This is fun! I had no idea that "salary" = "salt money."
Re: vegetables, I've heard that broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and brussel sprouts are all originally from the same wild mustard plant in the Mediterranean. As I understand it, we selectively bred that plant over hundreds of years, "exaggerating" different parts of the plant, until it became those different cultivars. I wonder if that process effects the language formation, or that was too far back to matter?
I did some googling to try to determine when we domesticated the original plant, and one article said there is a 4000 year old Sanskrit document that mentions its cultivation. So I'm guessing that means at least some of the splits into the cultivars happened prior to the formation of Latin? (This keeps bringing me to more questions. Collards apparently originate from the same plant too, so does that mean ancient Mediterranean folk were eating collards, or is that a more recent cultivar? And how different are the cultivars now from what they would have looked like then?) In any case I'm guessing the Latin and English words would have been formed without the context of knowing they were from the same plant.(?) So does that mean they were called similar words just because they have similar attributes? Too many questions I don't know how to answer, but it is interesting to think about.
Who knew our ordinary greens and gourds are full of such history! I will never chop my vegetables in ignorance again. This puts a whole new layer of delight into meal prep.😀
Interesting! Just last week our family noticed that in Spanish “col” is cabbage, “col rizada” is kale, and “col de Bruselas” is Brussels sprouts. I had never made that connection before! But that goes hand in hand with the video you shared—we have all these different names, but in Spanish it’s all “col.” 😅
The German for "cabbage" is "Kohl" (pronounced just like "cole") with the same etymology as the English. Who got there first is probably a chicken or egg question, but it doesn't change the fact that our language is a mess. Hahaha
It’s so fascinating how the farther back you go the more you discover common roots of various words. Makes you think—how all language came from one Word….
I love your word-sleuthing.
This is fun! I had no idea that "salary" = "salt money."
Re: vegetables, I've heard that broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and brussel sprouts are all originally from the same wild mustard plant in the Mediterranean. As I understand it, we selectively bred that plant over hundreds of years, "exaggerating" different parts of the plant, until it became those different cultivars. I wonder if that process effects the language formation, or that was too far back to matter?
I did some googling to try to determine when we domesticated the original plant, and one article said there is a 4000 year old Sanskrit document that mentions its cultivation. So I'm guessing that means at least some of the splits into the cultivars happened prior to the formation of Latin? (This keeps bringing me to more questions. Collards apparently originate from the same plant too, so does that mean ancient Mediterranean folk were eating collards, or is that a more recent cultivar? And how different are the cultivars now from what they would have looked like then?) In any case I'm guessing the Latin and English words would have been formed without the context of knowing they were from the same plant.(?) So does that mean they were called similar words just because they have similar attributes? Too many questions I don't know how to answer, but it is interesting to think about.
Who knew our ordinary greens and gourds are full of such history! I will never chop my vegetables in ignorance again. This puts a whole new layer of delight into meal prep.😀
So does that mean that the phrase “anyone worth their salt” is related to salary/wages? It popped in my head when you talked about the Romans!
Interesting! Just last week our family noticed that in Spanish “col” is cabbage, “col rizada” is kale, and “col de Bruselas” is Brussels sprouts. I had never made that connection before! But that goes hand in hand with the video you shared—we have all these different names, but in Spanish it’s all “col.” 😅
The German for "cabbage" is "Kohl" (pronounced just like "cole") with the same etymology as the English. Who got there first is probably a chicken or egg question, but it doesn't change the fact that our language is a mess. Hahaha
If that’s your idea of a wild weekend I think I missed something 😉
This is so fun and fascinating to read! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Congratulations on your son's graduation!
It’s so fascinating how the farther back you go the more you discover common roots of various words. Makes you think—how all language came from one Word….