Uh. Huh. Just stumbled across the etymologies of both "Carlyle" and "Hodr" in my last 20 minutes of work before going to bed to read some @adapalmer.bsky.social. Turns out the "ly" in "Carlyle" refers to the god Lugus/Lugh/Llew. A name with which men had honored their Creator in ages past...

Huh. "hag" and "hex" come from West Germanic *hagatussjā; the first element of has been proposed to be *hagô: "enclosure, pasture" (a close relative of *hagjō: "hedge"). So "hedge-witch" may have been re-coined after almost 2000 years!

Looking at the tree genus name "Octomeles" (Proto Western Malayo-Polynesian *bVnuaŋ) "eight ... badgers?... oh, probably μέλος, eight-limbed!"

I've been enjoying seeing everyone's reading recaps. I didn't keep records, but here are some books I remember reading over the year, in rough order: Trying to review would just mean I didn't get this out, but feel free to ask questions about what I think of any of them. Spoiler: love all of these.

If you're home for the holidays, it can lead to tough conversations with family members. Like, "when Shah Muhammad II of Khwarazmia egregiously provoked Temujin, leading to the conquest of Khwarazmia, was that because the Qara Khitai had supported Muhammad's father in his succession struggle?"

Ice candle and sparklers for solstice

Latin "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" from Proto-Indo-European 1. *dyew-: "to be bright, sky, heaven" 2. *ǵenh₁-: "to produce, to beget, to give birth" 3. *sóh₂wl̥/*sh₂wéns: "sun" 4. *ne: "not" 5. *weyk-: "to overcome"

Stumbled on this Wanderwort cloud for "pomegranate" Hurrian 𒉡𒊏𒀭𒋾 <nu-ra-an-ti> Middle Persian 𐭠𐭭𐭠𐭫 <anar> Arabic رمان <rummān> Old Chinese 榴 <*m·ru> Sanskrit <dāḷima> www.aidanem.com/images/word_... (let's try this again, less rushed)

Stumbled on this Wanderwort cloud for "pomegranate"

By the way, the feminine name "Lois" does not appear to be related! It comes from Paul's Second Epistle to Timothy. Timothy's mother and grandmother are Εὐνίκῃ (Eunice) and Λωΐς (Lois) respectively. So in context, this appears to be a Greek name, but with afaik no other attestations or explanation.

Courtesy of @dreamsofvenus.bsky.social 😆

Reading about the conflict between Ludovico Sforza of Milan and Lois of Orleans (later Louis XII of France and III of Naples). And thinking:

Updated www.aidanem.com/word-family-...

Spanish "vaca" and "vaquero" are exactly as expected from Latin "vacca": "cow" and *vaccarius: "person who works with cows", and compare to Italian "vacca"/"vaccaio", and Romanian "vacă"/"văcar", so "vaquero" is not from Arabic. 🧵

I’m currently on my second read through of Palmer’s _Inventing the Renaissance_ and jonesing for third reading of Terra Ignota. And not very patiently awaiting _Hearthfire_…

Hands, do what you’re bid Bring the balloon of the mind That bellies and drags in the wind Into its narrow shed.

Eight years ago I made a collection of counterfactual cognates to "animatronic" (it was the 3.5yo's favorite word). I've rederived some of them with some more experience: Proto-Indo-European *henamotromikos Welsh "endrog" Old Irish "anumtharach" English "ondary" Proto-Norse "ᚨᛞᚨᚦᚱᚨᚷᛉ"

Most used words like "related", "greek", "latin", "english", "germanic", "family", "possibly", and "borrowing" Emojis 😄😆😁😀🙃😂🧵 Interactions @mattboot.bsky.social @dannybate.bsky.social @yvanspijk.bsky.social @bnuyaminim.bsky.social and others

US Census just came by to interview me about housing statistics. There was a question "Does anyone use a language other than English at home (Count American Sign Languages as English)?" 🙃 See shows.acast.com/a-language-i... where I complain about no one gathering census info about sign languages...

English "tram stop" translates into Vietnamese as "trạm xe điện". "xe điện": "tram" "trạm": "stop"

Farewell to bounced Czech Sir Tom Stoppard (né Tomáš Sträussler). May his memory be a blessing.

