Linguaphiles

The Oxford Etymologic Dictionary (OED) considers Ego / I as if it were a self-standing word developed within the Germanic and 'Indo-European' languages with a mere meaning of 'I / me / self, myself':[Spoiler (click to open)]

I (pron.)
12c., a shortening of Old English ic, the first person singular nominative pronoun, from Proto-Germanic *ek (source also of Old Frisian ik, Old Norse ek, Norwegian eg, Danish jeg, Old High German ih, German ich, Gothic ik), from PIE *eg- "I," nominative form of the first person singular pronoun (source also of Sanskrit aham, Hittite uk, Latin ego (source of French Je), Greek ego, Russian ja, Lithuanian aš).
Reduced to i by mid-12c. in northern England, later everywhere; the form ich or ik, especially before vowels, lingered in northern England until c. 1400 and survived in southern dialects until 18c. It began to be capitalized mid-13c. to mark it as a distinct word and avoid misreading in handwritten manuscripts.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/I

ego (n.) by 1707, in metaphysics, "the self; that which feels, acts, or thinks," from Latin ego "I" (cognate with Old English ic; see I); its use is implied in egoity.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/ego

местоим., укр. я, др.-русск. язъ, я (и то и другое – в Мстислав. грам. 1130 г.; см. Обнорский – Бархударов I, 33), ц.-сл. азъ ἐγώ, реже ѩзъ (см. Дильс, Aksl. Gr. 77), болг. аз, яз (Младенов 702), сербохорв. jа̑, словен. jàz, jâ, чеш. já, др.-чеш. jáz (совр. чеш. форма – с начала ХIV в.), слвц. jа, др.-пол. jaz, пол., в.-луж., н.-луж. jа, полаб. joz, jо.
Праслав. *аzъ отличается своим вокализмом от родственных форм, ср. др.-лит. еš, лит. àš, лтш. еs, др.-прус. еs, аs, др.-инд. ahám, авест. azǝm, др.-перс. аdаm, арм. еs, венет. еχо, гр. ἐγώ, лат. еgо, гот. ik "я". Наряду с и.-е. *еǵ- (гр., лат., герм.), существовало и.-е. диал. *eǵh- (др.-инд., венет.). Недоказанной является гипотеза о существовании *ō̆go наряду с *еgō на основе слав. аzъ и хетт. uk, ug "я" (Мейе – Эрну 342 и сл.; см. Вальде – Гофм. I, 395 и сл.). Не объяснена еще достоверно утрата конечного -z в слав.; весьма невероятно, чтобы она совершилась по аналогии местоим. tу (напр., Ягич, AfslPh 23, 543; Голуб – Копечный 147), а также чтобы долгота начального гласного была обусловлена долготой гласного в tу (Бругман у Бернекера, см. ниже). Более удачна попытка объяснения аzъ из сочетания а ězъ (Бернекер I, 35; Бругман, Grdr. 2, 2, 382), но см. против этого Кнутссон, ZfslPh 12, 96 и сл. По мнению Зубатого (LF 36, 345 и сл.), в этом а- представлена усилит. част. *ā, ср. др.-инд. ād, авест. āt̃, ср. также др.-инд. межд. ḗt "смотри, глядь!" из ā и id; Педерсен (KZ 38, 317) видит здесь влияние окончания 1 л. ед. ч. -ō; сомнения по этому поводу см. у Бернекера (I, 35). Для объяснения -z привлекают законы сандхи (Сольмсен, KZ 29, 79); ср. Бернекер, там же; И. Шмидт, KZ 36, 408 и сл.; Вакернагель – Дебруннер 3, 454 и сл.
http://www.classes.ru/all-russian/russian-dictionary-Vasmer-term-17126.htm

ich (Ger.), Εγώ [ego] (Gr.), ego (Lat.), io (Ital.), yo (Sp.), I (Eng.), jag (Sw.), я [ja] (Slavic)...

However, should one look beyond the hypothetic *constructions, established by the German philologists in the 19th Century, one would see an obvious Nostratic relation of the above words with the meaning of ' I ' to the following words with the meaning of ' 1 (one)':

( Collapse )

LUNCH - midday meal. Scholars explain its etymology as follows: 'Recorded since 1580; presumably short for luncheon, but earliest found also as lunshin, lunching, equivalent to lunch +‎ -ing, with the suffix -ing later modified to simulate a French origin. Lunch is possibly a variant of lump (as hunch is for hump, etc.), or represents an alteration of nuncheon, from Middle English nonechenche (“light mid-day meal”) (see nuncheon) and altered by northern English dialect lunch (“hunk of bread or cheese”) (1590), which perhaps is from lump or from Spanish lonja (“a slice”, literally “loin”). https://www.etymonline.com/word/lunch



However, LUNCH, being the mid-day meal, much more likely comes from:

launags (Latv.) - afternoon snack;
lȭnag (Livonian) - south-east; lȭnagist (Livonian) - mid-day meal;
lõuna (Est.) - south and mid-day meal;
lounas (Fin.) - south-west and mid-day meal;
lõunad, lõunaz (Votic) - south and mid-day meal;
lounad, loune(d) (Izhorian) - south and mid-day meal;
lounat (Karelian) - evening and main meal;
lun (Komi) - day and daylight;
lun-aǯ́e (Udmurt) - during the day.
http://www.eki.ee/dict/ety/index.cgi?Q=l%C3%B5una&F=M&C06=et

( Collapse )

Each word consists of two merged halves: the sound and the meaning (i.e. the form and the content), like a person with its body and soul.

