Ancestors

Toot

Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-02-05 at 18:22

'Homosexual' and 'heterosexual' aren't as different as they look.

The parts 'hom-' and 'he-' stem from the same Proto-Indo-European root. It meant "one".

From this root we've also got the word 'same'.

Click my new infographic to learn all about these words and their histories.

The box on the right features additional derivatives of this root in Latin, Ancient Greek and Germanic.

=> View attached media

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Descendants

Written by Café-Junkie on 2025-02-05 at 18:39

@yvanspijk

Interesting!

👍

Old-High-German "samo" probably still 'survived' in German "sammeln" (collecting), correct?

🤔

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Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-02-05 at 18:45

@CafeJunkie It's the same root: 'sammeln' was derived from Proto-Germanic *samaz as *samlōnan. It's mentioned in the box on the right, along with other forms. ^^

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Written by Café-Junkie on 2025-02-05 at 18:50

@yvanspijk

Thanks.

I should probably read more carefully.

🧐 😄

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Written by Bart Groeneveld on 2025-02-05 at 18:48

@yvanspijk So, Middle English 'same' did not descend from Old English 'same'?

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Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-02-05 at 18:57

@bartavi That's right. Old English 'same' only meant "in the same way" and we don't see this in Middle English. Moreover, there's a gap of five centuries between these forms.

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Written by mirabilos on 2025-02-05 at 20:01

@yvanspijk I think you got either the colours or the legend box for them wrong?

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Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-02-05 at 20:08

@mirabilos I did! I've now updated the graphic.

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Written by Agnieszka R. Turczyńska on 2025-02-06 at 10:47

@yvanspijk Oh. I've just had a realisation about some word/phrase in my mother tongue.

So, "the same" in Polish is "taki sam". Which - when you think about that - is a little bit confusing, as the primary meaning of the Polish word "sam" means: single, alone, lonely. To make it even worse, the word "taki" is sometimes used to emphasise the meaning of the next word, so, the phrase "on jest taki sam" without any extra context means "he's so lonely".

But the same phrase used in different context, let's say, women discussing men in general, and one man in particular will say "on jest taki sam" to express "he's the same as others".

BTW, for "lonely" it's better to use "samotny". As "sam" better matches the context for "single", "alone". But "lonely" fits as well.

[#]PolishForForeigners

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Written by Yoïn van Spijk on 2025-02-06 at 11:51

@agturcz Nice! :) The word 'sam' is indeed related to the words in the graphic, and in many Slavic languages it got the meaning of "lonely; alone" beside "same".

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Written by Agnieszka R. Turczyńska on 2025-02-06 at 11:54

@yvanspijk Well, literally "sam" means "only one" :)

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