Nostr notes by Yoïn van Spijk

Hi followers, I'm currently migrating to mastodon.social, ...

2026-10-18T18:55:48Z

Hi followers, I'm currently migrating to mastodon.social, because toot.community will stop existing on October 28th. If you get a follow from nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpqk4yyve53g6p9rp9rszpykd7lzykg83ht86223mkxz6mdmaxld3hszs0lyp (nprofile…0lyp), it's me!

Kom morgenmiddag naar mijn quiz-lezing in Eindhoven voor ...

2026-10-17T09:57:05Z

Kom morgenmiddag naar mijn quiz-lezing in Eindhoven voor verrassende taalweetjes én een kans op het winnen van mijn boek 'Woord voor woord'!

quoting
nevent1q…t5y3
Heb je zondagmiddag 18 oktober vrij en hou je van quizzen, taal en boeken winnen?

Kom dan naar mijn quiz-lezing in de Bibliotheek Eindhoven!

Je gaat sowieso naar huis met verrassende weetjes, maar win je de quiz, dan krijg je ook mijn boek 'Woord voor 'woord'!

https://dbre.op-shop.nl/2439/lezing-en-quiz-de-verleden-tijd-van-taal-door-yoin-van-spijk

The word ‘to learn’ is part of a big and diverse word family. ...

2026-10-10T15:17:48Z

The word ‘to learn’ is part of a big and diverse word family.

For instance, it’s related to ‘lore’, ‘to last’, and (shoe) ‘last’, as well as German ‘Gleis’ (railway), ‘List’ (cunning plan), and ‘lehren’ (to teach), which used to have an English cognate: ‘to lere’.

However, this family doesn’t have any ties with ‘lesson’ and German ‘lesen’ (to read), which are even unrelated to each other.

Zoom in on my new graphic for more:

Heb je zondagmiddag 18 oktober vrij en hou je van quizzen, taal ...

2026-10-06T17:29:03Z

Heb je zondagmiddag 18 oktober vrij en hou je van quizzen, taal en boeken winnen?

Kom dan naar mijn quiz-lezing in de Bibliotheek Eindhoven!

Je gaat sowieso naar huis met verrassende weetjes, maar win je de quiz, dan krijg je ook mijn boek 'Woord voor 'woord'!

https://dbre.op-shop.nl/2439/lezing-en-quiz-de-verleden-tijd-van-taal-door-yoin-van-spijk

Op 5 november komt het uit: mijn nieuwe boek 'Winter vol ...

2026-10-05T16:58:17Z

Op 5 november komt het uit: mijn nieuwe boek 'Winter vol woorden'! 😃

In 90 korte hoofdstukken lees je over de vele ijzige reizen die onze winterwoorden door de tijd heen hebben afgelegd.

'Winter vol woorden' is verkrijgbaar als paperback (€ 20,99) en als e-book (€ 12,99).

Wil je het op 5 november in huis hebben, dan zou ik je heel dankbaar zijn als je het via deze link bestelt, want die levert mij een extra zakcentje op:
https://www.boekenwereld.com/TT?tt=12322_12_481179_&r=%2Fgetbook%2Fisbn%2Faddtocart%2Fisbn-9789026375705

Omdat de meeste tooltjes er niks van bakken, besloot ik tegen ...

2026-10-03T21:46:02Z

Omdat de meeste tooltjes er niks van bakken, besloot ik tegen mijn principes in toch Google AI maar eens te vragen welk lettertype voor mijn boek 'Die goeie ouwe taal' gebruikt is.

Hij gaf me niet alleen het antwoord, maar wist ook exact te vertellen uit welk boek het kleine screenshotje kwam... 🤮

Vanmiddag een mooie uitdrukking uit Loon op Zand gehoord: 't ...

2026-10-01T15:36:13Z

Vanmiddag een mooie uitdrukking uit Loon op Zand gehoord:

't Kwaam-t'r taaier èùt es de roôme ùt 'nen òs.

Letterlijk: het kwam er taaier uit dan de melk uit een os.

Oftewel: het ging ontzettend moeizaam. De context was dat iemand iets met enorm veel tegenzin deed.

When I posted my infographic about ‘to wait’ and ...

2026-09-23T17:56:39Z

When I posted my infographic about ‘to wait’ and ‘wachten’ on Sunday, many people asked if the German word ‘warten’ with its identical meaning is etymologically related to this family as well. Nope, not in the slightest!

However, ‘warten’ isn’t lonely, because it has its own huge family: ‘aware’, ‘wary’, ‘beware’, ‘to warn’, ‘ward’, ‘warden’, ‘guard’, ‘guardian’, ‘lord’, ‘panorama’, ‘to revere’ – and that’s only English!

Zoom in on my second graphic in this two-part series for more relatives:

The verb ‘to wait’ comes from Old French, but that language ...

2026-09-20T17:10:22Z

The verb ‘to wait’ comes from Old French, but that language in turn borrowed it from the ancestor of Dutch ‘wachten’.

These words have a big family. It includes ‘to wake’, ‘woke’, ‘to watch’, and, via Latin, ‘vigilant’, ‘vigour’, ‘vegetation’, and ‘vegetable’.

Click my new infographic to learn all about this word family:

Sometimes, borrowing a word can save it from extinction. French ...

2026-09-06T11:47:59Z

Sometimes, borrowing a word can save it from extinction.

French ‘orgueil’ (pride) and its Romance cognates were borrowed from Germanic *uʀgōlī, a word that went extinct in all Germanic languages.

*Haifstiz (vehemence) only survives in Icelandic as ‘heift’ (rage), but thanks to a French borrowing, the word found its way back into all Germanic languages, becoming ‘haste’ in English.

Zoom in on my two new graphics for episode 1 of a series on Germanic words saved by the Romance languages.

When you say ‘famly’, ‘vulnrable’ or ‘genral’, ...

2026-08-29T12:43:37Z

When you say ‘famly’, ‘vulnrable’ or ‘genral’, you’re performing syncope: deleting an unstressed vowel from the interior of the word, losing an entire syllable in the process.

The Romans did this a lot too. For instance, they turned ‘viridis’ (“green”) into ‘virdis’, a variant that was initially frowned upon. Yet it’s that syncopated form that birthed ‘verde’ in languages such as Italian.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn all about syncope in Latin.

2/

Volgend jaar brengen grafisch vormgever en kaartenmaker Frans van ...

2026-08-25T16:32:26Z

Volgend jaar brengen grafisch vormgever en kaartenmaker Frans van der Vleuten en ik een boek uit met 100 kaarten over alledaagse taal en cultuur in Nederland – en daar kun jij aan bijdragen!

