Sylvan Forests

23 October 202523 October 2025 By Simon

When is a forest not a forest?

In modern English, the word forest [ˈfɒɹɪst / ˈfɔɹəst] means:

A dense uncultivated tract of trees and undergrowth, larger than woods.
Any dense collection or amount – e.g. a forest of criticism

Historically it referred to ‘defined area of land set aside in England as royal hunting ground or for other privileged use’, and didn’t necessarily contain trees.

It comes from Middle English forest (forest, wood, a preserve for hunting exclusive to royalty), from Old French forest (royal hunting ground, forest), from Early Medieval Latin forestis (a large area reserved for the use of the King or nobility, often a forest and often for hunting or fishing, forest), from Proto-West-Germanic *furhisti (forest), from *furhiþi (forest, woodland) and *hursti (thicket, wood, grove, nest) [source].

*furhiþi (forest) comes from *furhu (fir, pine), from Proto-Germanic *furhō (fir, pine, forest [of fir or pine trees]), from Proto-Indo-European *pérkus (oak), from *perkʷ- (oak) [source].

Words from the same roots include pērkons (thunder) in Latvian, perkūnas (sound of thunder, god of thunder) in Lithuanian, perth (bush, hedge) in Welsh, quercia (oak) in Italian, forêt (forest) in French, vorst (copse, grove, woodland) in Dutch, fjör (vitality, energy, fun, life) in Icelandic, and cork, fir and farm in English [source].

*hursti (thicket, wood, grove, nest) comes from Proto-Germanic *hurstiz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷr̥s-ti-s, from *kʷres- [source].

Words from the same roots include hirst (a barren, unproductive piece of ground, usually a hillock, knoll or ridge) in Scots, horst (an elevated land overgrown with shrub) in Dutch, Horst (the nest of a bird of prey, eyrie, bush, thicket, small forest) in German, and hurst (wood, grove – found mainly in place names such as Sissinghurst) in English [source].

The Irish word crann (tree, mast), the Welsh word pren (timber, wood, tree), and related words in other Celtic languages also come from the same roots, via Proto-Celtic *kʷresnom (tree, wood) [source].

In Middle English, the word wode was used to refer to a living tree, a group of trees, a grove, a copse, a wood, a forest, wood, etc. As a verb, it meant to hunt, to take to the woods, or to hide oneself in the woods, and a wodeward was a forester or forest warden.

Wode comes from Old English wudu / ᚹᚢᛞᚢ (wood, forest, woods, tree), from Proto-Germanic *widuz (wood, tree, forest), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁widʰ-u-s [source].

Words from the same roots include wood in English, viður (trees or brambles, forest, wood, timber) in Icelandic, viita (a thicket of young deciduous trees) in Finnish, gwedhen (tree) in Cornish, gwezenn (tree) in Breton, and fiodh (wood, timber) in Scottish Gaelic [source].

Another forest-related word in English is sylvan, which means pertaining to the forest or woodlands, residing in a forest or wood, wooded, or covered in forest.

Related words include silviculture (forestry – the care and development of forests in order to obtain a product or provide a benefit), silvology (the scientific study of forests), and names such as Syliva, Transylvania (“across the forest”), Spotsylvania and Pennsylvania (“woodland of William Penn”).

It comes from Medieval Latin sylvanus, from Latin silvanus, from silva (forest), from Proto-Indo-European *s(w)el- (beam, board, frame, threshold) [source]. Words from the same roots include selva (forest, wood, mass, multitude) in Italian, selva (jungle, woods, forest) in Portuguese, and silva (bramble, blackberry bush) in Galician [source].

String Phones

16 October 202516 October 2025 By Simon

In many languages, words for telephone are some variation of telephone, but in some, such as Swahili, the word for phone is completely different – simu. Let’s find out where it comes from and what other words are related to it.

