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Post by Pacifica on Oct 17, 2024 1:00:42 GMT
A thread for any presumably false cognates that you come across or happen to think of and want to share. I say "presumably" because we can't necessarily be sure that words aren't, e.g., related at a very distant level.
I just thought of this one. Words on either side of the m-dash are etymologically related to the other words on the same side but (presumably) not to those on the other side.
Latin sorbeo (to drink up, suck up, soak up, absorb), sorbitio (broth) — Arabic شرب /ʃa.ri.ba/ (to drink), شربة /ʃar.ba/ (a drink, swallow, dose of a drinkable medicine, soup), whence (via Turkish) English sherbet and (via Turkish, Italian and French) sorbet. I wonder if the form of sorbet was actually influenced by the Italian descendant of Latin sorbeo. Also, maybe the Latin and Arabic, while independent from each other, came into being based on the same onomatopoeic thinking?
By the way, I wasn't entirely sure where to post this, but "other languages" seemed the least bad place because this thread is about languages and, though Latin is bound to be often involved, it doesn't have to be. I'm open to objections if there are any.
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Post by Pacifica on Oct 17, 2024 1:23:06 GMT
Arabic شرب /ʃa.ri.ba/ (to drink), شربة /ʃar.ba/ (a drink, swallow, dose of a drinkable medicine, soup), whence (via Turkish) English sherbet and (via Turkish, Italian and French) sorbet. I wonder if the form of sorbet was actually influenced by the Italian descendant of Latin sorbeo. Also, maybe the Latin and Arabic, while independent from each other, came into being based on the same onomatopoeic thinking? "Syrup" is also related to these (from another noun based on the Arabic verb). |
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kizolk
Indecisive 
Posts: 5,666
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Post by kizolk on Oct 17, 2024 4:01:11 GMT
Good thread idea!
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kizolk
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Post by kizolk on Oct 18, 2024 22:03:38 GMT
Orangutans are orange, but there's no etymological connection. It surprises me that I'd never thought of it even jokingly, but when I saw a photo of Trump moments ago, I felt the need to check the etymology of the name. I expected the two words to be unrelated, but I thought there was a slight possibility orang was a borrowing, but nope, it's Malay for "person". Which I knew at some point but had forgotten; orang utan translates as "forest person".
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Post by Pacifica on Oct 26, 2024 13:24:50 GMT
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Post by Pacifica on Oct 26, 2024 13:27:57 GMT
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kizolk
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Post by kizolk on Oct 26, 2024 14:01:40 GMT
This one is particularly trick because "sheriff" easily passes as a borrowed word. |
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kizolk
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Post by kizolk on Oct 26, 2024 14:08:05 GMT
In fact, I'm trying to think of another English word that has the syllable (not simply the sequence of phonemes) /ʃɛ/ but I can't find any off the top of my head. There must be others but I'm tempted to say it is at least a rare syllable.
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kizolk
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Post by kizolk on Oct 26, 2024 14:09:29 GMT
Oh I've found one: shepherd.
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kizolk
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Post by kizolk on Oct 26, 2024 14:12:56 GMT
Maybe unsurprisingly, both "shepherd" and "sheriff" are concatenations (or whatever the adequate linguistic term) of two pre-existing words. It'd be interesting to find a word that has this syllable and isn't a concatenation.
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Post by Pacifica on Oct 26, 2024 14:18:25 GMT
Advocate and avocado (these even ended up as seemingly one word in French: avocat).
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Oct 26, 2024 15:17:25 GMT
Maybe unsurprisingly, both "shepherd" and "sheriff" are concatenations (or whatever the adequate linguistic term) of two pre-existing words. It'd be interesting to find a word that has this syllable and isn't a concatenation. Shekel isn't really English, and even less so if you write it as sheqel. |
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Post by Pacifica on Oct 27, 2024 11:31:52 GMT
Russian лиса /lʲɪˈsa/, meaning "fox", and Greek λυκος /lý.kos/, meaning "wolf".
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Post by Etaoin Shrdlu on Oct 29, 2024 10:07:21 GMT
Shedded/shedder/shedding. Shelling. Sheffield is from the river Sheaf and field, not sheep and field as I'd initially guessed. The double letter only indicates the quality of the vowel.
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kizolk
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Post by kizolk on Oct 29, 2024 11:21:30 GMT
Sheffield is a concatenation. I'll accept the other ones even though the fact that they're derived/inflected forms of a word where "she" doesn't constitute a syllable isn't completely satisfying.
There's "schedule" in some accents (perhaps including yours).
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