Human owes his birth to his/her father and mother. The word is also born by the fusion of meaning (the masculine beginning) and an external, "bodily" shell (the feminine beginning), that is, when the separated and isolated unit of meaning acquires its outer shell and is fixed inside of its verbal and written forms.

( Collapse )

Laurus, Laurel leaves have been used since time immemorial as a talisman to protect against the evil eye and damage:
"... Laurel leaves wreath attached to the baby's bed was thought to help protect the child from the negative effects of mystical creatures. The more of them - the stronger the protection. It is believed that in this way entire households get rid of the danger of the influence of evil spirits."

'Indo-Europeists' tell us, in their textbooks, that Latin laurus allegedly is... a phonetically transformed Greek daphne: https://www.etymonline.com/word/laurel 

This is obviously a fairy-tale (as 1000s of others). Compare LAURUS to the following words with same phonetic stem -LAR-,-LOR-, and meaning related to 'protection' from Spain to Iran, and from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean:

Lares - Roman deities patronizing (protecting) homes, family and community in general;
ларой [laroy] (Ingushian language, Caucasus) - shamanistic: the Guardian spirit; modern: the Guardian angel.

лора, лорадар, лорадер [lora, loradar, lorader] (Ingush) - protection, defence; лоравала [loravala] (Ingush) - to get protected; лораде [lora-de] (Ingush) - to protect, preserve, guard, store (literally, "do the protection");
larru (Basque) - leather, skin, fur;
lorum (Latin) - a belt, bridle made of leather; loratus (Lat.) - tied, fastened with a belt;
lorica (Ital., Lat.) - a chain mail, armor; also shell of a grain; loricato (Ital.) - dressed in armor, in chain mail; zool. a crocodile;
( Collapse )

Hello peeps, I hope you can help me with a little thing... it's for a fantasy thriller I'm currently working on, set in modern day (post-2010), where a woman 'sins' enough to unleash the verbal wrath of a certain type of spirits (not ghosts in traditional sense) that knows the truth of humans' personalities and their life stories. Their purpose is to pass judgement on humans by revealing their true character. In this case, their 'victim' is an unfaithful and scorned woman who lies and twists facts for attention and revenge; she gets a kick out of it. One of her shenanigans is to wrongly but knowingly accuse others (anyone, from former lovers to strangers; if she feels badly treated, whether real or not, she targets them mercilessly) of serious sins/crimes that could affect them for life, sometimes even blackmailing them; she also emotionally harasses them with manipulation - one moment she will say she loves them, the very next she will curse them to death. All while portraying herself as a good, smart, and beautiful woman of God who volunteers at soup kitchens and similar - the type that everyone would trust at first glance and not think any ill of.

I'm looking for words to describe such a woman - 'attention-seeker', 'liar', 'cheater', 'narcissist', etc. - in various languages (worldwide, English included; not geographically limited, age or gender determined, nor class-restricted; could be said by Delhi street girl or by a Wall Street man). In feminine form, if that applies. E.g. 'mentirosa' is the feminine form of the Spanish word for 'liar'. More slang-y and/or swear words - 'bitch', 'whore', 'psycho' - are also of interest. Primarily more recent/newer/modern words, but if you know a good old word (pre-1950?) that fits, please do throw it in!

Following the previous post mentioning 'dungeonpunk' I have to ask, is it a book genre along the lines of Cyberpunk and steam-punk or is it solely a RPG gamer expression? Is it a common thing, I've never heard of it before and does it deserve to be tag in the Comm I manage? I'm both intrigued and puzzled.

Hello, everyone. My friend and me are trying to translate the text from Urkainian to English. We've got a lot of troubles with it, dictionaries don't help much really.
It would be great if you could help us. Thank you. )

1. A state of nature before a thunderstorm when the air is thick and humid etc. Is there one word to describe it?
in Russian: предгрозье
in Ukrainian: передгріззя

2. Expression to descibe the movement of placing weapon on your sholder holding the belt of it. Don't know how to describe it with words. Here is the picture http://www.vetrabotnik.narod.ru/Modelizm/Texts/Uniform/USA/USA024.jpg
The dictionary gave us "fling over one's shoulder", but google didn't find any examples, so we considered it to be wrong.
In Russian: "перебрасывать оружие через плечо"
In Ukrainian: "перекидати зброю через плече"

3. Is it alright to say "the death is (up)on my consience"?
In Russian: "смерть на моей совести"
In Ukrainian: "смерть на моїй совісті"

hello,
my cousin has asked me to help her in translating something about Internet marketing from Polish to English, but I'm not sure about the meaning of the word "sprofilowane."
For context, the sentence it's used in: "Bazy tworzone za pomocą tej techniki są odpowiednio sprofilowane."
Help will be appreciated :) dzięki

Is there a synonym for palimpsest (aside from codex rescriptus) or perhaps another way to say that something is a palimpsest. I'm trying to describe the traces of previous writing on a chalkboard that was erased, but is still somewhat visible. I considered saying "ghosts" or something, but I'm not sure that it's a better choice.

I have been living in the southern regions of the United States for some time. I have tried to keep from adapting to local slang, but alas, I have found myself saying "Fixin' to..." a lot. It is very common to hear people say "I am fixin' to go to the store" or "I am fixin' to finish some work." Is "fixing to" common standard English? Or is just a more localized mix to the English language? I can say "about to" but what can I substitute instead of "fixin"?