Story time! The star Betelgeuse gets its name from Arabic يد الجوزاء <Yad al-Jawzāʾ>: "Hand of Orion" (kind of, see below). In the 1200s this was misread as بد الجوزاء <Bad al-Jawzāʾ>, and was transliterated into Latin as "Bedalgeuze." 🧵 1/10

Thanksgiving reminds me that the $1 level of my patreon is "Þankō Þek", and there is a special where you get the $3 rewards currently patreon.com/aidanem

Living Languages of the Americas, a quick overview www.aidanem.com/living-langu... #IndigenousPeoplesDay

Another fun item in this family is the Gallo-Roman name Iulia Salicogenna—Julia Willowborn—recorded in a funeral inscription in Langres

The world met Ferdinand de Saussure on a night like this (in 1857) A presumed European substrate word *salik-/*selik-/*welik-: "willow" -> salicylic, Saussay/Saussure, sargasso, sallow, willow #WorldLinguisticsDay circumvent bsky image compression in the link

Happy World Linguistics Day from California!

Obviously this should read 1965-2024, not 165-2024 🙃 I do like old data, but published top names lists for the US do not go back to the Roman Principate

A chance comment sent me haring off on baby name data by year and first letter. I've loaded up the data for the US top 1000 names in each masculine and feminine per year for 165-2024 so far. Thread to keep statistical insights:

An interesting triple-double: Tenby, Denbigh, and Dunvegan—Proto-Celtic *Dunom Biggom/Biggagnom

Me * Looking at all the different etymologies for the name "Rohan" * Seeing the House of Rohan is from Mor-Bihan in Breizh * Realizing I don't have any coverage of Celtic *biggos: "small"

Fibonacci, "Son of Good-?"

My son misremembered "bibliophile" as "dʒibliophile"—apparently channeling from an alternate universe in which 𐤂𐤁𐤋 was known to the Greeks as Γύβλος, instead of assimilating the Βύβλος 😄

Thinking about "loup-garou" ("wolf-man-wolf"), and other words for werewolf

Racking my brain trying to think of ways to tell cool stories of sign language etymologies without having to learn to either make video or draw hands.

Latinate "quote" from PIE *kʷoti. Germanic doesn't have that, but it's the adverb of *kʷod -> Latin "quod" and English "what" Germanic "quoth" from PIE *gʷéteti. Latin doesn't have that, but the homophonous root gʷet- through p-Celtic or p-Italic gives Latin "bitumen" (Eng. "cud", ScGlc "bìth") 😄

Now past 5k English words and 10k reconstructed forms!

And any day where you get to put Commander Shepard and King Skerdilaidas in the same thread is a good day 😄

By Patreon request! This year, N7 day is a Friday, so we've got "Shepard". www.aidanem.com/word-family-... (Family of sheep not included ... it's a huge mess!)

Hey Guys! #FifthOfNovember

There is a street in Dublin called "Castle Avenue". In Irish it is "Ascaill an Chaisleáin". Since "ascaill" is descended from a borrowing of Latin "axilla", this is "Armpit of the Castle" 😆

Seven years ago my then-4yo requested "Witch" as a word family for Halloween 😄 www.aidanem.com/word-family-...

I present, the lenition hypercube

Script I wrote to find duplicates in my database asked me to review the pair: Pashto لس <las>: "ten" and Pashto لاس <lâs>: "hand" A fair question, but not even related 😆

The Taíno place name "Jamaica"/"Jamayca"/"Xamayca" is recorded as early as Pietro Martire d'Anghiera's _Decades of the New World_ published 1511-1521. ❤️ Jamaica

In some Aruthiran stories, Sir Gawain has a son named Gingalain/Giglan/Wigalois. Their names may be distantly related by way of Proto-Celtic *wolkos/*gʷolkos: "hawk?" 😄

Alright, team Bluesky: US foodbanks are about to have staggering demand when SNAP ends Nov 1st. We need to help them prepare. I'll match donations: DM or reply with a receipt showing your own donation to a food bank of your choice, and I'll donate to match, up to a total of $500. 💪🥗🍲🥚🥧🥪🥣🥛 #NoHunger

Oh hey. And here you can see an example of a kind of typo I do frequently: in typing "Aruthiran" 🙄 for "Arthurian", I have shifted all the vowels over one space relative to the consonants. In a Semitic-morphology kind of way of parallel lines that have to be interwoven.

In some Aruthiran stories, Sir Gawain has a son named Gingalain/Giglan/Wigalois. Their names may be distantly related by way of Proto-Celtic *wolkos/*gʷolkos: "hawk?" 😄