The Swahili word simu means telephone, telephone message, telegraph or telegram. Some related words include:

simu ya mkono(ni) / simu za rununu = mobile phone
simu maizi = smartphone
kibanda cha simu = telephone booth / box
kitabu cha simu = telephone book
piga simu = to make a call, to phone

It comes from Omani Arabic سيم (sīm – telegram), from Persian سیم (sim – wire, string, cord; silver, wealth, money [poetic]), from Middle Persian (ʾ)sym /⁠ (a)sēm (silver), from Old Persian 𐎿𐎡𐎹𐎶𐎶 (siyamam⁠ – silver), from Ancient Greek ἄσημον (ásēmon – silverware), from ἄσημος (ásēmos – unmarked, unintelligible, indistinct, silver) from ἄσημος, from σῆμα (sêma – mark, sign, token), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰyéh₂mn̥, from *dʰeyh₂- (to perceive, to see) [source].

Words from the same PIE roots include semaphore, semantic in English, semáforo (traffic light, semaphore) in Spanish, σημασία (simasía – meaning, sense, significance) in Greek, sim (string, wire, lead) in Azerbaijani, אסימון (asimón – token) in Hebrew, and сым (sym – wire) in Kazakh [source].

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented a device he called the telephone, which he described as an “apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically”. This was the first use of the word telephone to refer to the telephone we know today. Before then, it had been used to refer to other similar devices [source].

The English word telephone was borrowed from French téléphone (telephone), which comes from Ancient Greek τῆλε (têle – afar) and φωνή (phōnḗ – voice, sound) [source].

Other languages that do not use some version of the word telephone include:

Armenian: հեռախոս (heṙaxos) – from եռա- (heṙa – far) and խոսել (xosel – to speak)
Breton: pellgomz – from pell (far) and komz (to speak, talk)
Chinese: 电话 [電話] (diànhuà) – from 电 [電] (diàn – lightning, electric power, energy, electricity) and 话 [話] (huà – speech, talk, words) – borrowed from Japanese 電話 (denwa – telephone, phone call)
Finnish: puhelin – from puhella (to chatter)
Icelandic: sími – from síma (cord, rope)

Incidentally, the similarity between the Icelandic word sími and the Swahili word simu is entirely coincidental, and they are not related.

Source: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/telephone#Translations

A Cargo of Cars

7 August 20257 August 2025 By Simon

Is the word cargo related to the word car? Let’s find out.

Cargo [ˈkɑːɡəʊ / ˈkɑɹɡoʊ] refers to freight carried by a ship, aircraft or motor vehicle. It comes from Spanish cargo (charge, burden, position, post), from cargar (to load, carry, charge), from Late Latin carricāre, from carricō (to load), from carrus (wagon, a two-wheeled baggage cart, load, two-wheeled Celtic war chariot), from Gaulish *karros (wagon), from Proto-Celtic *karros (wagon), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥sós (vehicle), from *ḱers- (to run) [source].

A car [kɑː / kɑɹ] is a wheeled vehicle that moves independently, with at least three wheels, powered mechanically, steered by a driver and mostly for personal transportation; or any vehicle designed to run on rails [other meanings are available].

It comes from Middle English carre (cart, wagon), from Anglo-Norman carre (cart), from Latin carra, from carrus (wagon(load), cart(load), load), etc. – so the same roots as cargo [source].

Other words from the same Proto-Celtic roots include car (vehicle, car, sled, dray) in Welsh, karr (car, vehicle) in Breton, carro (wagon, cart, van, lorry, truck) in Italian, char (chariot, carriage, tank, car) in French, carro (cart, car) in Portuguese, kar (cart, car, truck) in Dutch, kärra (cart, wagon) in Swedish, qerre (cart, carriage) in Albanian, and career, carriage, carry, charge, chariot and posssibly carousel in English [source].

Other words from the same Proto-Indo-European roots include courier, course, carry, charge, current, curriculum, cursive, cursor, horse, hurry and possibly rush (to hurry) in English; corriere (messenger, courier) in Italian, and courir (to run, hurry, rush) in French [source].

Piecemeal Time

25 April 2025 By Simon

The word piecemeal means made or done in pieces or one stage at a time, but why meal? Does it have something to do with food?

Piecemeal is [ˈpiːs.miːl] comes from Middle English pēce(s)-mēle (in pieces, piece by piece, bit by bit), from pēce(s) (a fragment, bit, piece) and -mēl(e) (a derivational suffix in adverbs) [source].

