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WORDS & DERIVATIONS

Separated at Birth

A collection of word-pairs, where each originally both derived from the same root - but whose relatedness is now by no means apparent.

queen and gynaecologist

Both from Indo-European (IE) *gwenā : woman

Greek γυνή ,genitive γυναικός [gyne, gynaikos] - woman, wife. Hence gynaeco-logy, "study of women", and gynaecologist "one who specialises in the study of women's diseases". Interestingly there is no "andrology" for the study of men or an andrologist to specialise in male ailments. An anthropologist studies humans of any kind.

Gothic qinō , Old English(OE) cwēn - woman, wife , Modern English (NE) queen.

Compare Sanskrit ganā (lady of the gods), Avestan (Old Persian) gənā

glamor and crayfish

Both from IE *ghereb- : scratch

Greek γράφω, 'I write' γράμμα, 'something written'; compare OE ceorfan > NE carve. Writing involved scratching, obviously. A Middle English (ME) word grammarye, (derived ultimately from γράμμα) meaning 'written incantantations', 'magic' was borrowed into Scots as glamour (magic). The word was revived by Sir Walter Scott, whence it made its way to Hollywood as glamor.

OE crabba (>NE crab) = Old High German (OHG) chrebiz > NHG Krebs > French écrevisse, which was borrowed by NE as crayfish (the -fish is the result of an English attempt to connect it with a more familiar word!). Modern Dutch krabben still means to scratch.

 

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