I'm one of those people who always lose about half an hour each and every time I go to a real dictionary to look up a word. I look up "apiary" and from there to "apian" and notice "alpine" and I'm off. Thirty minutes later I've forgotten what I originally looked up. And often why.
I listen to a great number of podcasts (such as this one), including both Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day and Podictionary. I've noticed that both of those do something similar to what I do, but along a route that's harder to do using a standard dictionary.
They talk about a word and its etymology, then relate it to other words sharing the same root.
Is there a dictionary somewhere that you can look up words that have the same root? I could probably get lost in that one for an hour or more. I'm picturing something like a thesaurus, but instead of words being related by their meanings, you'd look up "finger" and find out that it came from an Indo-European root "pengke," and the follow THAT down to other words that derived from it.
So, is there such a beast out there? And if so, where might I find it?
I'll be watching this thread closely. I'm another dictionary reader, much to the chagrin of my children. "Mom! Are you reading the dictionary again?!"
I had a program like that for my mobile device, called "Lexionary". If you want to look it up, it's the first hit when you google ' "lexionary" and "revolutionary software front" '.
At first I was thrilled with what it promised, but the user interface was so cryptic and awkward, I eventually dumped it.
A Google search for "Lexionary" in general turns up a whole bunch of hacking-related hits (click once and wonder what federal watch lists you're now on) and a some religious links for "Lectionary". Need to find a better name for this product to search for others...
I remember when I was in school (shortly after the invention of the printing press) that the American Heritage dictionary I was fond of had, in an appendix, a list of Indo-European roots. It turns out there is a book that fills that need:
Watkins, Calvert, ed., The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000.
You can browse it here:
Peek inside the book
By going back to the Indo-European, you will see etymologies that take incredibly varied routes from the roots, and make connections you never dreamed of.
Thank you, Glenn! I'll definitely check that out.