Pēce(s) comes from Old French piece (piece, bit, part), from Late Latin pettia (piece, portion), from Gaulish *pettyā, from Proto-Celtic *kʷezdis (piece, portion), possibly from a non-Indo-European substrate [source].

Words from the same Proto-Celtic roots include piece in English, pièce (room, patch, piece, play, document) in French, peza (piece, fragment, part) in Galician, pieze (piece, part) in Spanish, peth (thing, object, material) in Welsh, pezh (piece, bit, room, part, what) in Breton, cuid (part, share, portion, some) in Irish, and cooid (certain, some, stuff, goods, part) in Manx – for more related words in Celtic languages see the Parts and Portions post on the Celtiadur [source].

-mēle comes from Old English mǣlum (at a time), from mǣl (measure, mark, sign, time, occasion, season, the time for eating, meal[time]), from Proto-West Germanic *māl (time, occasion, mealtime), from Proto-Germanic *mēlą (time, occasion, period, meal, spot, mark, measure), from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”) [source].

The English word meal can refer to food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity (as opposed to a snack), and food served or eaten as a repast, and used to mean a time or an occasion. It retains this last meaning in the word piecemeal. Related words include footmeal (one foot at a time) and heapmeal (in large numbers, heap by heap) [source].

Related words in other languages include maal (meal, time, occurrence) in Dutch, Mal (time, occasion) and Mahl (meal) in German, mål (target, finish, goal, meal) in Swedish, and béile (meal) in Irish.

In Old English, the word styċċemǣlum was used to mean piecemeal, piece by piece, in pieces, gradually, etc. It became stichmeal in early modern English. Related words include bitmǣlum (bit by bit), dropmǣlum (drop by drop), which became dropmeal, and stæpmǣlum (step by step), which became stepmeal [source].

Mud Glorious Mud

9 February 20249 February 2024 By Simon

If you live in a muddy place, or want to describe such a place, you could use the old word lutarious.

It means “of, pertaining to, or like, mud; living in mud”, and comes from the Latin word lutarius (of or belonging to the mud, living in mud), from lutum (mud, soil, dirt, mire, loam, clay), from Proto-Indo-European *lew- (dirt, mud) [source].

A related word is lutulent [ˈlʌtjʊlənt], which means pertaining to mud, or muddy.

Words for the same roots include:

Albanian: llucë = thin or shallow mud, muddy place
Portuguese: lodoso = muddy
Romanian: lut = clay, loam, mud, dirt, lutos = clayey
Spanish: lodo = mud, muck, mire, lodoso = muddy, boddy

Lutetia, the Gallo-Roman town founded in 52 BC that became Paris, gets it’s name from the Gaulish word *lutos (swamp), from Proto-Celtic *lutā (dirt, mud), from PIE *lew- (dirt, mud). It was known as Lutetia Parisiorum by the Romans. The Parisiorum part comes from Parīsiī, the Latin name for the Gaulish tribe who lived in the area. The name Paris comes from the same roots.

You can find more details on Radio Omniglot.

Incidentally, the French word boue [bu] (mud, dirt), also has Celtic roots: it comes from the Gaulish *bawā (mud, dirt), from Proto-Celtic *bowā (dirt, filth, excrement), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷewh₁- (excrement, dung) [source].

The Galician word bosta (dung, manure) comes from the same Celtic roots, as do the Welsh words baw (mud) and budr (dirty, filthy, vile, foul) [source].

The French word boue shouldn’t be confused with the Breton word boue [ˈbuː.e], which means buoy. It comes from Middle English boi(e) (buoy), from Middle Dutch boeye, from Old Dutch *bōcan, from Frankish *baukn (symbol, sign) from Proto-Germanic *baukną (sign, symbol), from PIE *bʰeh₂- (to glow, light, shine) [source].

By the way, do you pronounce buoy [bɔɪ] (boy) or [ˈbu.i] (boo-ee), or some other way?

Tarn

7 June 20237 June 2023 By Simon

In the north of England, particularly in Cumbria, the word tarn is used to refer to a small mountain lake. It is also apparently used in the USA, mainly in Montana, to refer to small mountain lakes or ponds.

