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Mapologies

@mapologies@mastodon.social

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Maps and mops are my obsession.

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#language 📞 #tvseries 📺 #etymology 🐣 #geography 🌐 #maps 🗺 #history ⏰️ #cartoons 🪅 #art 🎨 #movies 🎥 #linguistics 💬 #philosophy🦉

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Joined June 14, 2023

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Posts

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Aug 06, 2026

Cheers to all our amazing supporters and followers! 🎉✨💛
Thanks for hopping in and showing love 🙌🗺️💫
If you’d like to support our work, come say hi & back us here: https://ko-fi.com/mapologies 🌟🧡

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 31, 2026

This is a clear case of a widespread root featuring a fascinating variety of phonetic changes. Words like ovo, ei, ou, kek, and jaje all mean "egg" and trace their origins back to the Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm. It helps to look at the outliers. In Celtic languages, forms like Irish ubh, Manx ooh, and Scottish Gaelic ugh, the evidence isn't entirely clear. Meanwhile, Baltic languages are also missing: Latvian settled on ola, and Lithuanian developed kiaušinis https://mapologies.com/animal-product

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 22, 2026

What do the Danish and Swedish word stork mean? Exactly what you'd think: "stork." It shares deep etymological roots with the German Storch and the Icelandic storkur, all originating from the Proto-Indo-European root *srgos. But this ancient root didn't just stay in the Germanic family—it also survives today as the Latvian stārķis and the Macedonian штрк (štrk).

More maps: https://mapologies.com/birds/

M A P O L O G I E S

Birds • M A P O L O G I E S

Contenidos ocultar 1 Cuckoo 2 Duck 3 Stork 4 Turkey Cuckoo This bird doesn’t have a name, what it has is a sound. Its name …

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 20, 2026

Replying to @acb@mastodon.social

@acb@mastodon.social there are three, inlcuding behemoth, but the most common is היפופוטם (hipopotam)

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 20, 2026

A clipping is a shortening of a word. One excellent example is hippo, a short, pleasant-sounding word that is a clipping of hippopotamus. The longer form, hippopotamus, has too many letters for some languages’ tastes. And hippopotamus appears in almost every language. It comes from Ancient Greek ἱπποπόταμος (hippopótamos): Formed by ἵππος (híppos, “horse”) and ποταμός (potamós, “river”).

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Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 17, 2026

When we used to study Latin, the word lana did not immediately ring a bell. What did it mean? lane, land or lens? No—it actually meant wool. At first glance, you might conclude that lana is a Romance word, wool is Germanic. It feels similar to other distinct pairs like the miel versus honey, or lac versus milk, right? Well, share a single common ancestor: the Proto-Indo-European root *wĺ̥h₂neh₂ (which meant “wool” or “fleece”). https://mapologies.com/animal-product

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 14, 2026

On July 13th a country celebrated its independance: Crna Gora (Црна Гора) is a country known in English as #Montenegro. But what these names mean? The name Crna Gora means “Black Mountain” and it used in other Slavic languages with small variations. Montenegro is a Romance-language calque of the same idea: it comes from Venetian and then spread into other languages. In English, the meaning isn’t obvious from the form, but in Spanish it is.

https://mapologies.com/national-names/

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Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 11, 2026

In English, “bull” appears across other Germanic languages (e.g., German Bulle) and in some non‑Germanic languages (e.g., Latvian bullis). All derive from the Proto‑Germanic root *bulô, which is cognate with *balluz “ball”; both trace back to the Proto‑Indo‑European bʰel‑ “to blow, swell.” Where does this connection come from? Put simply and politely: what you’d see between a bull’s legs. Read more here: https://mapologies.com/animals/

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 11, 2026

@jasperb@mastodon.social I did not find the etymology of Estonian "sipelgas", so if you know, let me know. As for Latvian "skruzda" is also complicated. Even if it looks connected to Lithuanian "skruzdėlė", I did not find any source for it.

