The English foot comes from the Indo-European root *ped. Think pedal.
Interestingly, the “p” sound consistently transformed into an
“f” in the Germanic languages — but remained a “p...
Pluma, Spanish for “feather”, sounds nothing like the English
feather. But it is a cousin to the English fleece. Both come from the
same Indo-European root *pleus-, which meant “feather” ...
It is both surprising and funny that in Spanish, a Flea Market is
translated to be, literally, exactly the same: Mercado de Pulgas. But
it is even more surprising (although probably less funny) t...
The Spanish pudrir, “to rot,” has a surprising connection to the
English, foul, a word meaning the same but sadly very underused these
days — although still when quoting Macbeth: fair is fo...
Father is one of the most basic words in every language and a
traceable pattern throughout the Indo-European languages. The original
PIE sound “p-” changed in all the Germanic languages to ...
The Spanish pegar (“to paste”) comes from the Latin pix, meaning
“tar.” That makes sense: “paste” looks like just a more
diluated “tar.” But pix itself comes from the Proto-Indo-E...
The relation between “five” in Spanish (cinco) and English is one
of the more surprising relationships: they are indeed direct second
cousins! Both come from the same Proto-Indo-European root...
The Spanish for “foam”, espuma, comes from the Latin for the same:
spuma. And this Latin comes from the Proto-Indo-European root
*(s)poi-moi from which we also get the English… foam. How so...
