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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 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.
I've often used the online etymological dictionary at: http://www.etymonline.com/ and find it generally useful for questions like this.
Not sure if this is just a weird coincidence, or if there some etymology behind it, but I recently became aware of the fact that "paper clip" translates to "trombone" in Italian. When you think about it, a paper clip does kinda' share some of the geometry of a trombone. But I have no idea which was invented first (paper clip or trombone). Seems to me that, for an etymological connection, the (modern style) paper clip would have to be invented first, but that is counter-intuitive.
I was able to find online that the trombone was invented circa 1300, and evolved from the existing "slide trumpet." But could find no such info on the paper clip. Gutenberg did his thing in 1440. Did anyone even need paper clips before the printing press arrived?
You might also check Wiktionary. Certain ancient words on that site have lists of descendant words.
Example:
Appendix:Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe
Appendix:Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
Proto-Indo-European
This entry deals with Proto-Indo-European reconstructed forms, forms that are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.Etymology
Numeralpénkʷe (uninflected)
1. five
Descendants
* Albanian: pesë
* Anatolian:
o Luwian: paâ¿ta
* Armenian:
o Old Armenian: Õ°Õ«Õ¶Õ£ (hing)
+ Armenian: Õ°Õ«Õ¶Õ£ (hing)
* Baltic:
o Lithuanian: penki
o Latvian: pieci
o Old Prussian: pÄ“nkjÄi
* Celtic:
o Irish: cúig
o Scottish-Gaelic: còig
o Welsh: pump
* Proto-Germanic *fimfi
o Gothic: ð†ðŒ¹ðŒ¼ð† (fimf)
o Old English: fīf
+ English: five
o Old High German: fimf
+ German: fünf
o Old Norse: fimm
+ Danish: fem
+ Faroese: fimm
+ Icelandic: fimm
+ Norwegian: fem
+ Swedish: fem
o Old Saxon: fīf
+ Dutch: vijf
* Hellenic:
o Ancient Greek: Ï€Îντε (pénte)
+ Greek: Ï€Îντε (pénte)
* Indo-Iranian:
o Indo-Aryan:
+ Kashmiri: pÄ.~tsh
+ Sanskrit: पञà¥à¤šà¤¨à¥ (páñcan)
o Iranian:
+ Avestan: ð¬žð¬€ð¬§ð¬—𬀠(paṇÄa)
+ Ossetian: фондз (fondz)
+ Pashto: پنÚÙ‡ (panca)
+ Persian: پنج (panj)
o Kamviri: puÄ
* Italic:
o Latin: quinque
+ Catalan: cinc
+ Corsican: cinqui
+ French: cinq
+ Galician: cinco
+ Italian: cinque
+ Occitan: cinc
+ Portuguese: cinco
+ Romanian: cinci
+ Spanish: cinco
o Oscan: pompe
o Umbrian: pumpe
* Slavic:
o Old Church Slavonic: пѧть (pÄ™tÄ)
o Croatian: pet
o Czech: pět
o Serbian:
+ Roman: pet
+ Cyrillic: пет
o Slovene: pet
o Polish: pięć
o Russian: пÑÑ‚ÑŒ (pjat')
* Tocharian: päñ/piś
Heimhenge said:
But I have no idea which was invented first (paper clip or trombone). Seems to me that, for an etymological connection, the (modern style) paper clip would have to be invented first, but that is counter-intuitive.
The trombone was invented first. Not all paper clips look like the trombone slide; you are probably thinking of the "Gem" design: http://www.officemuseum.com/paper_clips.htm
Damn … a museum for paper clips! Who'da thunk?
So what you seem to be saying, in terms of the etymology, is that when the "gem style" paper clip was invented, the Italians needed a word for it and some Italian decided that "trombone" was the word they'd use? But according to the text on the link you sent, there were plenty of other paper clip designs, the first of which was introduced in 1867, and looked not at all like a "trombone." But it would have been at that point the need for the word would have arisen in Italian (or for that matter, all languages).
So now I'm even more puzzled by the Italian choice of "trombone" for "paper clip." You'd think that the Italians would have just used the two words that surely were already in existence: "paper" + "clip."
Is there a professional linguist in the house?
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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