Little Langdale Tarn

According to Wikipedia, “a tarn or corrie loch is a mountain lake, pond or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn.”

Tarn comes from the Middle English terne/tarne (lake, pond, pool), from the Old Norse tjǫrn (small lake, pond, pool), from the Proto-Germanic *ternō (a mountain lake without tributaries, watering hole, small pool), from the Proto-Indo-European *der (to split, separate, tear, crack, shatter) [source].

Words from the same Old Norse root include tjörn (pond) in Icelandic, tjørn (pond) in Faroese, tjärn (small forest lake) in Swedish, and tjern (a small forest or mountain lake) in Danish and Norwegian [source].

English words from the same PIE root include (to) tear, derma (the inner layer of the skin), and dermic (of or relating to the dermis or skin) [source].

Other words from the same PIE root, via Proto-Celtic, include: darn (piece, fragment, patch, part) in Welsh, darn (fragment, part) in Breton, and possibly dréacht (part, portion, draft) in Irish and dreuchd (job, occupation, role, function) in Scottish Gaelic [source].

Stellar Stars

22 February 202222 February 2022 By Simon

Here’s an interesting question that I was sent to me by email:
—————————–
I am curious as to why some of the languages that developed from Latin had to put an extra ‘e’ at the start of some of their words.

Here are some examples:

Latin	Italian	French	Spanish	English
stēlla	stella	étoile	estrella	star
status	stato	état	estado	state
spero	speranza	espère	esperanza	hope
spōnsa	sposa	épouse	esposa	wife

It looks as if the Gauls, and the people living in the Iberian peninsula, couldn’t cope with the st- and sp- beginnings, and had to stick an ‘e’ on the front. Is this because words in the Celtic languages they spoke didn’t have such beginnings? I can’t find any similar words in modern Welsh.
—————————–

Incidentally, the words for hope have a cognate in English – esperance, which is a old word for hope or expectation [source], and the ones for wife have a cognate in spouse (husband, wife).

Let’s look at the origins of some of these words to see how they have changed over time.

The Latin word stēlla (star), comes from the Proto-Italic *stērolā (star), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr (star). This became estoile/esteile/estelle in Old French, and estoile in Middle French. It was (e)strela in Old Portuguese and estrella in Old Spanish So the extra e has been there for a while [source].

In Proto-Celtic the word for star was *sterā, from the same PIE root as the Latin stēlla. This became *ster in Proto-Brythonic, Old Breton and Old Cornish, and ster in modern Breton and Cornish. So at least some speakers of Celtic languages could cope with the initial st-. In Old Welsh it was *ser, in Middle Welsh it was ser / syr, and in modern Welsh it’s sêr. It was also borrowed into Old Irish as ser [source].

The Latin word status means state, status, condition, position, place or rank. It became estat in Old French, from which we get the English word estate. Meanwhile in Old Spanish it was (e)strela, and in Old Portuguese it was estado [source].

It was borrowed into Old Irish as stad (stop, stay, delay), which is the same in modern Irish [source]. Proto-Brythonic borrowed it as *ɨstad from the Vulgar Latin *istatus, this became (y)stad / (y)stât in Middle Welsh and ystad (state, condition, situation) in modern Welsh [source].

Do any of you have any thoughts on this question?

Language Politics

10 February 202210 February 2022 By Simon

Part of the process of learning a new language involves learning about the people who speak it, and about their culture(s), history and so on. You might also find yourself involved in the politics of when and how the language is used, especially if you’re learning a minority / endangered / revived language, or a non-standard version of a major language. This is certainly the case for the Celtic languages I’ve studied.

You might be told that there’s no point in learning a Celtic language as everybody who speaks them also speaks English, or in the case of Breton, French. This is not in fact true – there are people in Patagonia in Argentina who speak Welsh and Spanish, but not English, and there are some people who have learnt a Celtic language who don’t speak English or French.

People may object to children being ‘forced’ to learn such ‘useless’ languages in school, or they may complain that they had to learn them in school. Well, education usually involves learning things that you might have little or no interest in, but you never know, maybe it will be useful to know them one day.