Vul onze enquêtes in en jouw data komen op de kaarten. 🗺️

Nu online: enquête 1. Klik hier:
https://studiovandervleuten.nl/boek-vraag/

(De kaart hieronder is een voorbeeld van Frans' werk op Instagram.)

A diabolical word preserved its form due to the church. ...

2026-08-23T16:38:32Z

A diabolical word preserved its form due to the church.

Undergoing the sound changes that turned Latin into Spanish, the word ‘diabolus’ (devil) should’ve become *yablo. However, due to the conservative ecclesiastical context this word was used in, the part ‘di-’ was preserved: ‘diablo’. The same goes for the other Romance words.

‘Devil’ comes from an early borrowing of ‘diabolus’, which itself was borrowed from Ancient Greek ‘diábolos’. This, in turn, was a loan translation of Hebrew ‘śāṭān’:

The word ‘sure’ has the same origin as ‘secure’: Latin ...

2026-08-21T12:36:31Z

The word ‘sure’ has the same origin as ‘secure’: Latin ‘sēcūrus’.

‘Sure’ came through Old French, while ‘secure’ is a 16th-century borrowing from written Latin.

English even used to have a third borrowing: ‘sicker’. It evolved from a form adopted from spoken Latin more than 1500 years ago.

Click my new infographic to learn all about this word family, which includes Celtic words:

@nprofile…qtk2 Nice! Where is it spoken?

2026-08-17T18:35:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…rwv8
_________________________

nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq7aj8ptj4jhexhsmych040lxmg340xj4ny2ucsmhk6fasg0ky0stq9wqtk2 (nprofile…qtk2) Nice! Where is it spoken?

What do ‘Miranda’, ‘legend’, and ‘agenda’ have in ...

2026-08-16T14:07:39Z

What do ‘Miranda’, ‘legend’, and ‘agenda’ have in common?

They come from Latin gerundives: verbal forms that express obligation.

For instance, Latin ‘mīranda’ means “she who is to be admired”.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn more about the gerundive, discover other gerundives in English, and explore the significant difference between the gerundive and the gerundio in Romance languages.

Beautiful hasn’t always been ‘beautiful’. In Old English, ...

2026-08-13T15:47:01Z

Beautiful hasn’t always been ‘beautiful’. In Old English, one of the words for it was ‘sċēne’.

This word became ‘sheen’, but as an adjective, it’s all but dead.

The Germanic cognates of ‘sheen’ include Dutch ‘schoon’ (which also means “clean”), German ‘schön’, and Swedish ‘skön’. German ‘schon’ (“already”) is also related.

These words derive from a verb related to ‘show’. Their original meaning appears to have been “watchable”.

Click my new infographic to learn all about this word family.

The word ‘island’ contains the same element as ‘Jersey’, ...

2026-08-09T15:04:29Z

The word ‘island’ contains the same element as ‘Jersey’, ‘Scandinavia’, and ‘Batavia’. This element stems from Proto-Germanic *agwī, a word meaning “land in or close to a body of water”.

*Agwī was derived from *ahwō (“body of water”), a distant cousin of Latin ‘aqua’.

Despite its looks, ‘island’ isn’t etymologically related to ‘isle’ at all, but because people thought it was, its spelling was influenced by it.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn all about this word family.

Als Albert Heijn aandacht had besteed aan een grammaticA ...

2026-08-08T12:40:45Z

Als Albert Heijn aandacht had besteed aan een grammaticA fantasticA, dan was dit wannabe-Italiaans niet zo'n fiascO fantasticO geweest.

The word ‘scissors’ is completely unrelated to the words for ...

2026-08-07T15:38:38Z

The word ‘scissors’ is completely unrelated to the words for this tool in the sister languages of English, such as German ‘Schere’ and Dutch ‘schaar’.

Their English cognate is ‘shears’ instead.

Unlike ‘scissors’ and ‘shears’, the words ‘Schere’ and ‘schaar’ are used as singular nouns.

However, ‘Schere’ and ‘schaar’ stem from a Proto-Germanic dual form meaning “pair of blades” – one of the very few Proto-Germanic dual nouns its daughter languages enable us to reconstruct.

Here's more:

1/

The Germanic ancestor of ‘thing’ and its cognates, such as ...

2026-08-04T16:20:30Z

The Germanic ancestor of ‘thing’ and its cognates, such as German ‘Ding’ and Swedish ‘ting’, meant “folk assembly”.

The Latin ancestor of the Romance words for “thing”, such as French ‘chose’ and Spanish ‘cosa’, meant “legal case”.

Both the Germanic and the Latin word underwent a long series of meaning shifts resulting in the modern meanings “matter; thing”. My infographic shows how.

It won’t be too big of a surprise that the words ‘of’ and ...

2026-07-26T13:26:23Z

It won’t be too big of a surprise that the words ‘of’ and ‘off’ come from the same Old English word: ‘of’.

However, if we go further back in time, it turns out they’re part of a huge word family that includes ‘after’, ‘ebb’, German ‘von’ (“of”), ‘aber’ (“but”), and Ancient Greek ‘apó’ (“away from”).

All of these words can be traced back to the same Proto-Indo-European ancestor.

Click my new infographic to explore this family:

The word ‘foreign’ is etymologically related to ‘door’. ...

2026-07-22T17:38:51Z

The word ‘foreign’ is etymologically related to ‘door’.

‘Foreign’ comes from Latin ‘forānus’ (outsider), a derivative of ‘forīs’ (outside). It got its silent g because people believed it had something to do with ‘reign’ – which it doesn’t. English ‘door’ is a distant cousin of ‘forīs’.

Within Germanic, it’s related to German ‘Tür’ and Swedish ‘dörr’, but words do stem from slightly different Proto-Germanic words. My infographic tells you more.

Dat is goed. Ik zal "MIJN APOTHEEK" wel raadplegen. Dit ...

2026-07-14T10:45:16Z

Dat is goed. Ik zal "MIJN APOTHEEK" wel raadplegen.

Dit medicijnenzakje doet me denken aan de misboekjes bij familieleden die een uitvaart hadden in de rooms-katholieke kerk:

'Vandaag gedenken wij "NAAM OVERLEDENE", die op "DATUM" van ons heengegaan is.'

The Spanish way of saying “from where” is ‘de donde’. ...

2026-07-12T13:58:32Z

The Spanish way of saying “from where” is ‘de donde’. However, to speakers living a thousand years ago, that would’ve meant “from from from where”.

In Old Spanish, “from where” was simply ‘onde’, a descendant of Latin ‘unde’. However, this word would end up getting reinforced by ‘de’ (“from”) twice because of an interesting series of ambiguities.

