Post #2386489
2025-09-09 15:24 UTC
The Spanish word for a river is ‘río’. ‘Río’ and ‘river’ – these must be etymologically related, mustn’t they?
No! They’re as unrelated as can be.
Surprisingly, ‘río’ is related to ‘rival’ and ‘derive’. They come from a Latin word for “stream”.
‘River’, on the other hand, is related to ‘riparian’ and ‘arrive’. These words derive from a Latin word meaning “shore, bank”.
My new infographic tells you the story of all of these words.
Replies (5)
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@fubaroque@mastodon.social 2025-09-09 17:27
@yvanspijk@toot.community Recently I was wondering about butterfly, Schmetterling, papilion, vlinder, farfalla, mariposa… These seem all so very unrelated. But are they?
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@microblogc@neopaquita.es 2025-09-09 21:09
@yvanspijk@toot.community Best of all, in Spanish there are ribera (<RIPA, 'shore') and rivera (<RIVUS, 'stream')
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@mirabilos@toot.mirbsd.org 2025-09-09 21:58
@yvanspijk@toot.community ah, and *h₁reip- also became (ab-)reißen in German?
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@DerPumu@mstdn.games 2025-09-10 11:33
@yvanspijk@toot.community if you ever make enough of these to publish a calendar with weekly (or daily???) tidbits like these, let me know. I'll buy one for myself and 10 more as gifts for friends and family 🤓
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@jdp@friendica.myportal.social 2025-09-10 18:02
@yvanspijk@toot.community "Popular Latin" - you mean Vulgar Latin.