this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2024
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Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL about False cognates, pairs of words [with] similar sounds and meaning, but different etymologies; "For example, the English word dog and the Mbabaram word dog" (en.m.wikipedia.org)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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There is a table of examples in the link. Some I saw include:

Desert

  • desert Latin dēserō ("to abandon") << ultimately PIE **seh₁- ("to sow")
  • Ancient Egyptian: Deshret (refers to the land not flooded by the Nile)  from dšr (red)

Shark

  • shark Middle English shark from uncertain origin
  • Chinese 鲨 (shā)  Named as its crude skin similar to sand (沙 (shā))

Kayak

  • Inuktitut ᖃᔭᖅ (kayak) Proto-Eskimo *qyaq
  • Turkish kayık ('small boat')[17] Old Turkic kayguk << Proto-Turkic kay- ("to slide, to turn")

A lot of these could be TIL posts of their own.

I also wonder if some of these are actually false cognates, or if there is a much earlier common origin with false associations that came afterwards

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