Click my new infographic to see how it happened.

‘Chez moi’ is the French way of saying “at my place”. The ...

2026-07-02T13:59:39Z

‘Chez moi’ is the French way of saying “at my place”. The preposition ‘chez’ has a fascinating origin: it comes from the same word as Spanish ‘casa’ (house): Latin ‘casa’.

‘Casa’ originally meant “hut”, but it became the common word for “house” in most Romance languages.

What was the original Latin word for “house” and what happened to it? And where does French ‘maison’ come from?

My new infographic tells you all about it and shows a wide selection of Romance descendants of Latin ‘casa’.

The word ‘quick’ has many surprising relatives. It’s ...

2026-06-27T13:37:58Z

The word ‘quick’ has many surprising relatives.

It’s related to ‘vital’, ‘vivid’, and Spanish ‘vivir’ (to live) via Latin, and to ‘bio-‘ and ‘zoo’ via Ancient Greek.

Germanic relatives include Dutch ‘kweken’ (to grow; to foster) and German ‘keck’ (sassy).

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn how these words are related:

The English word ‘young’ has surprising cognates in other ...

2026-06-24T18:14:42Z

The English word ‘young’ has surprising cognates in other languages in its Indo-European family.

Irish ‘óg’ and Welsh ‘ifanc’ mean “young” but don’t resemble ‘young’ at all, while Italian ‘giovenco’ means “young bull”.

More distantly, ‘young’ is related to ‘youth’, ‘juveline’, ‘junior’, Spanish ‘joven’, French ‘jeune’, and more.

Click my new graphic to discover more about this word family.

The French words ‘est’ and ‘ouest’ look a lot like ...

2026-06-21T13:37:15Z

The French words ‘est’ and ‘ouest’ look a lot like English ‘east’ and ‘west’.

That’s because they were borrowed from Old English, along with other nautical terms, which points to naval contacts. French then passed on ‘est’ and ‘ouest’, as well as ‘nord’ and ‘sud’, to the other Romance languages.

My new graphic tells you how we know Old English was the donor language, how ‘east’ is related to ‘Aurora’, and why ‘west’ may have orignally meant “where the sun sets”.

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The French words ‘nord’ and ‘sud’ look a lot like English ...

2026-06-19T15:07:01Z

The French words ‘nord’ and ‘sud’ look a lot like English ‘north’ and ‘south’.

That’s not a coincidence: it’s because Old French borrowed these words from Old English ‘norþ’ and ‘sūþ’ – along with ‘est’ and ‘ouest’, which come from ‘ēast’ and ‘west’.

My new infographic tells you all about the fascinating theories about the history of ‘north’, ‘south’ and their cognates.

Next time: east and west.

The Spanish words ‘primavera’ (spring) and ‘verano’ ...

2026-06-11T18:14:13Z

The Spanish words ‘primavera’ (spring) and ‘verano’ (summer) both derive from Latin ‘vēr’ (spring).

Originally, ‘primavera’ was early spring, while ‘verano’ was late spring.

However, their meanings shifted to later in the year, and ‘estío’, the original word for summer, was dethroned.

That’s not the only interesting story the Romance words for the seasons have to tell. Click my new infographic to learn all about the four seasons in the five largest Romance languages.

The word ‘town’ shares its origin with German ‘Zaun’ ...

2026-06-04T16:13:27Z

The word ‘town’ shares its origin with German ‘Zaun’ (fence) and Dutch ‘tuin’ (garden), even though their forms and meanings are quite different.

They all stem form Proto-Germanic *tūnan, whose meaning is reconstructed as “fenced area”.

Over the course of 2000 years, they’ve grown apart.

My new graphic shows nine unexpected but true cognates in English, German, Dutch, Frisian, and Swedish.

1/

Over the past few days, I’ve created two infographics on early ...

2026-05-30T13:31:48Z

Over the past few days, I’ve created two infographics on early Germanic loanwords from Latin: one on construction, with words such as ‘kitchen’ and ‘street’, and one on food, with ‘cheese’, ‘butter’ and others.

Today, I’m wrapping up the trilogy with an infographic on utensils. ‘Fork’, ‘pan’, ‘sack’, ‘mint’ and ‘chest’ – they were all borrowed into Proto-West Germanic, the ancestor of English, when the Romans controlled large parts of north-western Europe during the early first millennium AD.

2/ How do we know that the words featured in these infographics ...

2026-05-27T14:29:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…8jna
_________________________

2/

How do we know that the words featured in these infographics were borrowed? Couldn’t they just be the native Germanic cognates of the Latin words? There are several ways we can identify them as borrowings. You’ll learn all about them in the short article below.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/early-latin-food-159376050

After my infographic about words such as ‘wall’, ...

2026-05-27T14:29:39Z

After my infographic about words such as ‘wall’, ‘street’, and ‘kitchen’, which are very early Germanic borrowings from Latin, here’s a second one, this time about food.

While words such as ‘carnivore’, ‘cereal’, and ‘edible’ are late and obvious borrowings from Latin, words such as ‘cheese’, ‘pear’, and ‘wine ‘were adopted from that language 2000-1500 years ago, when the Romans occupied the parts of Europe where the ancestor of English was spoken.

Next episode: utensils!

1/

Words such as 'museum', 'formula' and ...

2026-05-24T11:54:49Z

Words such as 'museum', 'formula' and 'ratio' instantly give away their Latin origin, but did you know 'wall', 'street', and 'kitchen' come from Latin too?

They were borrowed during the Roman occupation of the part of Europe where Proto-West Germanic was spoken, the ancestor of English and its West Germanic sister languages.

Today’s infographic about construction terms shows six of these early borrowings and their descendants in English, Dutch, and German. Next time: food words.

1/

‘Probably’ is often pronounced /probly/. The syllable ...

2026-05-17T12:59:55Z

‘Probably’ is often pronounced /probly/. The syllable ‘ba’ is deleted because it’s followed by another syllable starting with a b. This is called haplology – or haplogy if you will.

Some people have an issue with /probly/, but what they don’t know is that their beloved form ‘probably’ is the result of haplology too: in Middle English, it was ‘probablely’.

Haplology can be found in all ages and places. My new infographic shows cases from English, Latin, French, Greek, German, and Portuguese.

Gisteravond presenteerde Kristel Doreleijers haar boek ...

2026-05-13T16:37:00Z

Gisteravond presenteerde Kristel Doreleijers haar boek 'Superbrabants'. Ik was erbij. Van tevoren had ik het boek al mogen lezen – met heel veel plezier!

