https://mapologies.com/animal-products/
Did you know that the word for #leather in French cuir, Polish skóra, and Kurmanji çerm, are connected? #etymolgy #etymolgymap #languages
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In general, when we think of worms, we imagine long, soft-bodied, legless animals. But which animals are we referring to exactly? The answer is not simple, because worm is a broad and often informal term rather than the name of a single biological group. The word may refer to: Earthworms and leeches (Annelida), Roundworms (Nematoda), Flatworms (Platyhelminthes), and parasitic worms and insect larvae, such as caterpillars, beetle, fly.
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However blood has two ancient Indo-European roots, depending on whether it was found inside the body or outside it, as in a wound. The root h₁ésh₂r̥, meaning blood within the body, gave rise to the Latin word sanguis. The second root, kréwh₂s, referred to blood spilled from a wound. It became associated with ideas of rawness and brutality. Its distant descendants may be heard in English words such as raw, crude and cruel.
https://mapologies.com/animals/
Ancient Greek used the name λύγξ (lýngx), which entered Latin as lynx. Later it gave rise to several modern European words, including Italian lince, Spanish lince, French lynx, and English lynx. German What do they have in common with German Luchs, Armenian լուսան (lusan), Romanian râs or Polish ryś? All have been connected with the Proto-Indo-European root *lewk-, meaning “light, brightness” It refer sto the lynx’s bright eyes.
The Romans named Mercury after Mercurius, their swift messenger god, mediator between gods and mortals, and deity of commerce. His name is traditionally linked to the Latin word merx, meaning “merchant.” The Babylonians called the planet Nabu, another divine messenger and god of writing. These associations were fitting: Mercury is the fastest planet in the Solar System, traveling around the Sun at about 47.4 km/s—the best delivery service in space.
Few materials have traveled as widely as silk. Moving from one end of the Eurasian continent to the other, it carried not only wealth and prestige but also the words used to name it. The English word silk ultimately derives from Latin sēricum, which was borrowed from Greek sērikón. The Greeks associated this term with the Seres, an eastern people known as suppliers of the precious fabric. The name is generally traced further back to Old Chinese 絲 (sə), meaning “silk.”
Cranes are known to ornithologists by the scientific name Grus grus, derived from the Latin word grus.
These diverse Slavic (like Polish żuraw,) and Romance (Italian gru) may ultimately be grouped under the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *gerh₂ōws. The Germanic form, reconstructed as kranô (Dutch kraan and German Kranich), developed separately *gr̥h₂-nés. Both are associated with a root meaning “to cry hoarsely”, gerh₂-, likely onomatopoeic.
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This is a clear case of a widespread root featuring a fascinating variety of phonetic changes. Words like ovo, ei, ou, kek, and jaje all mean "egg" and trace their origins back to the Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm. It helps to look at the outliers. In Celtic languages, forms like Irish ubh, Manx ooh, and Scottish Gaelic ugh, the evidence isn't entirely clear. Meanwhile, Baltic languages are also missing: Latvian settled on ola, and Lithuanian developed kiaušinis
https://mapologies.com/animal-product
The soft substance made of muscle and fat found beneath an animal’s or a human’s skin and bones is generally called flesh. In this image, we use a more specific definition: flesh as it relates to animal origin used for food, i.e., meat. Not all languages make this same distinction with separate terms. Some languages do have a clear flesh/meat pair, such as: Icelandic, hold / kjöt, or French, chair / viande.
English borrowed the word from Latin: lacertus and lacerta. We can see related forms in Spanish and Portuguese, lagarto, and in Italian, lucertola; the closest counterpart is French lézard. Other Germanic languages often use inherited terms from Proto-Germanic. These fall into two groups: in the north, Icelandic edla and Danish øgle result from the evolution of *aidulo. In the south, Dutch hagedis and German Eidechse (or Echse) come from a different word, *agiz.
Honey has an interesting distribution of etymological roots across languages. Serbian med, or мед, is not etymologically connected to Portuguese mel, despite their apparent similarity, but it is distantly related to Turkish bal. We might expect med to relate to other Slavic terms such as Polish miód, and it is also connected to the adjacent Hungarian méz and, farther away, Komi ма (ma). These languages ultimately derive from the Proto–Indo-European root medʰu ‘honey’.
https://mapologies.com/animal-products/
When we used to study Latin, the word lana did not immediately ring a bell. What did it mean? lane, land or lens? No—it actually meant wool. At first glance, you might conclude that lana is a Romance word, wool is Germanic. It feels similar to other distinct pairs like the miel versus honey, or lac versus milk, right? Well, share a single common ancestor: the Proto-Indo-European root *wĺ̥h₂neh₂ (which meant “wool” or “fleece”).
https://mapologies.com/animal-product
A clipping is a shortening of a word. One excellent example is hippo, a short, pleasant-sounding word that is a clipping of hippopotamus. The longer form, hippopotamus, has too many letters for some languages’ tastes. And hippopotamus appears in almost every language. It comes from Ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos): Formed by ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) and ποταμός (potamós, “river”).