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 08, 2026

https://mapologies.com/cooking

Dessert is one of those international words you’ll find across many languages. The French verb desservir referred to something like the removal of plates after a meal—pretty specific, right? Even when some languages don’t use the French word directly, they often keep the idea of “something served after.” For example, Finnish jälkiruoka literally means “after food”. Other languages focus on the sweet side of the experience: Turkish tatlı and Slovenian sladica.

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 06, 2026

Replying to @PogoHandshake@sportloto.company

@PogoHandshake@sportloto.company you are right, small typo. thanks

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jul 06, 2026

In the East, Slavic languages share a common root, Proto-Slavic *žaba, with the notable exception of Russian: The term ljaguska (лягушка) is derived from the verb ljgat (лягать), which means "to kick." Some ideas?
https://mapologies.com/herpetology/
#etymology #etymologymap #languagemap

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jun 30, 2026

https://mapologies.com/time/ While Romance and Baltic languages often differ, they share the Proto-Indo-European root *wósr̥, meaning “#spring” and originally “becoming #warmer.” For example, the Portuguese “verão” and Latvian “vasara” derive from this root. Similarly, the German “Sommer” and Kurdish “havîn,” despite their different appearances, both stem from the Proto-Indo-European root *semh₂-, meaning “summer” or “half of the #year.” #etymology #etymologymap #map #laguagemap #linguisticmap

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jun 26, 2026

Honey has an interesting distribution of etymological roots across languages. Serbian med, or мед, is not etymologically connected to Portuguese mel, despite their apparent similarity, but it is distantly related to Turkish bal. We might expect med to relate to other Slavic terms such as Polish miód, and it is also connected to the adjacent Hungarian méz and, farther away, Komi ма (ma). These languages ultimately derive from the Proto–Indo-European root medʰu ‘honey’. https://mapologies.com/animal-products/

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jun 20, 2026

@hareldan@mapstodon.space You asked for it. Now deal with it:

There are four main groups of etymological roots for “badger,” all sharing a common idea, the animal as a digger and burrow-builder.

In the East: Turkic borsuk and Proto‑Slavic root *jàzvьcь "

In the West: Proto‑Germanic *þahsuz from Proto‑Indo‑European *tótḱ‑us (from *tetḱ‑, “to weave, braid, add, establish, construct”).

In the North: Proto‑Germanic *grabaną “to dig.”

https://mapologies.com/animals/

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Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jun 12, 2026

https://mapologies.com/roots/

Horseradish is a type of radish, with spicy flavour and eaten by horses. However this is simply partly true — the only accurate part is its strong taste. It also belongs to the Brassicaceae family (along with cabbage, mustard and, yes, radish).

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Jun 07, 2026

A #fruit is the mature ovary of a flowering #plant and plays a crucial role in spreading the plant’s seeds. It forms after the flower is fertilized.

https://mapologies.com/fruits/

#etymogy #etymologymap #map #mapologies #mapologic #language #languagemap #botanic

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Apr 26, 2026

Last map has ants in its pants

https://mapologies.com/bugs/

#insects #map #mapologies #etymology #etymologymap #ant #ants #languagemap

Most European languages are united by a common thread: the word for ant. From the Galician formiga to the Romanian furnică, and from Greek μυρμήγκι (myrmígki) to Finnish muurahainen. Surprising, huh? We can find the traces of a single Proto-Indo-European ancestor: *mórwis.

Mapologies @mapologies@mastodon.social · Mar 20, 2026

https://mapologies.com/time/#Spring

Spring is found in more than fifteen languages. English, among them, employs “spring” to denote the season when vegetation begins to “spring” forth, or emerge. Before its adoption in English, the word was “Lent”, like in Dutch Lente, from Proto-West Germanic *langatīn, literally “longer day” in reference to the lengthening of daylight.

M A P O L O G I E S

Time • M A P O L O G I E S

Etymology maps of words related to time in different languages: day, weekend, and the four seasons: spring, summer, and autumn.

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