{"id":23502,"date":"2024-06-05T21:14:31","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T21:14:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23502"},"modified":"2024-06-05T21:14:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T21:14:31","slug":"spreading-sweetness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23502","title":{"rendered":"Spreading Sweetness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Foods, and the words that describe them, can travel around the world. For example, <strong>tea<\/strong> comes from China, and so do words for tea in many languages. Similarly, <strong>avocado<\/strong>, <strong>chocolate<\/strong>, <strong>tamale<\/strong>, <strong>tomato<\/strong> come from Mexico (both the words and the foods).<\/p>\n<p>Those words came to Europe from other continents, and I recently discovered some words that travelled from Europe, or Western Asia, to many other parts of the world. <\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/snestorm\/4833858272\/in\/photolist-8n9ME1-6u7tHJ-2d5Ar5j-6u3jM4-dXfMPY-4FLKij-63v27C-6K1B1Z-5ibPPf-6MfYgL-xmgQP-6MbMqP-5Wg38g-7pCDLS-6MbNiT-6MfZ29-6MfYNA-4DhZKb-532c8w-5Wg2vT-boyGir-WURWxs-5aMo1-2mwW7hU-2ngEhH1-2jjotWs-2kVpr6B-23gXuyC-2mVXr4X-2n64T2J-2jLNY9N-8bHQNo-88uAPR-2jBFqXq-5rMzyC-NBads-4xLxXm-kJUAZz-7zRHSC-2jLNNS1-YeDAs-2oMqEZL-8nKdGc-2kj49Dm-CcPuv-4zzDuu-2hmjVjy-8nKeA8-8nKekv-oQEVCD\" title=\"Honey\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4149\/4833858272_6ab6ea5c4a_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" alt=\"Honey\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It started with the Proto-Indo-European word <em>*m\u00e9d\u02b0u<\/em> (honey, mead), which spread throughout Europe and Asia, and possibly as far as China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European\/m%C3%A9d%CA%B0u\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Descendants of <em>*m\u00e9d\u02b0u<\/em> include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u0574\u0565\u0572\u0578\u0582<\/strong> [me\u0281\u00fa] = bee in Armenian<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u043c\u0435\u0434 <\/strong> (med) = honey in Bulgarian<\/li>\n<li><strong>m\u00f5du<\/strong> [mj\u00f8\u02d0d] = mead in Estonian<\/li>\n<li><strong>Met<\/strong> [me\u02d0t] = mead in German<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u03bc\u03ad\u03b8\u03b7<\/strong> (m\u00e9thi) = drunkenness in Greek<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u05de\u05d5\u05ea\u05e7<\/strong> (m\u00f3tek) = sweetness in Hebrew<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u092e\u094a\u0926\u0941\u0930 \/ \u0645\u06c6\u062f\u064f\u0631<\/strong> (modur) = sweet, tasty, delicious in Kashmiri<\/li>\n<li><strong>medus<\/strong> [m\u00e6dus] = honey, mead in Latvian<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u0789\u07a9\u0783\u07aa<\/strong> [mi\u02d0.\u027eu] = pleasant, sweet, agreeable, savoury in Maldivian<\/li>\n<li><strong>medve\u010f<\/strong> [\u02c8m\u025bdv\u025bc] = bear (&#8220;honey-eater&#8221;) in Slovak<\/li>\n<li><strong>mj\u00f6d<\/strong> [mj\u00f8\u02d0d] = mead in Swedish<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u0bae\u0ba4\u0bc1\u0bb0\u0bae\u0bcd<\/strong> [m\u0250d\u032a\u028a\u027e\u0250m] = sweetness in Tamil<\/li>\n<li><strong>medd<\/strong> [me\u02d0\u00f0] = mead, and <strong>meddw<\/strong> [\u02c8m\u025b\u00f0u] = drunk in Welsh<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Irish name <strong>M\u00e9abh<\/strong> (Maeve) also comes from the same roots, via Middle Irish <em>medb<\/em> (intoxicating) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Medb#Middle_Irish\">source<\/a>]. For more details of related words in Celtic languages, see this Celtiadur post: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/celtiadur\/2024\/06\/04\/honey-wine\/\">Honey Wine<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It also reached China, where it became <em>m\u012bt<\/em> (honey) in Tocharian B, and was possibly borrowed into Old Chinese as <em>*mit<\/em> (honey), which became <strong>\u871c<\/strong> (m\u00ec &#8211; honey) in Mandarin, <strong>\u871c<\/strong>  (mat6 [m\u0250t\u02e8] &#8211; bee, honeybee) in Cantonese, <strong>\u871c<\/strong> (mitsu &#8211; honey, nectar, moasses, syrup) in Japanese, <strong>\ubc00<\/strong> (mil &#8211; beeswax) in Korean, and <strong>m\u1eadt<\/strong> (honey, molasses) and <strong>m\u1ee9t<\/strong> (jam) in Vietnamese [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/%E8%9C%9C#Chinese\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><strong>Evolution of the Chinese character for honey (\u871c)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/blog\/honey.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"53\" alt=\"Evolution of the Chinese character for honey (\u871c)\" \/><\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/hanziyuan.net\/#%E8%9C%9C\">https:\/\/hanziyuan.net\/#\u871c<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited-728x90.gif\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foods, and the words that describe them, can travel around the world. For example, tea comes from China, and so do words for tea in many languages. Similarly, avocado, chocolate, tamale, tomato come from Mexico (both the words and the foods). Those words came to Europe from other continents, and I recently discovered some words [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,93,270,95,104,106,107,116,118,121,129,268,131,10,265,269,45,60,67,266,267,76,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armenian-","category-bulgarian","category-cantonese-","category-chinese","category-english","category-estonian","category-etymology","category-german","category-greek","category-hebrew","category-japanese","category-kashmiri--","category-korean","category-language","category-maldivian-","category-middle-irish-gaoidhealg","category-proto-indo-european","category-slovak","category-swedish","category-tamil-","category-tocharian","category-vietnamese","category-welsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23502"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23509,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23502\/revisions\/23509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}