Sorry that i haven’t been posting much, everyone; life hit me right after i created this community, and now i’m just keeping it alive till someone helps roll the ball with me.

  • Lvxferre
    3·
    11 hours ago

    Latin/Romance fondness of diminutives hitting again…

    What happened with the French word is a dime a dozen in Romance philology. Other cases like this are:

    • IT orecchia, PT orelha “ear” ← Lat. auricula “little ear”; cf auris “ear”
    • IT ginocchio, PT joelho “knee” ← Lat. geniculum “little knee”; cf genu “knee”
    • PT ovelha “sheep” ← ouicula “little sheep”; cf ouis “sheep”
    • IT muscolo “muscle” ← musculus “little mouse/rat”; cf mus “mouse/rat”
    • Lat. stella “star” ← Proto-Italic *stēr-la “little star”; cf Greek astḗr “star”
    • Lat. oculus “eye” ← PIE *h₃ókʷ-e-lós “little seer”, “little sighter”; cf Greek ṓps “eye”

    I’m listing Italian and Portuguese examples for my own convenience, but they pop up in almost every Romance language.)

    • fxomt@lemm.eeOPM
      1·
      1 hour ago

      Your comments on these posts are always great, i wish i could pin them :)