You may not associate the word ‘flamingo’ with ‘phlegm’ and certainly not ‘blue’. But amazingly, they all come from the same original root word.
The same goes for ‘architect’ and its link to ‘dachshund’ – along with ‘science’ and its connection to ‘sh*t’.
A linguistics expert has revealed how seemingly unconnected words share the same roots in language from thousands of years ago.
Martin O’Leary spent hours researching etymology and showed, for example, that ‘architect’ and ‘dachshund’ are fourth cousins – spawned by the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) term ‘teks’ (‘to weave’).
PIE was the single ‘mother’ tongue from which all Indo-European languages descended and is thought to have originated on the steppes to the north of the Caspian Sea.
A linguistics expert has revealed how seemingly unconnected words share the same roots in language from thousands of years ago
Martin O’Leary spent hours researching etymology and showed, for example, that ‘architect’ and ‘dachshund’ are fourth cousins – spawned by the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) term ‘teks’ (‘to weave’)
PIE was the single ‘mother’ tongue from which all Indo-European languages descended and is thought to have originated on the steppes to the north of the Caspian Sea
It was last spoken between approximately 4,500 and 2,500 BC by our ancestors from all over Europe and Asia.
In the above instance, ‘teks’ eventually evolved into ‘dachs’ in German, meaning ‘badger’ – presumably as it is an animal that builds, in reference to its burrowing – before combining with ‘hund’ to give us the type of dog.
Words such as these, which share a common linguistic derivation, are known as cognates.
But this was its journey via just one branch of the linguistic tree.
Elsewhere, it descended via the Greek word ‘tekton’ – meaning ‘craftsman’ – and was combined with ‘arki’ (‘chief’) to finally give the present-day ‘architect’.
Other unexpected pairings include ‘bumpkin’ and ‘husband’ as well as ‘souffle’ and ‘bladder’.
Even swear words are linked to seemingly innocuous terms – such as ‘sh*t’ and ‘science’.
These are both derived from the PIE word ‘sek’, which first branched out to mean ‘split’ and ‘peel’; then came the divergent words ‘scire’ (Latin for ‘to know’) and Proto-Germanic ‘skit’ (‘to excrete’).
Explaining that ‘languages are bananas’, O’Leary posted a chart on Twitter revealing that the ancient term ‘bhel’ – to shine – eventually gave rise to the English words ‘blue’, ‘phlegm’ and ‘flamingo’.
Meanwhile ‘dhe’ – ‘to put’ – eventually transformed into ‘doom’, ‘orifice’ and ‘chauffeur’ after going through iterations in Latin, Greek and various European languages.
The graphs, which Mr O’Leary posted on Twitter, have now racked up thousands of retweets from fascinated viewers
As no texts exist from the time of Proto-Indo-European, linguists have struggled to fully reconstruct this original language
One person commented on Twitter: ‘Think this is amazing? You didn’t even include Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan words! That tree would be huge otherwise’
The graphs have now racked up thousands of retweets from fascinated Twitter users.
One wrote: ‘The fourth graph is fascinating; ‘text’, ‘technology’ and ‘architect’ are all etymologically connected.
‘I love linguistics. I studied a little at university. I found it so fascinating.’
Another user wrote: ‘Think this is amazing? You didn’t even include Indo-Iranian and Indo-Aryan words! That tree would be huge otherwise.’
But one said: ‘My poor dyslexic brain has shut down and gone into hibernation. So many words, so many meanings, so many spellings.’
Words such as these, which share a common linguistic derivation, are known as cognates
One user on Twitter said: ‘As a word nerd, I can only say these are the coolest things ever. Would love to hear a good lecture providing some context’
The final words goes to another Twitter commenter: ‘My poor dyslexic brain has shut down and gone into hibernation. So many words, so many meanings, so many spellings’