Het Brabants dreigt te verdwijnen, net als veel andere lokale talen. Steeds minder jongeren groeien ermee op, maar toch willen ze Brabants klinken. Met het overdreven hyperdialect waar ze soms mee aankomen, zijn oudere dialectsprekers niet altijd blij, maar voor de jongeren is het een manier om ... 1/

The word ‘queen’ is distantly related to the first part of ...

2026-05-10T18:22:04Z

The word ‘queen’ is distantly related to the first part of ‘gynaecology’ and the second part of ‘misogyny’.

It’s also related to Norwegian ‘kone’ (wife) and ‘kvinne’ (woman), but they’re not full cognates.

While ‘queen’ comes from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (wife), ‘kone’ and ‘kvinne’ stem from *kwenōn (woman). In English, this became the disparaging – and now archaic – word ‘quean’ (ho).

The word ‘dame’ is part of a huge word family. It contains ...

2026-05-03T14:02:05Z

The word ‘dame’ is part of a huge word family.

It contains the same root as ‘damsel’, ‘domain’, ‘to dominate’, ‘danger’, ‘dome’, and ‘despot’.

In the Romance languages, it’s related to Spanish ‘don’ (Mr.), French ‘dimanche’ (Sunday), and Italian ‘duomo’ (cathedral).

All of these words were built on the foundations of a Proto-Indo-European word meaning “house”.

Click my new infographic to learn more:

The word ‘king’ has a fascinating story to tell. Its ...

2026-04-29T16:50:29Z

The word ‘king’ has a fascinating story to tell.

Its Proto-Germanic ancestor *kuningaz was derived from the word *kunjan, which became English ‘kin’. A king was a descendant of royal or divine kin.

The word *kunjan, in turn, stemmed from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to produce”. This root, through Latin and Greek, gave us many words, including ‘genre’, ‘nature’, ‘genital’, ‘genesis’, ‘pregnant’, and ‘gonorrhea’.

Zoom in on my new graphic to learn more:

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Voor een tekstje voor kinderen in groep 3 zat ik te worstelen met ...

2026-04-23T11:21:53Z

Voor een tekstje voor kinderen in groep 3 zat ik te worstelen met eenlettergrepige woorden met een f.

Ik vermijd LLM's als de pest, maar ik dacht: ach, laat ik toch maar eens de AI-modus van Google proberen.

Die begon te hallucineren als een papegaai aan de tramadol.

Ziehier:

The English word ‘fabric’ is a notorious false friend of ...

2026-04-22T18:43:31Z

The English word ‘fabric’ is a notorious false friend of Spanish ‘fábrica’: a fabric is a material, while a fábrica is a factory.

However, these words are real cognates: they stem from the same Latin word: ‘fabrica’.

This Latin word even produced ‘forge’.

Click to learn all about these words. For those interested in how ‘fabrica’ could ever evolve into words such as ‘forge’, I described the sound changes step by step.

The Old English word for a flower was ‘blōsma’. While this ...

2026-04-17T17:42:54Z

The Old English word for a flower was ‘blōsma’.

While this word survived, becoming modern ‘blossom’, it gave up part of its meaning to a French loanword. Interestingly though, this loanword, spelled both ‘flour’ and ‘flower’ in Middle English, stems from the same root as ‘blossom’.

Moreover, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the spelling variants ‘flour’ and ‘flower’ were differentiated. Each was assigned one of the meanings: “finest part of ground grain” versus “blossom of a plant”.

It will come as no surprise that ‘to live’ is etymologically ...

2026-04-10T17:43:30Z

It will come as no surprise that ‘to live’ is etymologically related to ‘life’ and ‘alive’.

However, these words are also related to ‘to leave’ and German ‘bleiben’ (“to stay”), which used to have an English cognate: ‘to belive’.

Even ‘lipo-’ in ‘liposuction’ is related, as are the parts ‘-lev-’ and ‘-lv-’ of the numerals ‘eleven’ and ‘twelve’.

All of these words stem from a common Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to stick”.

Click my new graphic to learn all about this word family:

2/ In 1490, William Caxton wrote an anecdote on ‘eggs’ and ...

2026-04-05T17:20:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…jjpg
_________________________

2/

In 1490, William Caxton wrote an anecdote on ‘eggs’ and ‘eyren’. Commenting on the linguistic diversity of English, which made creating a standardised English hard, he told the story of a group of northern merchants asking a southern lady for eggs:

“And one of them, named Sheffelde, a mercer, cam in to an hows and axed for mete, and specyally he axyd after eggys. And the goode wyf answerde that she coude speke no frenshe. And the marchaunt ... 2/

Eggs are oval. The word ‘egg’ is even etymologically related ...

2026-04-05T17:20:26Z

Eggs are oval. The word ‘egg’ is even etymologically related to ‘oval’.

‘Oval’ comes from Latin ‘ōvālis’ (egg-shaped), a derivative of ‘ōvum’ (egg), the ancestor of Spanish ‘huevo’, French ‘œuf’ and others.

Latin ‘ōvum’, in turn, was a distant cousin of Germanic *ajjan, the ancestor of Old Norse ‘egg’. This word was borrowed into Middle English and gradually displaced the native word ‘ey’.

Click my new infographic graphic to learn more.

See post 2 for an anecdote on ‘eggs’ and ‘eyren’.

The geat were eating nit under the each. ‘Geat’, ‘nit’, ...

2026-04-03T18:30:12Z

The geat were eating nit under the each.

‘Geat’, ‘nit’, ‘each’– this is what the original plural forms of ‘goat’, ‘nut’, and ‘oak’ would’ve looked like if they hadn’t been replaced by ‘goats’, ‘nuts’, and ‘oaks’.

How did plurals with a vowel alternation came to be, such as ‘man ~ men’ and ‘mouse ~ mice’?

What would the lost ones have sounded like if they’d been preserved?

My short video will tell you:
https://youtube.com/shorts/CTjYP8skREc

The words ‘power’, ‘host’, ‘potential’, ...

2026-03-23T17:53:13Z

The words ‘power’, ‘host’, ‘potential’, ‘impotent’, ‘possible’, ‘posse’, and ‘to possess’ all contain the same Proto-Indo-European word: *pótis, meaning “master”.

Click my new graphic to learn how they evolved through derivatives in Latin, sound changes in Romance, and borrowings into English:

The Indo-European word *pótis (“master”) also became Lithuanian ‘pàts’ (“husband”), Ancient Greek ‘pósis’ (“husband”), and Sanskrit ‘páti’ (“husband; master; lord”).

1/

Zondagmiddag vertellen Kristel Doreleijers en ik over de taal van ...

2026-03-21T09:57:04Z

Zondagmiddag vertellen Kristel Doreleijers en ik over de taal van verschillende generaties.

