This is a fun read. Isle and island don't share a root. Emote and emoji aren't related. Much (English) and mucho (Spanish) aren't either. I never knew that Portuguese and Japanese have such...
This is a fun read. Isle and island don't share a root. Emote and emoji aren't related. Much (English) and mucho (Spanish) aren't either.
I never knew that Portuguese and Japanese have such similar words for thank you, "obrigado" and "arigatō" (also unrelated)
From the post:
What are we supposed to do with this information?
As well as being interesting and weird, all these words teach us an important lesson: coincidences are everywhere. We mustn’t be fooled into jumping to conclusions about a topic based on limited sample sizes.
My favorite one of these, which is not in the article, is that it seems like the words female and male in English aren't really directly linked. (Not in as straightforward of a way as we might...
My favorite one of these, which is not in the article, is that it seems like the words female and male in English aren't really directly linked. (Not in as straightforward of a way as we might assume anyway). CRAZY
Another interesting etymological group is words like shirt and skirt, which are an etymological doublet. Shirt comes from the proto-Germanic (c. 2000 years ago) word *skurtijǭ, which meant some...
Another interesting etymological group is words like shirt and skirt, which are an etymological doublet.
Shirt comes from the proto-Germanic (c. 2000 years ago) word *skurtijǭ, which meant some sort of a short garment, possibly apron. When the Anglo-Saxons moved to the British isles (c. 5th century) they brought the word with them along with their version of the language. Over the centuries, the word changed to scyrte and shirte and finally to shirt, and it ended up referring to a short garment worn on your upper body.
Skirt also comes from the same proto-Germanic word *skurtijǭ. But this time, it was the Norsemen who took the word to Scandinavia, along with their version of the language. In their use over the centuries, the word turned into skyrta and began to refer to a shirt or a kirtle. Later on, sometime in the 14th century, people of the British isles heard Norse traders use that word and decided that it was a word worth borrowing. They took it as something like skyrte, and eventually it turned into skirt: a short garment worn on your lower body.
And thus the original short garment of *skurtijǭ ended up as two separate words in English.
Way back in middle school and high school Spanish, the favorite false cognate among students was probably was embarazada (pregnant) and embarrassed, for hilarity. You certainly got embarrassed if...
Way back in middle school and high school Spanish, the favorite false cognate among students was probably was embarazada (pregnant) and embarrassed, for hilarity. You certainly got embarrassed if you said "Estoy embarazada"!
I'm looking at some of these and couldn't it just be that the connections just go back one step further back? There's some that seem like genuine coincidences (emoji not being related to "emotion"...
I'm looking at some of these and couldn't it just be that the connections just go back one step further back? There's some that seem like genuine coincidences (emoji not being related to "emotion" at all in Japanese), but I'm unconvinced that, say, Latin, Proto-Germanic and Sanskrit couldn't have some ancient, undocumented connection.
It's not exactly undocumented, you're thinking of Proto-Indo-European but I think that usually, when people don't trace etymologies back to PIE, it means the words in question arose later on. Or...
I'm unconvinced that, say, Latin, Proto-Germanic and Sanskrit couldn't have some ancient, undocumented connection.
It's not exactly undocumented, you're thinking of Proto-Indo-European but I think that usually, when people don't trace etymologies back to PIE, it means the words in question arose later on. Or it's the case that the words come from separate PIE roots, as in much/mucho. Ryan Starkey is usually pretty good at doing his homework.
This is a fun read. Isle and island don't share a root. Emote and emoji aren't related. Much (English) and mucho (Spanish) aren't either.
I never knew that Portuguese and Japanese have such similar words for thank you, "obrigado" and "arigatō" (also unrelated)
From the post:
What are we supposed to do with this information?
As well as being interesting and weird, all these words teach us an important lesson: coincidences are everywhere. We mustn’t be fooled into jumping to conclusions about a topic based on limited sample sizes.
My favorite one of these, which is not in the article, is that it seems like the words female and male in English aren't really directly linked. (Not in as straightforward of a way as we might assume anyway). CRAZY
Well that's just marvellous. Thanks for that!
Thank you! Gosh I love etymology :)
Another interesting etymological group is words like shirt and skirt, which are an etymological doublet.
Shirt comes from the proto-Germanic (c. 2000 years ago) word *skurtijǭ, which meant some sort of a short garment, possibly apron. When the Anglo-Saxons moved to the British isles (c. 5th century) they brought the word with them along with their version of the language. Over the centuries, the word changed to scyrte and shirte and finally to shirt, and it ended up referring to a short garment worn on your upper body.
Skirt also comes from the same proto-Germanic word *skurtijǭ. But this time, it was the Norsemen who took the word to Scandinavia, along with their version of the language. In their use over the centuries, the word turned into skyrta and began to refer to a shirt or a kirtle. Later on, sometime in the 14th century, people of the British isles heard Norse traders use that word and decided that it was a word worth borrowing. They took it as something like skyrte, and eventually it turned into skirt: a short garment worn on your lower body.
And thus the original short garment of *skurtijǭ ended up as two separate words in English.
Way back in middle school and high school Spanish, the favorite false cognate among students was probably was embarazada (pregnant) and embarrassed, for hilarity. You certainly got embarrassed if you said "Estoy embarazada"!
In Korean there is "mani" (많이) which is unrelated to English "many," yet they mean the same thing.
I'm looking at some of these and couldn't it just be that the connections just go back one step further back? There's some that seem like genuine coincidences (emoji not being related to "emotion" at all in Japanese), but I'm unconvinced that, say, Latin, Proto-Germanic and Sanskrit couldn't have some ancient, undocumented connection.
It's not exactly undocumented, you're thinking of Proto-Indo-European but I think that usually, when people don't trace etymologies back to PIE, it means the words in question arose later on. Or it's the case that the words come from separate PIE roots, as in much/mucho. Ryan Starkey is usually pretty good at doing his homework.