Päivän etymologinen tietoisku

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Suomi ei tullut Suomeen ensin.

Jos olisi ollut Kantasuomen valtio, se olisi nykyisen Viron alueella. Siellä suomen ja viron yhteistä muotoa eli kantasuomea puhuttiin pitkään. Joskus ajanlaskun alun tienoilla tai muutama sata vuotta sen jälkeen kantasuomen puhujia siirtyi Suomenlahden yli pohjoiseen.

”Täällä puhuttiin silloin muun muassa saamelaiskieliä, kantagermaania ja mahdollisesti joitain muita, myös nykyisen suomen ja saamelaiskielten sukulaiskieliä, jotka ovat sittemmin kadonneet”, sanoo kielentutkija Lotta Jalava.

Toisaalta ei saamekaan tullut Suomeen ensin. Pian mannerjään vetäytymisen jälkeen eli yli 10 000 vuotta sitten Suomen alueelle on tullut ihmisiä, mutta heidän käyttämistään kielistä ei tiedetä mitään.

”Tai sen verran, että mitään suomensukuisia kieliä he eivät puhuneet”, Jalava sanoo.

Saamelaiskielissä on kuitenkin tuntematonta alkuperää oleva lainasanakerrostuma, ja tuo kerrostuma lienee peräisin muinoin puhutuista tuntemattomista kielistä. Osa noista kielistä saadusta sanastosta on siirtynyt saamelaiskielten kautta myös suomeen: nuotio, kontio, kiiruna ja naali.

Jalava on toinen uuden tietokirjan Sana sanasta (Tammi) kirjoittajista. Toinen kirjan kirjoittaja on HS:n toimittaja ja kielenhuoltaja Ville Eloranta.

Kirja kertoo suomen kielen historiasta ja tarinoista sanojen takana.

Jalava kertoo kirjaprojektin käynnistyneen oivalluksesta, että vaikka suomen sanojen alkuperä kiinnostaa ihmisiä todella paljon, yleistajuisia tietokirjoja aiheesta ei juuri ole. Tekijöitä ärsytti, että asioista ei kerrota suurelle yleisölle. Oli siis tehtävä itse, niin kuin yleensä on.

”Ideana on tuoda ihmisille sitä todella paljon päivittynyttä tietoa, mitä tutkijat ovat tuoneet pöytään.”

”Ehdoton suosikki” Jalavalle ainakin nimistöpuolelta on Tampereen alkuperä. Aiemmin skandinaaviseksi selitetty Tampere-sana on 2010-luvun uuden tutkimustiedon perusteella todennäköisesti saamelaista alkuperää.

”Taustalla on myöhäiskantasaamelainen sana, joka on tarkoittanut koskipaikassa olevaa suvantoa.”

Sellaisia luonnontilaisessa Tammerkoskessa oli useita. Nykypohjoissaamen sana dappal merkitsee koskien välissä olevaa suvantoa.

”Lisäksi asialle on erittäin pätevä asutushistoriallinen perustelu.”

Tampereen seutu kuuluu vanhan saamelaisasutuksen ydinalueeseen.

Mutta mistä tulevat Saimaa ja Päijänne? Niiden alkuperää ei tiedetä vieläkään.

Usein hienolta kuulostavien sanojen taustalla on jotain ”tosi latteaa ja konkreettista ja tavallista”.

Presidentti tulee latinasta ja on johdettu edessä istumisesta. Siinä se. Puukkojunkkarin junkkarin muinainen muoto on ollut jungherra, nuori herra.

Toisaalta vähemmän hienolta kuulostavan ämpärin alkuperä on latinan amfora, jonka alkuperä taas kreikan amphoreús, kaksikahvainen.

”Sanoja tulee toisista sanoista merkitysten muuttuessa ja erikoistuessa”, Jalava sanoo.

Esimerkiksi vertyä tulee sanasta veri, mutta kun ajattelee jäsenten vertymistä, tuskin kukaan ajattelee verta.

”Se on ihan eri sana ja käyttäjälle läpinäkymätön.”

Käsitätkö? Ajatteletko käsiä, kun käsität?

Entä sauna? Suomen kielen ehkä tunnetuin sana tulee etymologi Petri Kallion selityksen mukaan vanhasta kantagermaanin kasaa tai kekoa merkinneestä sanasta.

