This week (and probably next week) my etymology students and I will study the Greek and Latin words for, well, word.
I find it fascinating to take a look at every word we study in about ten different languages. All of these languages are somehow related to our very own English language.
Either they share in the history of our English word, or they are cousins. Linguistically.
As I said, we are looking at the word, word. Take a look at the lists. Notice the similarities? Here is word in about ten languages:
Our German cousins:
- Anglo-Saxon: word
- German: das Wort
- Dutch: woord
- Danish: ord
- Swedish: ord
Our Romantic cousins:
- Latin: verbum
- Old French: verbe
- French: la parole
- Spanish: la palabra
- Italian: la parola
- Esperanto: vorto
And, then, there is Greek:
- Greek: λόγος
From the Latin and Greek words, English derives dozens of words. Expect to see them popping up this week.
