Other articles

  1. Word Family - Greek

    December theme: Pre-Classical Mediterranean 🏝️

    Teaser

    Greek, Charles, corn, grain, grenade

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- to grow old, to mature
      • Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂e-ti primary verb
        • Balto-Slavic
          • Slavic *zьrěti to ripen
            • East Slavic
              • Russian зреть zretʹ to ripen, to mature
              • Ukrainian зрі́ти zríty to ripen, to grow, to form
            • South Slavic
              • Serbo-Croatian …
    read more
  2. 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 …
    read more
  3. 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 …
    read more
  4. Word Family - Persimmon

    October theme: Indigenous Peoples Day

    Teaser

    Saskatoon, persimmon

    Full Text

    • Algic *mene berry
      • Yurok menomen Juneberry
      • Algonquian *mi·na berry
        • Arapaho biino chokecherry
          • Arapaho biinehe' cherry
          • Arapaho biisib peach, plum
        • Blackfoot ᒍᐡ min' berry
        • Cheyenne mene berry, fruit
        • Central Algonquian
          • Cree ᒦᓂᐢ miinis (wild) berry or fruit
            • Cree ᒥᓵᐢᑲᐧᑑᒥᐣ misa …
    read more
  5. Word Family - Night

    October theme: Nighttime 🌃

    Teaser

    naga, naked, gym, night, nocturnal

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *negʷ- bare
      • Proto-Indo-European *nogʷó-s naked thing, naked one noun
        • Balto-Slavic *nōˀgás naked
          • Lithuanian núogas naked
          • Slavic *nȃgъ naked
            • East Slavic
              • Russian наго́й nagój naked
            • South Slavic
              • Serbo-Croatian наг nag naked
            • West Slavic
              • Polish nagi naked
        • Indo-Iranian *nāgás …
    read more
  6. Word Family - Downtown

    September theme: Community 🏘️

    Introduction

    The Celtic word *dūnom: "hill fort" was borrowed into Germanic twice, once as "hill" and once as "fort".

    The first time was borrowed before the completion of Grimm's Law, so Grimm's Law changed the *d to *t for Germanic *tūną: "enclosure", which eventually gave English "town …

    read more
  7. Word Family - Guest

    September theme: Community 🏘️

    Introduction

    This word for "guest"/"host" is restricted to the Late Northwest Indo-European languages, appearing—as far as I know—only in Balto-Slavic, Germanic, and Italic, plus a single personal name in Lepontic (Celtic). It seems to be cognate to a word for "to eat" which is …

    read more
  8. Word Family - Android

    August theme: Science Fiction 🤖

    Teaser

    android, Andromeda, Alexander, Nero, Andrew

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₂nḗr (adult/married) man
      • Proto-Albanian *nera
        • Old Albanian njer
          • Albanian njeri man
      • Hellenic *anḗr
        • Classical Greek ἀνήρ anḗr (adult) man, husband, mortal
          • Greek άνδρας ándras (adult) man, husband
          • Classical Greek ἀνδρο- andro-
            • English andro-
              • English android
                • English …
    read more
  9. Word Family - Robot

    August theme: Science fiction 🤖

    Teaser

    orphan, robot

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *h₃erbʰ- to be part of (a group or family)?, to owe allegiance to?, to change owernship?
      • Anatolian
        • Hittite ḫarp- to associate with, to go over to, to change allegiance
      • Proto-Indo-European *h₃orbʰyo-m inheritance? plural: *h₃orbʰyéh₂
        • Celtic *orbyom inheritance plural: *orbyā
          • Old …
    read more
  10. Word Family - Minaret

    July theme: Architecture 🏛️

    Introduction

    For the end of my architecture theme month, I've put together a collection a few small-but-interesting families with architecture words that I did preliminary research on, before concluding each was too small to a weekly family on its own.