Zoals je van mij gewend bent, neem ik je mee in ons verre taalverleden - 50 tot 150 generaties terug.

Ik laat zien dat taal altijd verandert, maar niet verloedert.

22 maart van 13.30 uur tot 15.30 uur
Huis van het Boek, Prinsessegracht 30- 31, 2514 AP Den Haag

€ 7,50 voor leden van Onze Taal en vrienden van Huis van het Boek;
€ 10,- voor andere geïnteresseerden

Kaartverkoop:
https://onzetaalwebwinkel.nl/diversen/ticket-de-taal-van-mijn-generatie

The English word ‘rich’ is related to ‘regal’ and ...

2026-03-19T19:14:46Z

The English word ‘rich’ is related to ‘regal’ and ‘royal’.

‘Rich’ derives from a Proto-Germanic borrowing of *rīxs, the Proto-Celtic cognate of Latin ‘rēx’, meaning “king”.

The meaning “wealthy” evolved from “powerful; kingly”.

Latin ‘rēx’, in turn, is the ancestor of Spanish ‘rey’ and French ‘roi’. Via French, ‘regal’ and ‘royal’ come from ‘rēgālis’, a derivative of ‘rēx’.

Click my new infographic to learn more about this fascinating word family:

1/

The numbers ‘twenty’ to ‘ninety’ end in ‘-ty’. Where ...

2026-03-04T20:33:51Z

The numbers ‘twenty’ to ‘ninety’ end in ‘-ty’.
Where does this part come from?

While it’s now a suffix, ‘-ty’ stems from a Proto-Germanic noun meaning “decade, a (group of) ten”.

For example, ‘forty’ comes from *fedwōr tegiwiz, literally “four tens”.

Only Icelandic, Swedish, and Elfdalian have preserved this word as a noun.

Click my new graphic to learn all about ‘-ty’ and its relatives:

The English verb ‘to see’ is very distantly related to the ...

2026-03-01T19:08:33Z

The English verb ‘to see’ is very distantly related to the verb ‘to sue’ – and also to ‘segue’, ‘second’ and ‘sequence’.

Via Germanic and Latin, they all come from a Proto-Indo-European root whose meaning can be reconstructed as “to follow”.

In Germanic, this meaning shifted to “to follow with the eyes”.

Click my new graphic to learn more.

As the graphic shows, the Proto-Indo-European root that’s at the basis of these words is *sekʷ- (“to follow”). Through derivatives of its Latin ... 1/

The French word ‘aujourd’hui’ (today) consists of four ...

2026-02-22T18:54:48Z

The French word ‘aujourd’hui’ (today) consists of four words: ‘au’ (on the), ‘jour’ (day), ‘de’ (of), and ‘hui’ (today). It was formed in Middle French during the late Middle Ages.

However, many Romance adverbs and prepositions come from even older combinations - and some of them are hardly identifiable as such anymore.

Click my two new graphics to explore the origin of words such as ‘adelante’, ‘encore’, and ‘dedans’.

When I opened a pdf containing a scanned 505-page volume of a ...

2026-02-22T15:54:33Z

When I opened a pdf containing a scanned 505-page volume of a Spanish etymological dictionary, Adobe Acrobat Reader recommended that I "save time by reading a summary using AI Assistant". 🫠

When I published yesterday's infographic about the origin of ...

2026-02-19T15:43:37Z

When I published yesterday's infographic about the origin of the word 'friend', people were surprised that it's related to the first part of 'Friday' and its cognates, such as German 'Freitag' and Dutch 'vrijdag'. As my graphic explained, this part stems from the Proto-Germanic goddess name *Frijjō, which in Old Norse became 'Frigg'.

Several people expressed their disbelief and some even said I was wrong, claiming that 'Friday' contains 'Frey(j)a' instead. Sadly, that's a myth that's ... 1/

The verb ‘to worry’ has some surprising family members. ...

2026-02-04T19:19:29Z

The verb ‘to worry’ has some surprising family members.

Within Germanic, it’s a cognate of German ‘würgen’ and Dutch ‘wurgen’, which mean “to strangle”.

That’s what ‘wyrġan’, the Old English ancestor of ‘to worry’, meant too. My infographic shows how this meaning evolved.

A little further down the family line, these words are related to Latin ‘urgēre’ (“to press”), which gave English ‘urgent’.

Click my new graphic to learn more:

The word ‘outrage’ consists of neither ‘out’ nor ...

2026-01-25T19:08:33Z

The word ‘outrage’ consists of neither ‘out’ nor ‘rage’.

Instead, it comes from an Old French word for “excess” stemming from a combination of Latin ‘ultrā’ and a suffix that became ‘-age’.

‘Outrage’ used to be pronounced /outridge/, just like ‘garbage’ is /garbidge/, but it was influenced by the etymologically unrelated word ‘rage’ – as if it had the structure of words such as ‘outcry’ and ‘outburst’.

Zoom in on my new graphic to learn all about ‘outrage’ and ‘rage’.

1/

The brown word family on the right has many more members we know ...

2026-01-19T19:57:27Z

The brown word family on the right has many more members we know and love.

'Saw', for instance, comes from Proto-Germanic *sagō, another derivative of the root *sek-.

*Sek- also bore the Latin verb 'secāre', whose derivatives were borrowed by English: 'segment', 'section', 'intersect', 'dissect' and many others.

quoting
nevent1q…232x
Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.

‘Meteseax’ was a compound of two words. The first one was ‘mete’ (“food”), the ancestor of ‘meat’, whose meaning was later narrowed.

The other one was ‘seax’, which meant “sword” and is related to ‘Saxon’ and the surname ‘Sax’, on which the word ‘saxophone’ was based.

Zoom in on my new graphic to learn more.

‘Meteseax’ would’ve become ... 1/

Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ...

2026-01-18T18:48:17Z

Old English had two words for “knife”: ‘cnīf’ (the ancestor of ‘knife’) and ‘meteseax’.

‘Meteseax’ was a compound of two words. The first one was ‘mete’ (“food”), the ancestor of ‘meat’, whose meaning was later narrowed.

The other one was ‘seax’, which meant “sword” and is related to ‘Saxon’ and the surname ‘Sax’, on which the word ‘saxophone’ was based.

Zoom in on my new graphic to learn more.

‘Meteseax’ would’ve become ... 1/

The word ‘phantom’ stems from the same root as ‘photo’, ...

2026-01-10T19:29:57Z

The word ‘phantom’ stems from the same root as ‘photo’, ‘phase’, ‘phenomenon’, ‘fantasy’, and ‘fancy’.

The reconstructed meaning of this root is “to shine”.

