The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European RootsThere are no direct records of the original Indo-European speech. By comparing the vocabularies of its various descendants, however, it is possible to reconstruct the basic Indo-European roots with considerable confidence. In The Origins of English Words, Shipley catalogues these proposed roots and follows the often devious, always fascinating, process by which some of their offshoots have grown. Anecdotal, eclectic, and always enthusiastic, The Origins of English Words is a diverting expedition beyond linguistics into literature, history, folklore, anthropology, philosophy, and science. |
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Page xiv
... letters of the words they represent . Chortle ( by Lewis Carroll ) is a fusion of chuckle and snort . Word ways are weird . Combinations are very frequent , and continually fashioned : railroad , paper- back , skyscraper , then ...
... letters of the words they represent . Chortle ( by Lewis Carroll ) is a fusion of chuckle and snort . Word ways are weird . Combinations are very frequent , and continually fashioned : railroad , paper- back , skyscraper , then ...
Page xv
... letters and some 45 sounds . Some words , though long , are easy to trace . An electroencephalogram is the writing ( gram , graph ) of the electric movements of the brain ( Greek en , in ; kephale , head ) . Some words , though short ...
... letters and some 45 sounds . Some words , though long , are easy to trace . An electroencephalogram is the writing ( gram , graph ) of the electric movements of the brain ( Greek en , in ; kephale , head ) . Some words , though short ...
Page xviii
... letters as English theater , but their sound is t , as opposed to our th . In earlier English , such words as author and Catholic were spoken with a t sound , as we still say Thomas . Shakespeare punned in his title Much Ado About ...
... letters as English theater , but their sound is t , as opposed to our th . In earlier English , such words as author and Catholic were spoken with a t sound , as we still say Thomas . Shakespeare punned in his title Much Ado About ...
Page xix
... letters may be sounded : agnostic , recognize ; one is silent at the end , as in benign , but note malignant . German Knabe : boy , with the k sounded , became English knave , with silent k . Greek u is usually turned into English y ...
... letters may be sounded : agnostic , recognize ; one is silent at the end , as in benign , but note malignant . German Knabe : boy , with the k sounded , became English knave , with silent k . Greek u is usually turned into English y ...
Page xxii
... letters also may be sloughed , as we noticed with gn . And some letters retained in today's spelling may no longer be sounded , though their reten- tion helps us to trace their story . Note the loss of the w sound in such names as ...
... letters also may be sloughed , as we noticed with gn . And some letters retained in today's spelling may no longer be sounded , though their reten- tion helps us to trace their story . Note the loss of the w sound in such names as ...
Other editions - View all
The Origins of English Words: A Discursive Dictionary of Indo-European Roots Joseph Twadell Shipley No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
ambhi bhag bhel bher bhes bheu bhili bhreg called caput coined columns compounds deik dekm dheigh N dheigh N 13 dhel dheu eghs element ending English folk etymology folkchanged French genus gerbh ghdhem gher goddess Greek guei guel hence ieug imitative jing kapr kel VIII King kleu ksei ksun kuei kuetuer labh Latin leguh leuk literally Love's Labor's Lost meaning medhi morui nebh nekut neuos oino onomen pilo plek pleu prefix relevant words beginning Roman root sek II seku Shakespeare skeu slang smer sner song sound spek sphei ster steu suer suffix tag II tereq teue tragh uegh ueid ueik ueks uelu uer II uerg uiro W. S. Gilbert whence
References to this book
Shamanism: The Neural Ecology of Consciousness and Healing Michael Winkelman No preview available - 2000 |
The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytic Detective Story John T. Irwin Limited preview - 1994 |