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https://mapologies.com/time/
While Romance and Baltic languages often differ, they share the Proto-Indo-European root *wósr̥, meaning “#spring” and originally “becoming #warmer.” For example, the Portuguese “verão” and Latvian “vasara” derive from this root. Similarly, the German “Sommer” and Kurdish “havîn,” despite their different appearances, both stem from the Proto-Indo-European root *semh₂-, meaning “summer” or “half of the #year.” #etymology #etymologymap #map #laguagemap #linguisticmap
What do the Danish and Swedish word stork mean? Exactly what you'd think: "stork." It shares deep etymological roots with the German Storch and the Icelandic storkur, all originating from the Proto-Indo-European root *srgos. But this ancient root didn't just stay in the Germanic family—it also survives today as the Latvian stārķis and the Macedonian штрк (štrk).
More maps: https://mapologies.com/birds/
On July 13th a country celebrated its independance: Crna Gora (Црна Гора) is a country known in English as #Montenegro. But what these names mean? The name Crna Gora means “Black Mountain” and it used in other Slavic languages with small variations. Montenegro is a Romance-language calque of the same idea: it comes from Venetian and then spread into other languages. In English, the meaning isn’t obvious from the form, but in Spanish it is.
https://mapologies.com/cooking
Dessert is one of those international words you’ll find across many languages. The French verb desservir referred to something like the removal of plates after a meal—pretty specific, right? Even when some languages don’t use the French word directly, they often keep the idea of “something served after.” For example, Finnish jälkiruoka literally means “after food”. Other languages focus on the sweet side of the experience: Turkish tatlı and Slovenian sladica.
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There are four main groups of etymological roots for “badger,” all sharing a common idea, the animal as a digger and burrow-builder.
In the East: Turkic borsuk and Proto‑Slavic root *jàzvьcь "
In the West: Proto‑Germanic *þahsuz from Proto‑Indo‑European *tótḱ‑us (from *tetḱ‑, “to weave, braid, add, establish, construct”).
In the North: Proto‑Germanic *grabaną “to dig.”
In English, “bull” appears across other Germanic languages (e.g., German Bulle) and in some non‑Germanic languages (e.g., Latvian bullis). All derive from the Proto‑Germanic root *bulô, which is cognate with *balluz “ball”; both trace back to the Proto‑Indo‑European bʰel‑ “to blow, swell.” Where does this connection come from? Put simply and politely: what you’d see between a bull’s legs.
Read more here: https://mapologies.com/animals/
Last map has ants in its pants
#insects #map #mapologies #etymology #etymologymap #ant #ants #languagemap
Most European languages are united by a common thread: the word for ant. From the Galician formiga to the Romanian furnică, and from Greek μυρμήγκι (myrmígki) to Finnish muurahainen. Surprising, huh? We can find the traces of a single Proto-Indo-European ancestor: *mórwis.
Horseradish is a type of radish, with spicy flavour and eaten by horses. However this is simply partly true — the only accurate part is its strong taste. It also belongs to the Brassicaceae family (along with cabbage, mustard and, yes, radish).
A #fruit is the mature ovary of a flowering #plant and plays a crucial role in spreading the plant’s seeds. It forms after the flower is fertilized.
https://mapologies.com/fruits/
#etymogy #etymologymap #map #mapologies #mapologic #language #languagemap #botanic
In the East, Slavic languages share a common root, Proto-Slavic *žaba, with the notable exception of Russian: The term ljaguska (лягушка) is derived from the verb ljgat (лягать), which means "to kick." Some ideas?
https://mapologies.com/herpetology/
#etymology #etymologymap #languagemap
https://mapologies.com/time/#Spring
Spring is found in more than fifteen languages. English, among them, employs “spring” to denote the season when vegetation begins to “spring” forth, or emerge. Before its adoption in English, the word was “Lent”, like in Dutch Lente, from Proto-West Germanic *langatīn, literally “longer day” in reference to the lengthening of daylight.
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@acb@mastodon.social there are three, inlcuding behemoth, but the most common is היפופוטם (hipopotam)
@jasperb@mastodon.social I did not find the etymology of Estonian "sipelgas", so if you know, let me know. As for Latvian "skruzda" is also complicated. Even if it looks connected to Lithuanian "skruzdėlė", I did not find any source for it.