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Etymology of tree | ||
Tags: Etymology | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| kflavin Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5943 days ago 24 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French | Message 2 of 8 30 July 2009 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It doesn't derive from the Greek but instead is cognate with it. The difference is that the word has essentially existed for thousands of years and passed on into both languages rather than being a Greek word taken into English.
Tree comes from Old English tréow and going back further from the Old Teutonic *trewo- meaning wood. Other cognates are Sanskrit dru, Russian derevo, and Welsh derwen. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes  20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 8 31 July 2009 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
kflavin, you've probably noticed that Neos is a native speaker of Greek and loves to enlighten us with folk-etymology which is designed to magnify the supposedly exclusive Greek linguistic heritage in English. Linguists who're worth their salt would discount the majority of Neos' "findings" using evidence like yours, not to mention question the blatant Hellenocentrism inherent in the etymology. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 4 of 8 31 July 2009 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have noticed this too, but refrained from saying so. I just know that one of these posts will try to prove that mazurka is derived from Greek, or something like that. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| GibberMeister Bilingual Pentaglot Groupie Scotland Joined 5808 days ago 61 posts - 67 votes Speaks: Spanish, Catalan, Lowland Scots*, English*, Portuguese | Message 6 of 8 04 August 2009 at 6:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cognate, Neos my friend, Cognate.....!
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| BBOS Newbie Joined 5591 days ago 25 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 8 04 August 2009 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I am not an expert in this area at all, but I was under the impression the etymology of
tree was from Old English, Greek and Sanskrit? Supported by the Merriam-Webster Collegiate 2005: Old English: trēow Greek: drys Sanskrit: dāru 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6030 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 8 of 8 06 August 2009 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Neos, nobody wants you posting these fake etymologies here.
Peace be with you too, friend. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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