Many words were derived from it.

It’s their Ancient Greek descendants that ultimately became the words above.

On their journeys – some of which went through Latin and Old French – their forms and meanings changed.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn all about this fantastic word family.

The English word ‘shirt’ has the same origin as ‘skirt’. ...

2025-12-28T18:59:09Z

The English word ‘shirt’ has the same origin as ‘skirt’.

While ‘shirt’ directly stems from Proto-Germanic *skurtijōn, ‘skirt’ was borrowed from its Old Norse descendant.

Here’s number 10 in my doublet series: English doublets with a Germanic origin.

Tomorrow: German.

I started this series with English doublets that have a Latin origin. Here’s the link to that post:
https://toot.community/@yvanspijk/115747696277790852

The Dutch words ‘zolder’ (“attic”) and ‘solarium’ ...

2025-12-27T19:04:07Z

The Dutch words ‘zolder’ (“attic”) and ‘solarium’ (“tanning salon”) are doublets: they both stem from Latin ‘sōlārium’ (“roof terrace”).

Dutch ‘solarium’ comes from English, which in turn borrowed it from Latin in the nineteenth century.

‘Zolder’ entered the language at least fifteen centuries earlier: it was borrowed from spoken Latin into Proto-West Germanic, the distant ancestor of Dutch, English, German and others.

Here’s number 9 in my series: Dutch doublets from Latin.

1/

The Catalan word ‘metzina’ means “poison”. It stems from ...

2025-12-25T18:45:37Z

The Catalan word ‘metzina’ means “poison”. It stems from the same Latin word as Catalan ‘medicina’, meaning “medicine”.

‘Metzina’ was inherited from spoken Latin. Its form and meaning changed a lot over the centuries.

‘Medicina’, on the other hand, is a late borrowing from written Latin.

Pairs like this are called doublets.

Here’s episode 7 of my doublet series: Catalan.

Next in line is Galician.

I’ve always found Portuguese a fascinating language. One of the ...

2025-12-23T19:08:01Z

I’ve always found Portuguese a fascinating language.

One of the reasons is that it put the words it inherited from spoken Latin through a lot of interesting sound changes.

This becomes extra clear when you compare them to borrowings of the same Latin word.

For instance, ‘chão’ (floor) and ‘plano’ (map; surface) both come from Latin ‘plānum’.

Pairs like this are called doublets.

Here’s episode five of my ten-part series on doublets. Next: Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Dutch, and English.

Poverty can be quite a headache. That’s why ‘micragna’, the ...

2025-12-22T18:53:34Z

Poverty can be quite a headache. That’s why ‘micragna’, the Italian descendant of Latin ‘hēmicrānia’ (migraine), evolved to mean “poverty”.

Later, ‘hēmicrānia’ was also borrowed from written Latin, becoming Italian ‘emicrania’ (migraine).

This means ‘micragna’ and ‘emicrania’ are now doublets, a pair of words having exactly the same ancestor.

Here’s episode four of my ten-part series on doublets.

Stay tuned for Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Dutch, and English.

1/

Most Spanish words come from Latin, but did you know there are ...

2025-12-21T18:36:40Z

Most Spanish words come from Latin, but did you know there are two different groups?

There are words that Spanish inherited from spoken Latin, but also words that it borrowed from written Latin during the Middle Ages and after.

Some took both routes, creating doublets. For instance, both ‘hablar’ (to speak) and ‘fabular’ (to make up) come from Latin ‘fābulāre’.

Here’s episode three in my ten-part series on doublets. Next: Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Dutch, and English.

The French word ‘employer’ (to emploi) has the same origin as ...

2025-12-20T17:30:15Z

The French word ‘employer’ (to emploi) has the same origin as ‘impliquer’ (to imply).

‘Employer’ was inherited from Latin ‘implicāre’, evolving along with the language and undergoing all sound changes that turned Latin into French, while ‘impliquer’ was borrowed from written Latin during the late Middle Ages.

They’re called doublets.

Click below to zoom in on the second installment in series.

Stay tuned for Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Dutch, and English.

1/

A lot of English words ultimately stem from Latin. But did you ...

2025-12-19T18:41:21Z

A lot of English words ultimately stem from Latin. But did you know there are Latin words that ended up in English two times - in two different forms?

One example is 'trāditiōnem': it became both 'treason' and 'tradition'. Pairs like this are called doublets.

Here's the first installment in my ten-part series on doublets.

Over the next nine days, you'll see charts with doublets in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Dutch, and lastly English again.

The word ‘whore’ is etymologically related to ‘charity’, ...

2025-12-18T19:51:09Z

The word ‘whore’ is etymologically related to ‘charity’, ‘to caress’, and ‘to cherish’, as well as Romance words such as French ‘cher’ and Spanish ‘caro’, which mean “dear”.

They all stem from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning “desired; loved”.

In the distant Germanic past of English, the meaning of the ancestor of ‘whore’ took some interesting turns.

Zoom in on my new graphic to discover the story of this word family.

1/

Some people vocally oppose using ‘data’ and ‘panini’ as ...

2025-12-12T19:18:34Z

Some people vocally oppose using ‘data’ and ‘panini’ as singular nouns, saying these words are plural because they come from Latin and Italian plural nouns.

That’s true, but that also goes for the ancestors of ‘marvel’ and ‘joy’: they used to be plural too – but that’s so long ago that nobody bats an eyelid anymore.

‘Peas’ and ‘skates’, on the other hand, used to be singulars, but nowadays we only know them as plurals.

This is called reanalysis. Zoom in on my new graphic to learn more:

What’s the most succesful Germanic colour word? Surprisingly, ...

2025-12-03T18:46:46Z

What’s the most succesful Germanic colour word?

Surprisingly, it’s the dullest of them all: West Germanic *grīs (“grey”) was borrowed into the early Romance languages, becoming ‘gris’ in languages such as French, Spanish and Catalan, and ‘grigio’ in Italian.

In the modern Germanic languages it’s known as Dutch ‘grijs’ and German ‘greis’ (“aged”).

English ‘grey/gray’ looks alike, but it has a different origin: it’s related to German ‘grau’ and Scandinavian ‘grå’.

Zoom in to learn more.

1/

Heel blij met Gaston Dorrens recensie van mijn nieuwe boek ...

2025-12-01T12:46:55Z

Heel blij met Gaston Dorrens recensie van mijn nieuwe boek 'Woord voor woord: de verleden tijd van taal'!

