The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European RootsJHU Press, 2001 M07 1 - 672 pages There 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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... endings of the root word. But by their roots ye shall know them. Sir William Jones (1745-1794), while a judge in Calcutta, declared: “No philologer can examine the Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, without believing them to have sprung from ...
... endings of the root word. But by their roots ye shall know them. Sir William Jones (1745-1794), while a judge in Calcutta, declared: “No philologer can examine the Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, without believing them to have sprung from ...
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... ending; it means not the study of flowers, but a bouquet, a garland, of words. Word ways, while usually explicable, are always unpredictable. The endings of words must be watched carefully for the changes they make in the root ...
... ending; it means not the study of flowers, but a bouquet, a garland, of words. Word ways, while usually explicable, are always unpredictable. The endings of words must be watched carefully for the changes they make in the root ...
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... ending in puram or pur, such as Mahabalipuram, Rampur, and the one that has come into English as the riding breeches and boots, the jodhpurs. In America, Minneapolis combines the Greek word for city with the Sioux word for water. In ...
... ending in puram or pur, such as Mahabalipuram, Rampur, and the one that has come into English as the riding breeches and boots, the jodhpurs. In America, Minneapolis combines the Greek word for city with the Sioux word for water. In ...
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... ending in the Latin suffix osus: full of, may come into English as bellicose, grandiose, verbose; or courageous, ostentatious, pious (full of piety). Usually the ose form is more learned, taken directly from the Latin, whereas the ous ...
... ending in the Latin suffix osus: full of, may come into English as bellicose, grandiose, verbose; or courageous, ostentatious, pious (full of piety). Usually the ose form is more learned, taken directly from the Latin, whereas the ous ...
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... ending in mania; even more-some 275-in phobia; yet these authors state that in no case is the compound with phobia “clearer, more convenient, more euphonious, or less ambiguous, than if the morbid fear had been characterized in English ...
... ending in mania; even more-some 275-in phobia; yet these authors state that in no case is the compound with phobia “clearer, more convenient, more euphonious, or less ambiguous, than if the morbid fear had been characterized in English ...
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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 associated beauty became bird body called coined color columns comes common compounds Dictionary earlier early earth element ending England English especially figuratively folkchanged four French frequent genus gives Greek hand head hence hold horse human imitative Italy John King known land language later Latin leaves letters light lists literally live Lord mark meaning meant mind nature never Note one’s originally perhaps person pictured plant play Possibly prefix probably referred Roman root says sense Shakespeare shape short shortened song sound speaks stand star suggested term things translation tree turn usually whence woman words beginning wrote young