …
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  6. 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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  7. 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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  8. Word Family - Cavalry

    March theme: March of Horses 🐎

    Introduction

    This is a tricky one—another of these mysterious wanderwords coming out of the steppe. My current best hypothesis, based on the distribution in time and space, is that the Scythians/Northern Iranians picked it up somewhere and spread it around.

    Another theory connects …

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  9. Word Family - Smile

    Teaser

    mirror, admire, miracle, Miranda, smile

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *smey- to laugh, to be glad
      • Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm smey- smile with, smile at
        • Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm smis
          • Italic *komsmis
            • Latin cōmis courteous, kind, polite, gracious, elegant
              • Latin cōmitās / cōmitātem courtesy, kindness, politeness, elegance [4]
                • English comity
      • Proto-Indo-European *sméyeti primary verb
        • Balto-Slavic
          • Baltic …
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