The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European RootsThere are no direct records of the original Indo-European speech. By comparing the vocabularies of its various descendants, however, it is possible to reconstruct the basic Indo-European roots with considerable confidence. In The Origins of English Words, Shipley catalogues these proposed roots and follows the often devious, always fascinating, process by which some of their offshoots have grown. Anecdotal, eclectic, and always enthusiastic, The Origins of English Words is a diverting expedition beyond linguistics into literature, history, folklore, anthropology, philosophy, and science. |
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Page xi
Readers familiar with the Bible will remember the three sons of Noah , whose descendants spread through the known world . From Shem came the Semites , Arabs and Jews . The children of Ham went into Egypt and down the African continent .
Readers familiar with the Bible will remember the three sons of Noah , whose descendants spread through the known world . From Shem came the Semites , Arabs and Jews . The children of Ham went into Egypt and down the African continent .
Page xviii
Consonant Shiftings Many of the consonantal variations have been set into a pattern known as Grimm's Law , established in 1822 by the fairy tale man , Jakob Grimm . Here it is , as applied to English . Words that in early times began ...
Consonant Shiftings Many of the consonantal variations have been set into a pattern known as Grimm's Law , established in 1822 by the fairy tale man , Jakob Grimm . Here it is , as applied to English . Words that in early times began ...
Page xx
Latin prunum became Anglo - Saxon plum be- fore it came again into the language as prune . Agatha Christie , in Elephants Can Remember , speaks of twin sisters Dorothy and Margaret , " known colloquially as Dolly and Molly .
Latin prunum became Anglo - Saxon plum be- fore it came again into the language as prune . Agatha Christie , in Elephants Can Remember , speaks of twin sisters Dorothy and Margaret , " known colloquially as Dolly and Molly .
Page xxiv
Well known is his one - time honorificabilitudinitatibus , with its long alternation of consonants and vowels . Less well known is the fact that of the 17,677 words Shakespeare used in his works , well over 1700 are recorded there for ...
Well known is his one - time honorificabilitudinitatibus , with its long alternation of consonants and vowels . Less well known is the fact that of the 17,677 words Shakespeare used in his works , well over 1700 are recorded there for ...
Page xxvi
This process , known as euphemism , has changed many an unpleasant word , and it still func- tions in many forms . Behind a woman's back , one might remark that her face would stop a clock ; to her , it would be more diplomatic to ...
This process , known as euphemism , has changed many an unpleasant word , and it still func- tions in many forms . Behind a woman's back , one might remark that her face would stop a clock ; to her , it would be more diplomatic to ...
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The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots Joseph Twadell Shipley No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
ancient animal applied bhel bird called caput coined columns comes compounds dheigh dheigh N dheu earlier early earth element ending England English especially figuratively four French frequent genus gher gives Greek hand head hence horse human imitative Italy John King kleu known Latin letters lists literally live Lord meaning meant nebh Note one's onomen originally perhaps person plant play plek Possibly prefix probably Roman root says sense Shakespeare shape song sound speaks stand ster suer term things tree turn ueid usually whence woman words beginning
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots |
| Author | Joseph Twadell Shipley |
| Edition | reprint |
| Publisher | JHU Press, 2001 |
| ISBN | 0801867843, 9780801867842 |
| Length | 672 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |