Tag Archives: deity

#TuesEtymo Sunday is the day of the Sun… whaddabout Sundae ?

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    Sunday’s etymology is pretty darn obvious   However, did you know that… “the sun is approximately 109 times wider than the earth so you could fit 1.3 million Earths inside the Sun. Or you could flatten out 11,990 Earths to cover the surface of the Sun. That’s big, but there are some much bigger stars out there. For example, the biggest star that we know of would almost reach Saturn if it were placed inside the Solar System.” -Universe Today, 10 interesting facts about the Sun   But what about sundae… any link ?     20th century linguist, Harold (…)

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It’s freeday, or Frigg’s day, or FRIDAY !!!!

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  FRIDAY means it’s the week-end !!!!!!   We often glide away from work feeling free, seeking friends, and… shall we dare say it…     seeking LOVE !!!   The crazy thing is that, etymologically-speaking, friday actually reflects all 3 of these meanings- freedom, friendship, love.  It’s true, but don’t take my word for it.  Discover here for yourself—- to do so, we’ll have to set off on another journée in language to trace the etymology of friday back age by age, and language by language.  Today is special, though, because we’ve talked about the ancient Indo-European language family (…)

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Monday Madness… blame it on the moon

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  All the words below come from a common 4500 year old root   “mē“, the common Indo-European root means to “to measure”.   Pause for 20 seconds, and slip into the shoes (or barefeet maybe) of our ancestors… thousands of years ago… living outside, “in the elements”.   What would the moon have meant to them? How would it have served as measurement in their lives?     I imagine our ancestors would’ve looked at the sun or moon to measure all sorts of natural events and “predict” (pre-say) what was to come.  The mayans certainly had an amazingly intricate (…)

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Wednesday = Gandalf’s day ???

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In a letter in 1946, JRR Tolkien wrote that he saw Gandalf as a “wandering Odin”– Long white beard, big ol’ staff, one-eyed (unlike film). (wikipedia #26) Odin, Norse Father of Gods As, Thursday is Thor’s day, Wednesday is Woden’s day— Woden is Odin in Old English. Oddly enough, the two most visible Norse gods, Odin and Thor are both storm gods.  Both can be seen as a continuation of the ”sky god” from the Bronze age.  Odin was also known for being the “bringer of victory, and “the leader of souls”, which likens him to Mercury. (wikipedia #26) Coincidence?… nope… as wednesday (…)

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Journée = Journey

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As journey is one of my favorite etymologies, it has thus earned a spot in the title of my blog, A journée in language.  Here’s a Wordle representation of the many cognates for Journey in English- words with a shared etymological origin. Interesting that a journey, diary, deity and divination share roots etymologically   Let’s turn the clock back 4500 years ago and take a look at the Indo-European root, Dyeu which at that time meant “sky” or “day”.  Putting ourselves in the shoes of the folk of the time period, the sky and the heavens above were the “domain of (…)

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