"(...) die kleurige diagrammen van Van Spijk en Huntelaar. Daar kun je je eigen nieuwsgierigheid volgen, je eigen accenten leggen, met een glunderende wijsvinger van het Italiaans naar het Zweeds schaatsen en dan weer door naar het Nedersaksisch."

https://neerlandistiek.nl/2025/12/etymologie-van-zwaar-naar-zwierig/

Wil je met Sinterklaas een taalliefhebber verrassen - of juist ...

2025-11-25T17:06:16Z

Wil je met Sinterklaas een taalliefhebber verrassen - of juist een taalliefhebber van iemand máken?

Dan hebben Onze Taal en ik het ideale cadeau voor in de schoen: mijn nieuwe boek 'Woord voor woord: de verleden tijd van taal'.

Te koop in de winkel en online:
https://onzetaalwebwinkel.nl/woord-voor-woord

The English word ‘blue’ is a horse of a different colour. ...

2025-11-23T17:34:14Z

The English word ‘blue’ is a horse of a different colour.

While ‘blue’ is related to the words in its Germanic sister languages, such as German ‘blau’ and Swedish ‘blå’, it took a different route.

Its Germanic ancestor was loaned to French, where it became ‘bleu’, and then borrowed into English.

This new infographic, the second episode of the colour series, also shows the family tree of ‘green’.

Interestingly, ‘green’ is closely related to ... 1/

The English word ‘yellow’ is related to Dutch ‘geel’ and ...

2025-11-19T18:42:09Z

The English word ‘yellow’ is related to Dutch ‘geel’ and German ‘gelb’, but their ends are quite different. Why?

Their common West Germanic ancestor had different stems for different grammatical case forms.

‘Yellow’ and ‘gelb’ come from the stem that was used in most cases, which had a w, while ‘geel’ continues the w-less nominative case.

My first infographic in a four-part series of Germanic colour words tells you all about it:

The English word ‘brief’ means “short”, while German ...

2025-11-11T18:17:27Z

The English word ‘brief’ means “short”, while German ‘Brief’ and Dutch ‘brief’ mean “letter” – and yet they have the same origin.

These words all stem from Latin ‘brevis’, meaning “short”. The Latin combination ‘brevis libellus’ meant “short writing”.

In this sense, ‘brevis’ was borrowed into the ancestor of the West Germanic languages, while English ‘brief’ comes from the Old French descendant of ‘brevis’.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn all about the journey these words made:

The German word ‘Pferd’ and its Dutch cognate ‘paard’ are ...

2025-11-04T18:41:41Z

The German word ‘Pferd’ and its Dutch cognate ‘paard’ are horses of mixed breed parentage.

Their common ancestor came from Latin ‘paraverēdus’ (meaning “substitute post-horse”). This word, in turn, was composed of the Ancient Greek prefix ‘para-’ and the Gaulish cognate of Welsh ‘gorwydd’.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn everything about it:

The English word ‘to hear’ stems from the same root as ...

2025-10-19T17:58:22Z

The English word ‘to hear’ stems from the same root as ‘acoustic’.

They don’t share any sound, so how can they be related?

‘To hear’ was inherited from Proto-Germanic, while ‘acoustic’ was borrowed from Ancient Greek.

These languages have a common ancestor, but their sounds developed very differently.

Zoom in on my new graphic to learn how it went:

The word ‘word’ is etymologically related to the word ...

2025-10-13T18:14:12Z

The word ‘word’ is etymologically related to the word ‘verb’.

‘Word’ was inherited from Proto-Germanic.

‘Verb’, on the other hand, was borrowed from Latin ‘verbum’, which also simply meant “word”.

They have a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor, which has descendants in the Baltic languages as well.

Zoom in on my new infographic to learn more:

Afgelopen zaterdag om vier uur is mijn nieuwe boek 'Woord ...

2025-10-13T12:31:25Z

Afgelopen zaterdag om vier uur is mijn nieuwe boek 'Woord voor woord: de verleden tijd van taal' officieel gelanceerd op het Taalfeest in TivoliVredenburg.

Twee quizwinnaars en vele tientallen kopers gingen naar huis met gesigneerdere exemplaren. Intussen is het boek ook al bij internetbestellers op de deurmat geland.

Ik ben heel benieuwd wat de lezers ervan zullen vinden!

@nprofile…tcx3 @nprofile…qun5 I did. 😊 ...

2025-10-12T12:17:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…4g6x
_________________________

nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqhag5k3ggat0rz4u7zy7hhwxhp9euse6w475uhyzsz94q9cp8r44qfftcx3 (nprofile…tcx3) nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqgwdgsr5dm5z3m2fxz4ulgq2cej0th92ceqefzqyqgqawycj00hcqm7qun5 (nprofile…qun5)
I did. 😊
https://toot.community/@yvanspijk/115360212858134496

Morgen, vooralsnog tussen 12.15 en 12.45 uur, vertel ik over mijn ...

2025-10-10T13:59:55Z

Morgen, vooralsnog tussen 12.15 en 12.45 uur, vertel ik over mijn nieuwe boek 'Woord voor woord: de verleden tijd van taal' bij Frits Spits in De Taalstaat op NPO Radio 1. Uiteraard laten we allerlei verrassende taalweetjes langskomen.

Why do so many French words end in a silent x? ‘Cheveux’, ...

2025-10-07T15:08:46Z

Why do so many French words end in a silent x?
‘Cheveux’, ‘voix’, ‘paix’, ‘deux’, ‘mieux’, ‘faux’, ‘doux’ – the list is endless.

There’s a fascinating story behind this x’s – or actually two stories.

Click and zoom in on my new graphic to read about medieval abbreviations and imitating Latin:

1/

Dinsdag verschijnt mijn tweede boek, 'Woord voor woord: de ...

2025-10-03T14:34:46Z

Dinsdag verschijnt mijn tweede boek, 'Woord voor woord: de verleden tijd van taal'. Daarin vind je onder andere 70 grote infographics.

Vandaag is het tijd voor preview nr. 2: 'Een suikerreis'. Ons woord 'suiker' klinkt even Nederlands als 'duiker' en 'ruiker', maar het stamt uit het Sanskriet, de klassieke taal van India. Door de handel reisde het woord samen met de zoete substantie via Zuid-Europa naar de Lage Landen - en het is ook nog eens verwant aan 'saccharine'!

The word ‘male’ is etymologically related to ‘macho’, but ...

2025-10-03T13:07:47Z

The word ‘male’ is etymologically related to ‘macho’, but it’s unrelated to ‘female’.

‘Male’ comes from the French descendant of Latin ‘masculus’ (male), while ‘macho’ arrived in English via Spanish.

These are also related to ‘masculine’ – and perhaps even to ‘mastʋrbate’.

Click to read more:

@nprofile…tcx3 @nprofile…xeru @nprofile…raqw ...

