HOW WORDS MOVE.
HOW MEANINGS MUTATE.

Latin regere continues centum *h₃reg-.

Lead straight, direct, and rule preserve the reconstructed root field.

Modern rich continues Middle English riche through English spelling and sound history.

Power and wealth broaden across abundance, value, color, flavor, and intensity.

Middle English riche continues Old English rīce while also receiving French-family influence represented separately.

Strong and powerful develop toward wealthy and abundant.

Old English rīce reflects Germanic *rīkja-.

The powerful or kingly adjective supports later wealth senses.

Germanic *rīkja- was borrowed from Celtic *rīg-yo-.

A kingly or powerful formation enters Germanic before the English and French branches.

Celtic *rīg-yo- belongs to lengthened-grade *rēg-.

The Celtic kingly formation specializes the Indo-European ruler branch.

Middle English realme was reshaped under the influence of Old French reial, royal.

The kingdom noun becomes more visibly associated with the royal adjective without descending from it.

Old French reial continues Latin rēgālis through Romance sound and spelling history.

The kingly or royal adjective remains monarch-centered.

Old French riche reinforces Middle English riche alongside the inherited Old English branch.

The French wealth adjective converges with English power-and-wealth material.

Old French riche continues a Germanic *rīkja- family form through historical borrowing.

Powerful and wealthy remain linked across the Germanic-to-Romance route.

Modern direct continues Middle English directen with loss of the infinitive ending and stabilized modern spelling.

Guiding, aiming, ordering, straightness, and immediacy expand across verb, adjective, and adverb functions.

Middle English directen was borrowed through Anglo-French directer in the verb route.

To guide or point crosses into English.

Anglo-French directer continues Latin dīrēctus through Romance verbal formation.

Straightened supplies directing and guiding senses.

Latin dīrēctus is the past participle of dīrigere.

What has been set straight becomes straight or directed.

Latin dīrigere contains regere beside the separately modeled dī-/dis- prefix.

Setting apart or into line specializes leading straight, guiding, and directing.

Proto-Celtic nominative *rīx-s develops to Old Irish rí, while genitive ríg preserves the stem consonant.

The king title remains a king noun through the Celtic sound changes.

Proto-Celtic *rīx-s reflects the Indo-European lengthened king grade *rēg-.

King remains the central meaning while Celtic raises inherited *ē to *ī and develops the final cluster.

Sanskrit rājā is the nominative singular of the consonant stem rājan-.

The inflected form and lexical stem both mean king rather than separate lexical ancestors.

Sanskrit rājan- reflects the reconstructed suffixed king formation *rēg-en-.

King, ruler, sovereign, and chief preserve the ruler field.

Reconstructed *rēg-en- is an n-stem formation on lengthened-grade *rēg-.

The suffix forms a king noun inside the ruler branch.

The English adjective direct is reported from Latin dīrēctus without requiring the Anglo-French verb stage.

Straight, undeviating, and immediate adjective senses enter beside the verbal guidance route.

Latin dīrigere contains dī-, a form of dis-, beside regere.

The prefix participates in the set-straight and direct formation without being equated to modern negation.

Middle English womman develops to modern woman with reduction of the unstressed final syllable and modern spelling.

The female-person compound remains the ordinary adult-female noun.

Old English wīfman contracts and assimilates into Middle English womman.

The compound remains a woman noun while its internal morphology becomes opaque.