”Samasta sanasta on periytynyt englannin kasaa tarkoittava stack. Alun perin sana on tarkoittanut todennäköisesti kuumentavaa kivikasaa, ja ruotsista suomeen lainattu takka on samaa alkuperää”, Jalava sanoo.

Sauna on aiemmin ollut muotoa sakna. Sauna ja takka ovat siis todennäköisesti samaa laina-alkuperää.

Sanoista ei tule vain uusia sanoja vaan myös uutta kielioppia. Sijamuodoistaan kuuluisa suomi on kehitellyt niitä varsin luovasti.

”Aika uutta tietoa on, että ulkopaikallissijapäätteet eli -lla ja -llä ovat syntyneet postpositiorakenteesta. On sanottu ’lumen yllä’, ja se on vuosisatojen aikana kuluessa muuttunut muotoon lumella, sanat ovat sulautuneet yhteen.”

Kanssa-sana tulee puolestaan kansa-sanasta.

”Minun kansassani eli mun kaa.”

Kirjan tärkein yksittäinen viesti on, että kieli muuttuu aivan koko ajan, on aina muuttunut.

Jalava on itse samojedikielten eli suomen maantieteellisesti etäisimpien kielten tutkija. Päivätyönään Jalava työskentelee Kotimaisten kielten keskuksessa.

”Unkarin kieli on ihan yhtä kaukana suomesta kuin ruotsi ja kreikka toisistaan, vaikka nekin kuuluvat keskenään samaan kielikuntaan. Sukulaisuus on hyvin kaukaista, mutta silti tutkimusmetodeilla todettavissa.”

Miksi kieliä ei sitten voi tunnistaa sukulaisiksi pelkään puheen tai kirjoituksen perusteella?

”Koska molemmat kielet ovat 4 000 vuoden aikana kohdanneet valtavan määrän muiden kielten puhujia ja sulauttaneet muita kieliä itseensä, kauppakumppaneilta on otettu lainoja, perheitä on perustettu muiden kielten puhujien kanssa. Suomen kieleksi kehittyneen kielimuodon osalta indoeurooppalaiset kielet ovat olleet hirveän tärkeitä.”

Vaikutteita ja sanoja on saatu muun muassa baltoslaavilaisesta kantakielestä, kantaskandinaavista, ja myöhemmin modernimmasta ruotsista ja venäjästä.

Nyky-yhteydet esimerkiksi ruotsin tai somalin kielen ja aivan eritoten englannin kanssa jatkavat vain samaa traditiota, jota on harjoitettu tuhansia vuosia.

Suomi onkin pohjimmiltaan varsin eurooppalainen kieli.

https://www.hs.fi/kulttuuri/art-2000008043605.html

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lucifer

From Middle English Lucifer, from Latin Lūcifer, from lūx (“light”) + ferō (“bear, carry”). Attested in Old English as Lūcifer. Replaced native calque lēohtberend (“lightbearer”) also from the same Latin source.

lūx

From Proto-Italic *louks, from the Proto-Indo-European root *lewk- (“white; light; bright”). Cognates include Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “white, blank, light, bright, clear”), Ancient Greek λύκη (lúkē, “light, morning twilight”), Sanskrit रोचते (rocate) and Old English lēoht (English light (noun)).

ferō

A suppletive paradigm consisting of two different roots.

The present stem is from Proto-Italic *ferō, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéreti (“to bear, carry”), from the root *bʰer-. Cognates include Sanskrit भरति (bhárati), Persian بار‎ (bâr), Old Armenian բերեմ (berem), Ancient Greek φέρω (phérō), Old English beran (English bear).

The perfect stem, originally of tollō, is from Proto-Italic *tetolai, from Proto-Indo-European *tetólh₂e (“to be holding up”), from the root *telh₂-. The stem of lātus has the same root, reduced from Proto-Italic *tlātos, from Proto-Indo-European *tl̥h₂tós. It is cognate with English thole (“to endure”).

Satan

From Middle English Sathan, Satan, from Old English Satan, from Latin Satān, from Ancient Greek Σατάν (Satán), from Hebrew שָׂטָן‎ (satán, “adversary, accuser”, compare Arabic شَيْطَان‎ (šayṭān), Ge'ez ሰይጣን (säyṭan), and Classical Syriac ܣܛܢܐ‎ (sāṭānā)). Doublet of shaitan.