2025-08-04T18:44:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…h6dx
_________________________

nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqhag5k3ggat0rz4u7zy7hhwxhp9euse6w475uhyzsz94q9cp8r44qfftcx3 (nprofile…tcx3) nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpq470eejvk3fdzrmqljjmy87yvq2neq56fx2ey2rm3tp9rgqa99ufsvrxeru (nprofile…xeru) nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqwfd8tvaax7xly23w7gxztfu529y4njewmksdtvteky2jasfmuqxqgcraqw (nprofile…raqw) nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqtsp5asqs52wsxgyw7x6vm703j6s80nz6pspv5mqxln2fa0693tysg7ts4g (nprofile…ts4g) nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqk4f2hs54vgvld4nvgszp2yvrc73s6cz6qws9cp4z7yllqht02uws7q6ekj (nprofile…6ekj)

Wat tof om te lezen, Eelco! Dank je wel! Ik durf nergens op te hopen met vier zulke sterke mededingers...

Italian is a weird language when it comes to its word for ...

2025-07-17T18:35:37Z

Italian is a weird language when it comes to its word for "us".

In all major Romance languages, the word for "us" stems from Latin 'nōs', for example Spanish 'nos' and French 'nous'.

Italian, by contrast, uses an entirely different word: 'ci'.

My new infographic tells you the story of 'ci' and other plural pronouns:

What's your *alīnabugô? It's the reconstruction of what ...

2025-07-13T14:47:46Z

What's your *alīnabugô?

It's the reconstruction of what people speaking Proto-Germanic, the distant ancestor of English, called an elbow 2000 years ago.

Here's my second set of 4 graphics showing 16 body parts in Proto-Germanic and its major medieval and modern daughter languages.

Please note that these graphics focus on etymology instead of meaning. Some of the modern words have (slightly) different meanings than their ancestor. An example of this in English is ... 1/

The English word 'fee' has the same ancestor as German ...

2025-06-16T16:25:57Z

The English word 'fee' has the same ancestor as German 'Vieh', Dutch 'vee', and Swedish 'fä', which all mean 'cattle'.

More distantly, these words are related to 'feudal', 'fief', and even 'peculiar'.

Other members of this huge word family include Italian 'pecora' (sheep), Latin 'pecūnia' (money), and Sanskrit 'páśu' (cattle).

My new graphic tells you how exactly these words are related, why their means appear to be so different, and how 'fee' could get its current meanings.

'To load' isn't etymologically related to German ...

2025-06-03T16:58:45Z

'To load' isn't etymologically related to German 'laden' and Danish 'lade', even though these words look so similar and mean "to load" too.

Their actual English cognate is the rare word 'to lade', whose past participle 'laden' is used with the meanings "heavy; loaded".

'Load' comes from an unrelated word originally meaning "way, course".

However, when in Middle English it became similar to the ancestor of 'to lade', it was influenced by its meaning.

My graphic tells you all about it.

Certain speakers of English don't pronounce 'white' ...

2025-05-28T18:23:40Z

Certain speakers of English don't pronounce 'white' as WITE but as HWITE.

You'll hear this in parts of Ireland, Scotland and the southeastern US.

This pronunciation is a relic of an older stage of English, when it even had HL, HN and HR.

Click my video to hear how these sounds developed:

1/

The word 'pope' comes from a word meaning ...

2025-05-21T17:18:50Z

The word 'pope' comes from a word meaning "daddy".

'Pope' ultimately stems from Ancient Greek 'páppas', a children's word that meant "daddy, papa".

In Medieval Greek, it evolved to mean "father" and then "priest".

Later, after having been borrowed into Latin, its meaning became "bishop" and ultimately "bishop of Rome", i.e. "pope".

Click the graphic for more.

The Spanish words 'año' ('year') and ...

2025-05-18T18:27:45Z

The Spanish words 'año' ('year') and 'España' ('Spain') contain the letter ñ, which is called eñe.

It comes from a double nn. One of the n's was abbreviated as a squiggle on top of the other: ñ.

For instance, 'año' comes from Latin 'annum' with nn.

However, 'puño', 'España' and 'viña' come from 'pūgnum', 'Hispāniam' and 'vīneam', which didn't have nn.

My graphic explains how they got their ñ:

The word 'god' underwent a gender change. It comes from ...

2025-05-16T16:40:17Z

The word 'god' underwent a gender change.

It comes from the Proto-Germanic noun *gudan, which is reconstructed as neuter, based on Old English, Old Norse and Gothic - encompassing West, North and East Germanic - where its descendants still had a grammatically neuter form.

The masculine gender of the descendants of *gudan was introduced by Christianity.

Click my graphic to learn more.

English 'wood', Dutch 'woud', and German ...

2025-05-09T16:57:19Z

English 'wood', Dutch 'woud', and German 'Wald' can all mean "forest".

However, despite their similar forms, 'wood' is not in any way etymologically related to 'woud' or 'Wald'.

'Woud' and 'Wald', which do have a common ancestor, are related to English 'wold' instead.

Click my graphic for more.

On my Patreon, I explain how Old English 'widu' could become 'wudu' (400 words):
https://www.patreon.com/posts/128532757

2/ Here is a clickable link to Danny Bate's article on the ...

2025-05-03T17:13:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…jupq
_________________________

2/

Here is a clickable link to Danny Bate's article on the fascinating nasal infix:

https://dannybate.com/2021/05/16/latins-nasal-infix-a-how-to-guide/

The words 'fiction' and 'dough' derive from the ...

2025-05-03T17:12:55Z

The words 'fiction' and 'dough' derive from the same root.

They stem from a Proto-Indo-European root that meant "to knead" and "to shape".

'Fiction' came to English through Latin and French. Its meaning now denotes something that's shaped by the mind.

'Dough', something that's kneaded, was inherited from Germanic.

Click the graphic to see the journeys these words took.

Sueño & sueño: sleep & dream In Spanish, 'tengo un ...

2025-04-18T18:25:29Z

Sueño & sueño: sleep & dream

In Spanish, 'tengo un sueño' means "I have a dream". In contrast, 'tengo sueño' – without 'un' – means "I’m sleepy", literally "I have sleep". Why does 'sueño' mean both "sleep" and "dream" – two very different things?

It’s because 'sueño' and 'sueño' are actually different words – with a different etymology. Their cognates in the other major Romance languages are still distinct.

My new graphic explains how Spanish ended up with one single form: 'sueño'.

Microsoft vertaalt zijn apps vrolijk met machinevertaling, want ...

2025-04-18T15:08:05Z

Microsoft vertaalt zijn apps vrolijk met machinevertaling, want wat maakt het ook allemaal uit?