Critics of minority languages might come from the country or region where they are spoken, but not feel part of the local culture as they don’t speak the local language. In Wales, for example, non-Welsh-speaking people are sometimes told by Welsh speakers that they are less Welsh or basically English. Fortunately this is not a common view among Welsh speakers. Also, people who don’t speak such languages could learn them, and will find that most native speakers will be support their efforts.

Also, why are they spending our taxes to support those useless languages? That’s a comment that often crops up whenever there’s discussion of bilingual or minority language education, bilingual signage and other material, and any other initiatives to support minority languages. Speakers of minority languages also pay taxes, you know.

Have you encountered any such linguistic politics?

Here’s an example of an article that discusses some of these issues.

Britland

26 January 20221 February 2022 By Simon

The word Britain is used to refer to the island of Great Britain, and is also to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or UK. As it’s the place I’ve lived most of my life, I thought I’d look into the origins of this word.

Britain comes from the Middle English Breteyn (Britain, Brittany), from the Old English Bryten/Breoton (Britain), from the Latin Britannia (the British Isles, Great Britain, the Roman province of Britain) – the land of the Britanni (Britons), from the Proto-Brythonic *Prɨdėn (Britain), from *Pritanī, which is possibly related to *Prɨdɨn (Picts), and the Ancient Greek Πρεττανική (Prettanikḗ – British Isles). The name Brittany comes from the same root [source].

Until the 1st century BC Britain was known as Albion in Latin, which comes from the Proto-Celtic *Albiū (luminous world, upper world, high mountain, alp, alpine pasture, Britain), from the Proto-Indo-European *albʰós (white) – possibly refering to the white chalk cliffs along the south coast of Britian [source].

After the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD, the name Britannia was used to refer to the Roman province of Britain, which consisted of what is now England and Wales and part of southern Scotland [source].

In Welsh, Britian is referred to as Ynys Prydain (The Island of Britain) or Prydain Fawr (Great Britian). These words, along with Prydyn (Scotland, (land of the) Picts), come from the same Proto-Brythonic root as Britain [source].

In Cornish, Britain is Breten and Great Britain is Breten Veur [source].

In Breton, Great Britain is Breizh-Veur and Brittany is Breizh.

The Irish name for Wales is An Bhreatain Bheag (“Little Britain”), while Great Britain is An Bhreatain Mhór, and Brittany is An Bhriotáin [source].

In Scottish Gaelic, A’ Bhreatainn Bheag is Brittany, Wales is a’ Chuimrigh, which comes from the Welsh name for Wales, Cymru and Great Britain is A’ Bhreatainn Mhór [source].

Oak Knowers

22 January 202222 January 2022 By Simon

To me the word druid makes me think of Getafix, the druid in the Asterix comics – an old man with a long white beard who brews magic potions in a big cauldron. He has other names, such as Panoramix in many other European languages, and Kensawthetrix (“knows all the tricks”) in Scots [More details].

According to TheFreeDictionary, a druid is:

a member of an ancient order of priests in Gaul, Britain, and Ireland in the pre-Christian era
a member of any of several modern movements attempting to revive druidism

It comes from the French druide (druid), from the Old French druide (druid), from the Latin Druidae (the Druids), from the Gaulish *druwits (druid), from the Proto-Celtic *druwits (druid), from *daru (oak) amd *wid/*windeti (to know, to see), so a druid is an “oak knower/seer”, from the Proto-Indo-European *dóru (tree) and *weyd- (to see) [Source].

In Proto-Brythonic a druid or seer was a *drüw, which became dryw [drɨu̯/drɪu̯] (druid, seer) and derwydd (prophet, wise man, druid) in Welsh, drewydh (druid) in Cornish and drouiz (druid) in Breton [source]. It was also borrowed into Old English as drȳ (sorcerer, magician), which became drī(mann)/driʒ(mann) (sorcerer, magician) in Middle English [source]. A few modern druids use the word drymann, or something similiar, to refer to themselves.

Here’s a traditional Welsh folk tune called Y Derwydd (The Druid):

There is sheet music for several versions of this tune on The Session.

Omniglot Blog

Adventures in the world of words and language

Category: Breton (Brezhoneg)