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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 - Vet

    Introduction

    I've included (possibly) two families again in this one, Proto-Indo-European *wet-: "year, year-old" and Proto-Indo-European *wósr̥: "spring (season)". There's no formal connection, but it's not hard to imagine on either the phonetic or the semantic level.

    Acrostatic *ó-r̥ nouns like *wósr̥ are from very early PIE. You could imagine …

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  6. Word Family - Ahmose

    Introduction

    This word for "moon" is wide spread through Afro-Asiatic and specifically Semitic languages. The one exception is Arabic which uses قمر qamar for moon, instead of the expected *war(i)ḵ. The origin of qamar is unsolved.

    Though Arabic may have borrowed the word tārīk: "date, time, time-keeping" from …

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  7. Word Family - Odin

    Teaser

    Odin, Wednesday, Vatican

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *weh₂t- excited, inspired, possessed, raging
      • Proto-Indo-European *woh₂tos inspired, excited, possessed, raging verbal adjective
        • Old Armenian գութ gutʿ prayer, entreaty, compassion, pity
          • Armenian գութ gutʿ pity, compassion
        • Germanic *wōdaz
          • East Germanic *wōdas
            • Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐌳𐍃 wōds possessed (as by a demon)
          • North Germanic *wōdaʀ
            • Old …
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  11. Word Family - Yesterday

    Introduction

    In which yes- and -day in yesterday are the same root.

    • PIE *dʰǵʰes-tero-dʰoǵʰes
    • Germ. *(d)ges-tera-dagaz
    • OE ġes-ter-dæġ
    • English yes-ter-day

    "The day that’s the other day"

    Germanic *dagaz is often explained as being from *dʰegʷʰ-: "to burn", but the loss of labialization would be irregular, and the semantic …

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  12. Word Family - Year

    Introduction

    The PIE word *yóh₁r̥: "year" becomes both the native English "year" and also the Latinate "hour". Fascinatingly, Greek ὥρᾱ hṓrā (whence the Latin) is also borrowed, post-Alexander, into Classical Sanskrit along with the Hellenistic-Babylonian astronomy/astrology, eventually giving such descendants as Thai โหร hǒon: "astrologer, prophet, magician"!

    Teaser

    year …

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  13. Word Family - Justice

    Introduction

    June is for Justice. Justice is Life. ✊🏿✊🏽✊🏼 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

    Teaser

    Ayurveda, hygiene, forever, not, age, eternal, medieval, young, June, jury, injury, prejudice, justice

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂ey- life, age, vital, eternal
      • Proto-Indo-European *h₂óyu
        • Old Armenian այո ayo yes "on my life??"
          • Armenian այո ayo yes
        • Indo-Iranian *Hā́yu lifetime, life
          • Indo-Aryan …
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  14. 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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  15. Word Family - Pandemic

    Theme: 🦠

    Introduction

    Demon Pandemic Zeitgeist Time

    Teaser

    democracy, pandemic, zeitgeist, time, demon

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- to share, to divide
      • Proto-Indo-European *dh₂yéti divides
        • Albanian daj I divide
        • Hellenic *dayomai
          • Ancient Greek δαίομαι daíomai to divide, to distribute
        • Indo-Iranian *dáyatay
          • Indo-Aryan *dáyatay
            • Sanskrit दयते dáyate to divide, to take part in …
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  16. 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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  17. 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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  18. Word Family - Moon

    October theme: Nighttime 🌃

    Teaser

    maroon, measure, meal, moon, month, semester, Medusa, medicine, mode, modern, modest, mold

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- to measure
      • Proto-Indo-European *miméh₁ti reduplicate imperfective
        • Indo-Iranian *mimáHti
          • Indo-Aryan
            • Sanskrit 𑀫𑀺𑀫𑀻𑀢𑁂 mimīte to measure, to mark off
          • Iranian
            • Avestan 𐬟𐬭𐬀𐬨𐬍𐬨𐬀𐬚𐬁
      • Proto-Indo-European *moh₁ros big, great
        • Celtic *māros big, great …
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  19. 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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  20. Word Family - Mother

    May theme: Kinship Terms 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

    Teaser

    mother, material, Manchester, mammal

    Full Text

    • Proto-World? *ma
      • Bantu *mààmá mother
        • Swahili mama mother
        • Zulu úm̤áma my mother
      • Basque ama mother, origin
      • Mon-Khmer *meeʔ mother
        • Khmer ម៉ែ mae mother
        • Vietnamese mẹ mother
      • Old Japanese 母 omo mother
        • Japanese 母 / あも amo mother (archaic …
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  21. Word Family - Taran

    February theme: Weather ⛈️

    Teaser

    stun, tornado, detonate, Thor, thunder, blunderbus

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *stenh₂- *tenh₂- thunder, to be loud, to resound [1]
      • Proto-Indo-European *sténh₂eti thunders, resounds
        • Balto-Slavic
          • East Baltic
            • Lithuanian steneti
          • Slavic *stenàti to groan, to moan
            • East Slavic стенати stenati
              • Russian стенать stenatʹ to groan, to moan (archaic)
            • South …
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  23. Word Family - Diurnal

    December theme: Religion 📿

    Introduction

    We start religion words with *dyḗwos ph₂tḗr, Old Father Shining-Sky himself.

    Interestingly English "day" is not from this root, despite similarity to many IE words for "day", e.g. Latin diēs, etc. Germanic *d corresponds to Latin f (PIE *dʰ); Latin d corresponds to Germanic *t …

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  25. 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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