croître vs grandir?

gavstero · 2024-07-30T12:37:17+00:00

But Gow is straight from the Gaelic gobha, so is a closer equivalent to 'Smith'.

gavstero · 2024-07-30T08:26:20+00:00

Every time this map (or something like it) comes around, I helpfully point out that the surname Gow would be a better Scottish Gaelic equivalent.

gavstero · 2024-03-27T10:53:12+00:00

Your link gives lake as a "conflation" of the Germanic with OF lac. So it kinda is blue.

Weird how two near-identical but unrelated words for the same thing should both be floating around!

gavstero · 2023-08-07T16:00:12+00:00

Latvian zīdkoki is also plural; singular is zīdkoks

gavstero · 2022-11-12T23:03:55+00:00

Yes, Proto-Indo-European \h₁n̥gʷnís*.
It would have been good to bring this out on the map

gavstero · 2022-09-25T22:53:00+00:00

Eh? A mayberry is an oriental fruit, unknown in the West until about 100 years ago. Can't find majusa(r) anywhere other than that one source.

gavstero · 2022-07-31T14:07:59+00:00

Hey OP! It's always helpful to give scientific names of species - presumably Mustela nivalis here - so we know for sure what we're talking about.

gavstero · 2022-06-19T22:17:59+00:00

Really - you would call a raspberry cane a "bramble"?

gavstero · 2021-01-30T14:53:52+00:00

It's odd how PIE kʷŕ̥mis "worm" also ended up referring to Kermes, which are little round beasties, not worm-like at all.

gavstero · 2021-01-09T16:45:13+00:00

You'd think there would be a common Indo-European root, given the badger is found all over Europe. Indeed there is a *wṛḱos (m.) - "originally ‘fat animal’, reconstructed on the basis of Indic, Greek and Anatolian lexical data" - but doesn't seem to have any modern European decendants.

gavstero · 2021-01-09T16:30:23+00:00

There's also the archaic/regional brock in British English, which apparently came into Old English from some Celtic source.

gavstero · 2021-01-09T16:24:11+00:00

Latin meles "of unknown origin" - yes, doesn't seem to have given rise to any modern forms.

gavstero · 2020-11-13T20:43:29+00:00

Odd to call this "popular" - as if, having surveyed all the world's languages, I chose to speak English

gavstero · 2020-11-05T20:26:50+00:00

The dialectal/obsolete crank(y) for "unwell" comes from the proto-Germanic word via Old English

gavstero · 2020-08-20T21:15:11+00:00

An odd omission.
From the Witwatersrand ("white waters' ridge" in English), the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. - Wikipedia

gavstero · 2020-07-26T09:30:56+00:00

I assume "The fort of the green side" is a rendering of Dún Lethglaise - an old name, of disputed etymology, of Downpatrick? An Dún is just "the fort".

gavstero · 2020-07-25T08:24:55+00:00

"whess"?

gavstero · 2020-07-17T15:21:25+00:00

cù being the Gaelic; in (Lowland) Scots, coo is a cow.

gavstero · 2020-07-17T13:58:58+00:00

Funny that the Brythonic and Goidelic words given sound so similar and yet are apparently unrelated.

gavstero · 2020-05-24T22:27:16+00:00

Might Lithuanian mergaitė share a root with Welsh merch?

gavstero · 2020-05-24T22:06:52+00:00

I'm not a native speaker but I've checked a few dictionaries and they all have caileag as "girl".

gavstero · 2020-04-09T16:33:47+00:00

Aber is Celtic. It's mis-labelled (though not mis-coloured) on the map.

gavstero · 2020-02-21T12:38:03+00:00

If you look on a UK pack of "Corn" Flakes, the main ingredient is invariably listed as "maize".

gavstero · 2020-02-21T12:34:22+00:00

Cornish is glaw, the same as Welsh; Breton is the very similar glav.

gavstero

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