Yoïn van Spijk
@yvanspijk@toot.community
DJO-in ['dʑowɪn] Historisch taalkundige, schrijver van 'Die goeie ouwe taal' en 'Woord voor woord, en vaste auteur bij Onze Taal Historical linguist, writer photo: Dirk-Jan van Dijk
toot.community
The Germanic ancestor of ‘thing’ and its cognates, such as German ‘Ding’ and Swedish ‘ting’, meant “folk assembly”.
The Latin ancestor of the Romance words for “thing”, such as French ‘chose’ and Spanish ‘cosa’, meant “legal case”.
Both the Germanic and the Latin word underwent a long series of meaning shifts resulting in the modern meanings “matter; thing”. My infographic shows how.