    Teaser

    minaret

    adobe

    arrow, arch

    Full Text …

    read more
  11. Word Family - Door

    July theme: Architecture 🏛️

    Teaser

    door, hors d'oeuvre, foreign, forest, Dvorak

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer- door, gate
      • Proto-Indo-European *dʰwṓr door Gen. *dʰurés
        • Anatolian
          • Hittite *durza
            • Hittite 𒀭𒄙𒍝 an-dur-za indoors
        • Pre-Albanian *dœrə
          • Albanian derë door, home, family
        • Armenian
          • Old Armenian դուռն duṙn door, entrance, mountain pass, palace, court, retinue
            • Armenian դուռ duṙ …
    read more
  12. Word Family - Embassy

    June theme: Celtic Iron Age

    Introduction

    Apologies for the sketchy nature. This one exploded on me in several different ways.

    1. Prior to working on this family, I knew that "ambassador"/"embassy" was from Gaulish via Latin, and I had connected that to the story Livy tells about the Battle of …
    read more
  13. Word Family - Daughter

    May theme: kinship terms 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧

    Teaser

    female, doe, filial, Tethys, daughter

    Full Text

    • Teaser: female, doe, filial, Tethys, daughter
    • startbody
    • Proto-Indo-European *dʰewgʰ- to produce, to be strong, to be fruitful, to give milk
      • Proto-Indo-European *dʰéwgʰ-ti primary verb form
        • Hellenic
          • Ancient Greek τεύχω teúkhō
        • Indo-Iranian *dáwgdʰi to milk
          • Iranian *dáwgdi
            • Western Iranian …
    read more
  14. Word Family - Moa

    Teaser

    moa

    Full Text

    • Sino-Austronesian
      • Austronesian *manuk bird
        • Malayo-Polynesian
          • Bajau memanuk bird
          • Javanese manuk bird
          • Malayic *manuk
            • Malay manuk bird, chicken
          • Philippine
            • Tagalog manók chicken
          • Oceanic
            • Micronesian
              • Chuukese machang bird
              • Kiribati man bird
            • Polynesian *manu bird
              • Tongan manupuna bird
              • Nuclear Polynesian
                • Samoan manu bird
                • Eastern Polynesian
                  • Rapa Nui manu bird …
    read more
  15. Word Family - Avian

    Introduction

    Proto-Indo-European *h₂éwis: "bird" and Proto-Indo-European *h₂ówis: "sheep" appear to be umlaut variants, presumably through the more sparsely attested root *h₂ew-: "to put on clothes, to cover". *h₂éwis: "bird" would be from a passive participle, "a clothed (in feathers)". *h₂ówis: "sheep" from an active participle, "a clother (in wool)".

    Teaser …

    read more
  16. Word Family - Bee

    March theme: Bees

    Teaser

    La bohème, bee, antisphexish

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *bʰewh₂- to hit, to strike
      • Proto-Indo-European *bʰewh₂ti primary verb
        • Proto-Albanian *bajā
          • Albanian bahe sling
        • Balto-Slavic
          • Lithuanian bausti to chastise, to punish
        • Celtic
          • Old Irish fo-botha threaten lit. "under-*beat"
        • Italic
          • Latin *fūtō
            • Latin confūtō
              • Western Romance
                • French
                  • English confute …
    read more
  17. Word Family - Snow

    February theme: Weather ⛈️

    Teaser

    Nevada, snow

    Full Text

    • Proto-Indo-European *sneygʷʰ- to snow
      • Proto-Indo-European *snigʷʰ(e)ti (it) snows imperfective [1]
        • Balto-Slavic *snigtei
          • East Baltic
            • Lithuanian snigti to snow
          • Finnic *niɣatta to snow? [2]
            • Finnic *niɣatos snow drift action result noun
              • Finnish nietos snow drift
        • Hellenic
          • Classical Greek νίφω níphō to …
    read more
  18. Word Family - Duke

    January theme: Aristocratic Titles 👑

    Introduction

    Germanic really went to town with this root, creating a bunch of morphological forms that aren't attested in any other branches, and in a few cases I can't even relate them to any standard derivational forms I know in either PIE or Proto-Germanic.

    Teaser

    wanton …

    read more

social