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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... person singular present tense of verbs; the plural and the possessive of nouns—and the total is magnified. The editors of the American Heritage Word Frequency Book (1971) counted over a million words, and found that the word the occurs ...
... person singular present tense of verbs; the plural and the possessive of nouns—and the total is magnified. The editors of the American Heritage Word Frequency Book (1971) counted over a million words, and found that the word the occurs ...
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... person trying to speak a foreign tongue, they have contributed to word formation: from French gentil, pronounced zhontee, has come English jaunty. Other odd shiftings play from tongue to tongue. English Alps is French Alpes. Little ...
... person trying to speak a foreign tongue, they have contributed to word formation: from French gentil, pronounced zhontee, has come English jaunty. Other odd shiftings play from tongue to tongue. English Alps is French Alpes. Little ...
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... persons seeking colorful variety may go right back to the viscera and exclaim, “That guy's got guts!” or may more learnedly speak of intestinal fortitude; conversely, one's bowels are loosed with fear. Names of living things begin with ...
... persons seeking colorful variety may go right back to the viscera and exclaim, “That guy's got guts!” or may more learnedly speak of intestinal fortitude; conversely, one's bowels are loosed with fear. Names of living things begin with ...
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... person or place, usually as a suffix: Lincolniana, Americana. Gc, on, onslaught. aloft. anlage. As a prefix, ana: up, again, anew; back, over again. OED has 35 columns of relevant words, from anabaptist to anatropous: “heels over head ...
... person or place, usually as a suffix: Lincolniana, Americana. Gc, on, onslaught. aloft. anlage. As a prefix, ana: up, again, anew; back, over again. OED has 35 columns of relevant words, from anabaptist to anatropous: “heels over head ...
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... person or thing connected with Oxford University, from OE Oxenaford, in the river there. Oxtail makes a good soup. A bull's-eye is the dark circle in the center of a target, marking an excellent shot. calf, OE cealf is a yearling; and ...
... person or thing connected with Oxford University, from OE Oxenaford, in the river there. Oxtail makes a good soup. A bull's-eye is the dark circle in the center of a target, marking an excellent shot. calf, OE cealf is a yearling; and ...
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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