Devil

From Middle English devil, devel, deovel, from Old English dēofol, dēoful, from earlier dīobul (“devil”), from Latin diabolus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, “accuser, slanderer”), also as "Satan" (in Jewish/Christian usage, translating Biblical Hebrew שָׂטָן‎ (śātān)), from διαβάλλω (diabállō, “to slander”), literally “to throw across”, from διά (diá, “through, across”) + βάλλω (bállō, “throw”). The Old English word was probably adopted under influence of Latin diabolus (itself from the Greek). Other Germanic languages adopted the word independently: compare Saterland Frisian Düüwel (“devil”), West Frisian duvel (“devil”), Dutch duivel, duvel (“devil”), German Low German Düvel (“devil”), German Teufel (“devil”), Danish djævel (“devil”), Swedish djävul (“devil”) (older: djefvul, Old Swedish diævul, Old Norse djǫfull). Doublet of diable, diablo, and diabolus.

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Queen

From Middle English quene, queen, cwen, from Old English cwēn (“queen”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwāni, from Proto-Germanic *kwēniz (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷénh₂s (“woman”). Cognate with Scots queen, wheen (“queen”), Old Saxon quān ("wife"; > Middle Low German quene (“elderly woman”)), Dutch kween (“woman past child-bearing age”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Danish kvinde (“woman”), Icelandic kvon (“wife”), Gothic 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”), Norwegian dialectal kvån (“wife”). Related to Old English cwene (“woman; female serf, quean”), see quean. Generally eclipsed non-native Middle English regina (“queen”), borrowed from Latin rēgīna (“queen”) (see Modern English regina). Doublet of gyne.

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Tunturi

Borrowing from Sami, compare Kildin Sami тӯнтар (tūntar), from Proto-Samic *tuontër.

Descendants
Western Samic:
Southern Sami: doedtere
Lule Sami: duottar
Northern Sami: duottar
Eastern Samic:
Inari Sami: tuodâr
Skolt Sami: tuõddâr
Kildin Sami: тӯнтар (tūntar)
→ Russian: ту́ндра (túndra)
→ English: tundra

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The etymologies of a ton of LGBT terms for the last day of Pride Month!

The Etymologies

First we'll go over the basic words which are modified a lot (gender, sexuality, etc)

Gender - Originally meaning "a classification of people with similar traits", from Old French gendre, from Latin genus, "race, stock, family; kind, rank" as well as biological sex, originating from Proto Indo European (PIE) \gene-, or "to give birth, beget". As *sex became used in English as another word for intercourse in the 1600s, in the early 1900s, gender became used for biological sex. In feminist texts of the 1960s, it also came to mean the category of gender roles one was put into.

Sexuality - The 1980s was the time where the most popular use of it became a sexual identity. Beforehand, it meant the ability to be sexual from the 1870s, and from 1789 (when the word was coined), it meant the act or state of being sexual, combining sexual and the suffix -ity.

Sexual - Entered English in the 1650s, meaning "pertaining to biological sex". From Latin sexualis, a derivative of Latin sexus referring to biological sex. This appeared within Latin for unknown reasons, however a hypothesis is it comes from the word to cut (as in half of human beings are one sex), secare.

-ity - "Having the quality of [preceding adjective]". From Old English -ite, from Old French -ete, from Latin -itatum, all meaning the same thing. Formed from -tas, which I could not find an origin or meaning for, and a connector i.

Romantic - In the 1650s, it was an Anglicization of the French romantique, meaning "pertaining to the Romance movement". This is from French romant, "romance", from Old French romanz, which means "a verse poem narrative," (I love how this all ties back to a movement in the 1600s, how recent!). Originally it meant "Roman" as in "(of a text): in a vernacular language". This comes from the Latin phrase "romanice scribere", "written in a Romance language". From Romanicus as an adjectival form of Romanus, a Roman. This of course comes from the city, Rome, or in Latin, Roma. By the 1660s, "romantic" came to describe a relation between lovers, as depicted in many Romance (the movement) novels.

Orientation - By around 1868, the word orient, as a verb, meant finding a position on a compass. This was abstracted to meaning somebody's mental direction or mental state. Later this was used to mean somebody's mental state in relation to sexual or romantic attracted at a time I can't find. orient, as a verb, originally meant "make something face East", from French s'orienter, "to face East", from Old French, orient, "East", from Latin orientem, "the Eastern part of the sky, East", originally meaning "rising" as an adjective, from oriri, "to rise", from PIE, \heri-*.

