Questions tagged [etymology]
The study of the history of words including their origins and the changes they've undergone through time.
783 questions
1
vote
0
answers
90
views
Are Japanese 蜂 "hachi" and Korean 벌 "beol" (bee, stinging insect) supposed to come from Nostratic *pülcwV (flea) or from Nostratic *ṗVrV (bee)?
Does the Japanese word for "bee" (stinging insect), 蜂 "hachi" (from earlier *pati) come from Nostratic *pülcwV (flea) or Nostratic *ṗVrV (bee)? Or perhaps neither?
I suppose that ...
- 1,058
-1
votes
0
answers
57
views
Origin of the Russian adjectival endings -ий/-ия/-ие
I always thought that Russian adjectival endings -ий/-ия/-ие are related to Latin suffix+endings -ius/-ium and came from PIE suffix -i-, that is suffix+endings -ios/-ieh2/-iom. This suffix meant ...
- 6,916
0
votes
0
answers
78
views
Constituent order in Scythian (or Old Iranian) in two weird place names
The place names Παντικάπαιον (the modern city of Kerch, in Crimea) and Παντικάπης (a branch of the Dnieper) are thought to have a Scythian etymology. Both contain the words *panti- ‘way, path’ (< ...
- 1,050
2
votes
1
answer
224
views
In Old Norse, why are Neutre Adjectives, Determiners, and Possessives affixed by <-t>?
In particular, those of the Strong Declension in the cases Nominative and Accusative, Adjectives, Determiners, and Possessives are routinely followed by a <-t>. To the best of my admittedly ...
- 21
2
votes
0
answers
147
views
Latin 'actualis' - why do European descendants mean ‘present, current’ ? But in English, actual means 'real, existing’? [closed]
I am stumped by the divergence of meaning of descendants from Latin actualis. i post there as i am asking about systematicity of at least five languages. My initial research shows:
Latin actualis ...
- 69
10
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How did "hospital" lose its first syllable in some languages?
German Spital, Romanian spital which Wiktionary says is borrowed from either German, Italian ospitale, or Greek σπιτάλι. Looking at the Wiktionary article in other languages suggests that there are ...
- 3,000
0
votes
1
answer
82
views
How did the modern Croatian island name "Cres" evolve from "Krepsa"? Did the 2nd Slavic Palatalization somehow surmount the 'r'?
The ancient name for the island of Cres was Krepsa. Why did the 2nd Slavic Palatalization affect the 'k' (turning it into 'c', pronounced /ts/) if it was separated from the 'e' by the 'r'? I know that ...
- 1,058
0
votes
1
answer
158
views
Why is the Hungarian word "utca" (street) supposed to be a loan-word from a Slavic language, not a native word from Proto-Uralic *utka (track/way)?
So, I know there is a reconstructed Proto-Uralic word *utka meaning "way" or "track": https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Uralic/utka
For a very long time, I was ...
- 1,058
1
vote
1
answer
97
views
Why is the Serbo-Croatian word for soap, coming from Latin "sapo", "sapun", and not something like *sopin?
So, the Latin word for soap was "sapo". I suppose the Vulgar Latin word was something like *sapone, right? But, if so, why is the Serbo-Croatian word for soap "sapun" and not ...
- 1,058
0
votes
1
answer
162
views
Apophony: Latin 'imberbis'
According to RAE's dict., apophony is
Variation of the vocal tone in words of the same root due to phonetic evolution; e.g., imberbe from barba
https://dle.rae.es/apofon%C3%ADa?m=form
However, the ...
- 288
-3
votes
1
answer
80
views
Can initialisms be etymologies of other initialisms?
For example, is UNO (/ˈjuːnəʊ/ United Nations Organization) being used in Unesco's etymology?
Compare UN in the etymology of UNICEF and UNO itself.
- 288
2
votes
0
answers
70
views
How did Slovene end up with "univerza" not "univerzitet"?
Generally European languages use cognates of "university", including those that influenced or developed alongside modern Slovene, namely French, German, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Czech and ...
- 8,569
-1
votes
1
answer
82
views
Did the names Ioann and Iovian merge to form Giovanni?
how common was merger or biblical and Roman names? For instance, Mariam+Marius->Maria, Ioannes+Iovianus->Giovanni?
What about other barbaric names, Hermann+Germanicus, Kuzma+Cosmas?
What percent ...
- 6,916
2
votes
0
answers
97
views
Origin of sigma aorist imperative in Greek
In ancient Greek, the imperatives for the sigma aorist is -σον, -σαι. This looks quite different from the present imperatives, so I was curious about the etymology. However, when looked at Wiktionary'...
- 155
1
vote
0
answers
72
views
Help identifying meaning of a possibly East European phrase from Galicia: 'inke plinke ludo minke..." [closed]
I'm looking for help understanding the possible meaning and origin of a phrase my grandfather used to say repeatedly:
"inke plinke ludo minke intel klas buter bas, ite yayosku biea i blas"
...
- 19