Ancestors

Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-01-18 at 18:40

Words that are etymologically related don't have to look alike.

For instance, Portuguese 'nenhum' and German 'kein' (both meaning "not any; no") have the same origin.

'Nenhum' comes from Latin 'nec ūnus', 'kein' comes from Proto-Germanic *neh ainaz. These combinations both meant "not even one" and had the same Proto-Indo-European origins.

The infographic tells you more about them.

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Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-01-20 at 07:26

2/

Many people asked if Scandinavian 'ingen' (no; not any; no one) is related to German 'kein' and Dutch 'gein', as these two come from medieval 'enkein' and 'engheen'.

No! Looks are deceiving.

'Ingen' comes from Old Norse 'e(i)nginn', from 'einn' (one) plus '-gi' (no) plus an ending, so it isdifferent from the etymology of 'kein' and 'geen', as yesterday's graphic shows. ⬆️

Old Norse 'e(i)nngi' also had a neuter form: 'e(i)kki', from *eittgi, literally "not one thing".

This became ... 2/

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Toot

Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-01-20 at 07:26

3/ ... Danish 'ikke', Swedish 'icke', Norwegian 'ikkje' - the modern words for "not".

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Descendants