Second, lets go over the etymologies of the other terms in the acronym: LGBTQIA

Lesbian - This one is probably the most well known, but it comes from the island of Lesbos, where the poet Sappho is from. Originally meaning sexual promiscuity/pride of women at all, eventually it was narrowed down to the aspect of Sappho's romantic and erotic poetry between her and other women, and eventually the word Lesbian as an adjective became a noun.

Gay - Used among gay men mostly until the 1950s or so when it spread to overall popular use. From the word's meaning as "joyful or carefree". Coming from Old French gai, which is from an unknown source.

bi- - Originally a Latin prefix meaning "two of something", originally Old Latin dvi-, with the same meaning, which goes back to PIE \dwo-*, just meaning "two".

bisexual - From 1892's English translation of Psychopathia Sexualis, translated by Charles Gilbert Chaddock meaning "attracted to two sexes". Originally, "bisexual" meant "having both sex organs". Accepted as this definition by the 1950s.

biromantic - First known use is from this article from 2005 about a person named Michael and his asexuality. Combining bi- and -romantic, referring to romantic attraction.

bigender - Originally a term for plants which had the traits of both male and female sexes of the plant, sometime in the 1970s, it became used to mean a person who identifies as more than one gender.

trans- - From the Latin preposition trans, "across, over, beyond", from PIE \tere-*, "to cross".

transgender - Coined by somebody, not Virginia Prince, most likely John F Olivan in the form "transgenderism", from trans-, and gender.

transsexual - I can't find who created the term, from trans- and sex.

Queer - Becoming a noun in the 1930s, and originally used as a derogatory adjective for gay people in the 1920s, it, of course, first meant "(of a person): being out of the ordinary" as of the 1780s. When introduced in the 1500s, it just meant "strange" or "eccentric". It comes from either Scottish or Low German, still queer, meaning "oblique, off-center". From Old High German twerh, from PIE \terkw-* "to twist".

Intersex - The definition meaning "having traits of both sexes", is from the German word intersexe, coined by the geneticist Richard Benedict Goldschmidt.

a- - "not, without", from Greek a-, or an-, from PIE \ne-*, "not".

asexual - Coined as a combination of a- and sexual. In biology, meaning "not having a reproductive system/not needing one". By the late 1890s, it already meant "not wanting sexual activity" and also "not related to biological sexes".

aromantic - From a- and romantic, most likely from an Asexual Visibility & Education Network forum thread in 2005. Very interesting.

agender - From a- and gender. Almost certainly coined by Miriam Wolfe in reference to God in a forum thread on UseNet. I'm not sure I want to link the thread for privacy reasons.

pan- - Meaning "all of, inclusive", from the Greek prefix pan-, from pas or pan meaning "all". Most likely from a PIE root \pant-*.

Pansexual - From pan- and sex, first meaning that sexual instincts are part of everyday life and not just when actually having sex. By 1972, it meant its modern definition of "a person who can be attracted to anybody sexually".

Panromantic - I cannot for the life of me find the coining of this word. From pan- and romance.

Pangender - Used by some time in the 1990s. From pan- and gender.

Now we can go into some other LGBT related terms!

Xenogender - Coined by Baaphomett on Tumblr, archived here, from xeno-, "foreign", and gender.

xeno- - From Greek xenos, "a stranger, a foreigner, a guest", from PIE \ghos-ti-*, "a stranger, a guest".

Neopronoun - From the prefix neo-, meaning "new", and pronoun.

neo- - Coined around 1880, from Greek neos, "new, young, youthful", from PIE \newo-*.

Pronoun - Originally from 1400s Old French, pronom, from Latin pronomen, "word in place of a noun", a combination of pro, "replacing", and nomen, "name, noun". Nomen comes from PIE \no-men-, "name". The reason Latin had the word *pronomen, is due to the Greek word antonymia, which meant the same thing, so they literally translated the word to get pronomen. Pronoun at some point in both French and English shifted in spelling to match noun.

