The English words “wheel” and “rickshaw” are extraordinary cognates

danl, 3 months ago

Cool post though I’m not fully onboard with the map implying the modern words came into form in America.

hakase, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

“Mead/honey” followed basically the exact same path, except for the final borrowing of the Japanese word back into English.

Proto-Indo-European *med^h^u > English “mead”
Proto-Indo-European *med^h^u > Tocharian B (not A) “mit” > Old Chinese “mit” > Japanese “hachi-mitsu” (bee-honey)

IoSapsai, 3 months ago

In most slavic languages it’s also “Med” or a cognate.

loputozirak, 3 months ago

catalan: mel

IoSapsai, 3 months ago

Same as Latin!

deegeese, 3 months ago

Also the source of the word ‘circle’