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 …
read moreDragon tears.
The etymology of dragon (Classical Greek δράκων drákōn) is not certain, but is traditionally linked to δέρκομαι dérkomai: "to see, to watch".
"Derkomai…really?" Not so odd: The aorist active participle (m.) of δέρκομαι dérkomai is δρακών drakṓn—the only difference from δράκων drákōn is the placement of the accent. A …
read moreDr. Melenaite Taumoefolau makes a compelling and intriguing argument: that Nuclear Polynesian *sawaiki: "traditional/mythological homeland"—whence Hawaii—may be a cognate of *sau ʔariki borrowed from the Tongic branch into Nuclear Polynesian. (Note that *sawaiki can only be reconstructed to NP, it is not present in Tongic or …
read moreterahertz, Britain, Stepanakert, Paris, karma
The Mystery of the Penny.
I've got three families, each a possible origin for West Germanic *panning: "penny", possible borrowings from either Latin patina: "pan" (via variants *patna, *panna), Latin pannus: "cloth, or—less realistically—Punic 𐤐𐤍 pene: "face".
I prefer the explanation that the first pennies were small and …
read moreThe attempt to brand cis(gender) as a slur is not truly about the word itself—they wouldn't be any happier with any other word that was used for the same meaning—but an attempt to deny the very category of "cisgender" and thus by extension the existence of …
read moreThere are two west Asian wander words for musical instruments: *pandVr- and tabVr-. *pandVr- mostly means a stringed instrument, and tabVr- mostly means a kind of drum, but that is not consistent.
The *p-d and *t-b could possibly be metathesis of place of articulation, while leaving voicing in place …
read morehalogen, coleslaw, salad, sauce, salary, salt
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 …
read moreThe particle *me meaning "with, at, between" is probably the origin of *médʰyos: "middle"—in turn the origin of many, many words.
I wonder if *meh₁-: "to measure" and *meh₁d-: "to consider, to give advice, to heal" isn't also from *me. Germanic *midlą for example sometimes means …
read moreIn 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.
Michigan, Mississippi, Massachusetts
cook, coach, quiche, cake, kitchen, culinary, apricot, Pepsi, biscuit, Budapest
albino, auburn, daub, oaf, elf, Alfred, Oberon, Elbe, Arpad, Alps