Nonbinary - Combining non- and binary, referring to the Gender Binary. I can't find the first use of the term, however it also seems the actual Nonbinary Wiki can't either. Maybe it's lost to time.

non- - "not pertaining to, lacking", in the 1300s, from Old French non-, from Latin non-, from Old Latin noenum, or "not one". This comes from the PIE \ne-, "not", and *\oi-no-*, "one".

Binary - From the 1400s, directly from Latin binarius, "consisting of two things". This comes from bini-, which is a derivative of bis, which is derivative of bi.

Enby - From a shortening of Nonbinary, N.B. Created in 2013 by Tumblr user revolutionator, in this post.

Genderfluid - The concept of gender-fluidity was coined by Kate Bornstein in 1994 as the "refusal to remain one gender or another". Shortly after becoming a general term for genderqueer or trans people as a whole. Then once again becoming the term for a person who's gender shifts at times by 2007. The actual term Genderfluid comes from gender and fluidity being shortened to a noun.

fluidity - From 1500s French fluidité, a mix of ite and fluide, "fluid". This comes from the Latin fluidus, "fluid, flowing, or moist", deriving from fluere in Latin, meaning "to flow". This ultimately comes from the PIE root \bhleu-*, meaning "to swell" or "overflow".

Androgynous - Originally being an insult in the 1650s, used to call a man womanly, it comes from Latin androgynus, which directly comes from Greek androgynos, "a hermaphrodite, a womanly man". This combines the Greek words andros and gyne, meaning "man" and "woman". Andros is a form of the word aner, which comes from PIE \ner-, "man". *Gyne comes from the PIE \gwen-*.

Final Thoughts

I was originally going to go over much more, with tons of prefixes and words like "love" or "valid", and even delve into slurs (with spoilers and warnings of course), however I've pushed this post off, it is very long, and I am tired. Hope you guys had fun learning where all of these important words we all (hopefully) love came from. Also isn't it interesting how for some terms we have links to when and by who they were created? I think its fuckin awesome.

Sources

Gender, Sexuality, Sexual, Sex, -ity, Romance, Romanus, Orientation, Orient, Oriri

Lesbian, Gay, bi-, Bisexual_etym, Bisexual_Coining, Biromantic, Bigender, Transgender_coining, trans-, Queer, Intersex, a-, Asexual, Aromantic_coining, pan-, Pansexual

xeno-, neo-, Pronoun, non-, Binary, Genderfluid_etym, Fluidity, Fluide, Fluere, Androgynous

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Ruotsi

From archaic ruotsi (“Swede”), borrowed from Old Swedish *roþs- (“related to rowing”) (compare modern Swedish ro (“to row”)); related to Old Norse Roþrslandi (“the land of rowing”), older name of Roslagen from where much of the Swedish-speaking population on the west coast of Finland originates. Ultimately from roðr (“steering oar”), from Proto-Germanic *rōþrą (“rudder”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“to row”).[1]

Finnic cognates include Estonian Rootsi, Livvi Ruočči (“(Lutheran) Finland”), Veps Ročinma and Võro Roodsi. Old East Slavic Русь (Rusĭ) (whence Byzantine Greek Ρωσσία (Rōssía)), the original form of the endonym of Russians that originally referred to a tribe of Varangians, is likely borrowed from Finnic, but is ultimately from the same Germanic source (compare the etymology section of ryssä (“(derogatory) Russian”), from Swedish ryss, from the aforementioned Slavic word). Samic words, such as Northern Sami Ruoŧŧa, are borrowings from Finnic.

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food

From Middle English fode, foode, from Old English fōda (“food”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdô (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with Scots fuid (“food”), Low German föde, vöde (“food”), West Frisian fiedsel (“food”), Dutch voedsel (“food”) Danish føde (“food”), Swedish föda (“food”), Icelandic fæða, fæði (“food”), Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (fōdeins, “food”), Latin pānis (“bread, food”), Latin pāscō (“feed, nourish”, verb). Related to fodder, foster.

ruoka

From Proto-Finnic *rooka, borrowed from Proto-Germanic *rōkā ("care, attention", later *rōkō). Cognates include Estonian roog, Votic rooka, Ludian ruog.

mat

From Old Norse matr, from Proto-Germanic *matiz ("food")

->

An ablaut variant of the root *mēs-, mōs, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₂d- (“to drip, ooze; grease, fat”).

comida

From the past participle of comer (“to eat”). Compare comestible, of the same ultimate (Latin) origin.

->

From Latin comedere, present active infinitive of comedō, from com- + edō. Edō derives from Proto-Italic *edō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”).

Cognate with Galician comer, Mirandese comer, quemer, Asturian comer and Portuguese comer.

manger

From Middle French manger, from Old French mengier, from Late Latin manducāre (“to chew, devour”), present active infinitive of manducō, from Latin mandō.

See cognates : Italian mangiare, Norman maungier and mougier, Gallo mangier, Picard minger, Bourguignon maingé, Franco-Provençal mengiér, Occitan manjar, Corsican manghjà.

->

From Proto-Indo-European *mendʰ- (“to chew”).

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Sisko

Affective derivation of sisar.

->

From Proto-Finnic *sisar, borrowed from Proto-Balto-Slavic *swésō.

->

From Proto-Indo-European *swésōr.


Possibly from *su-h₁ésh₂-ōr, reflexive pronoun of *swé (“self”) +‎ *h₁ésh₂r̥ (“blood”), literally “woman of one's own kin group” in an exogamous society. Another alternative combines *swé (“self”) +‎ *-sōr (feminine-noun-forming suffix).

Veli

From Proto-Finnic *velji, possibly borrowed from Proto-Germanic *swelijō (whence Icelandic svili, "brother-in-law"). Cognate with Northern Sami viellja, Karelian velj, Estonian veli.

[ei vittu mikä meno]

hyvä swelijō -verkosto

[hellästi takaluukkuun pantu koira]

hyvä swelijō -verkosto

wallah swelijō

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sämpylä

Borrowed from Old Swedish sembla or sämbla, from Latin simila (“the finest flour”). Compare Swedish semla.

->

Of Semitic origin. Appears first in the first century AD, at the height of expansion of the Empire. Also exists a Ancient Greek σεμίδᾱλις (semídālis), this presumably directly borrowed from Aramaic סְמִידָא‎ / ܣܡܻܝܕܳܐ‎ (səmīḏā), from Akkadian 𒆠𒅔𒆠𒅔𒄯𒄯 (/samīdu/, “a type of fine groats, coarse flour, semolina”), related to Akkadian 𒀀𒊏𒄯𒄯 (/samādu/, “to grind fine”).

Descendants
French: semoule
Italian: semola
→ English: semola (archaic)
⇒ Italian: semolino
→ English: semolino (archaic)
⇒ English: semolina
Portuguese: sêmola
Spanish: sémola
→ Old High German: simila, semala
Middle High German: semele
German: Semmel
Slovene: žemlja
Yiddish: זעמל‎ (zeml)
→ Hungarian: zsemle
→ Old Swedish: sembla
→ Finnish: sämpylä
Swedish: semla
→ Belarusian: се́мла (sjémla)
→ Dutch: semla
→ English: semla
→ French: semla
→ German: Semla
→ Russian: се́мла (sémla)
→ Spanish: semla

[hellästi takaluukkuun pantu koira]

sämpyläjauho on siis tautologia

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Lintsata

From lintsi (“street”), from linja; "to loaf around the streets".

->

Borrowed from Old Swedish linia (compare modern Swedish linje), from Latin līnea.

->

From līneus (“flaxen; flaxen [thing]”), from līnum (“flax”).

->

From Proto-Italic *līnom, likely from Proto-Indo-European *līnom.

Cognates include Old English līne (“line, rope, cord”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽 (lein) and other derivatives of Proto-Germanic *līną, although Pokorny proposed it is a borrowing from Latin.

Although Greek λίνον (línon), Lithuanian linas, Russian лён (ljon) are sometimes listed as cognates, they actually derive from *lino- with a short /i/.

Celtic and Albanian words for linen probably derive from Latin, although Celtic languages retained possibly related cloth terms with a short /i/ (see *linnā).

Considering also the existence of a Latin root with a short /i/ and a /t/ (linteum), reconstruction of a common PIE protoform is impossible, and no similarly sounding terms are attested outside of Europe.

If such roots were borrowed from one or several non-IE languages, as proposed by Machek, locating the source is impossible because cultivation of linen was ubiquitous in the region since the Neolithic.

Alternatively, Fick proposed derivation as a passive past participle from Proto-Indo-European *lei- (“to flow, pour”) because flax is soaked in water during its retting.

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