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Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL2 source sections across 1 headword matching “Ta”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
taEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Uncertain, but possibly young child's pronunciation of thanks. Alternatively, derived from Danish tak, from Old Norse þǫkk, from Proto-Germanic *þankō, *þankaz.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗taEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
Altered from si in the 19th century to prevent having two notes of the musical scale starting with the same letter, to become ti. vowel changed to 'a' to signify a flattened note.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 20240112
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
noun · adjective · verbheadword prefix
taboo
An English borrowing recorded in 1777 from Tongan tabu, now tapu, within an Oceanic family whose reconstructed form joins ritual restriction with sacredness.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗stative · modifier · nounheadword prefix
tapu
A Māori word for what is sacred, prohibited, restricted, set apart, or under atua protection, inherited within the wider Oceanic *tampu family.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗adjective · noun · verbhistorical-form prefix
kapu
A Hawaiian word for what is prohibited, sacred, consecrated, or set apart, continuing the Oceanic tapu family through the characteristic Hawaiian *t to k sound change.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun combining formcontrarian claim
-logy
A bound English word element used in formations involving discourse or expression and in names of doctrines, theories, sciences, and fields of study.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗onomastic compound elementhistorical form
-rīx
An attested Gaulish second member meaning “king” or “prince,” visible in compound personal names such as Dumnorix and Vercingetorix and inherited from Proto-Celtic *rīx-s.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine noundossier summary
Feind
The modern German noun for a personal, political, military, or ideological enemy or opponent. Duden derives it through Middle High German vīnt or vīant and Old High German fīand, literally the hating one; DWDS dates Old High German fīant and fījant to the eighth century and identifies the Germanic ancestor as a petrified substantivized present participle. Grimm’s dictionary independently compares Gothic fijands, Old English fēond, English fiend, Dutch vijand, and Nordic forms, while warning that its own still-deeper foam hypothesis required confirmation. The reviewed route therefore follows the inherited enemy noun to reconstructed *fi(j)and- and *fi(j)ēn-, then treats *peh₁- as proposed and stops.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗German masculine noundossier summary
Freund
German Freund continues Middle High German vriunt and Old High German friunt. DWDS/Pfeifer, Duden, and Grimm independently analyze the inherited Germanic formation as a substantivized present participle of the verb represented by Gothic frijōn and Old English frēogan: historically a loving or favorably disposed one. The record is semantically wider than a modern close companion: the historical dictionaries also document neighbor, relative, lover, ally, supporter, patron, address, and euphemistic uses. The graph joins the High German line to the same reviewed *frijōnd- and *frī- nodes as English friend, keeps *prī- proposed, and stops.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
adverb
A grammatical class commonly modifying verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, phrases, clauses, or sentences; the English term continues Latin adverbium.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
algorism
The older English word for calculation with Hindu-Arabic numerals, transmitted through French and Medieval Latin from the name al-Khwārizmī.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nounhistorical form
algorithm
A finite or stepwise procedure, descended through medieval arithmetic vocabulary from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · adjectivecontrarian claim
arithmetic
The art or practice of counting and calculation; transmitted from Greek arithmos “number” through Latin and French.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
bayou
English bayou, recorded by 1763, came from Louisiana French bayouque. An early Choctaw *bayok is a plausible proposed source, but the historical form and its alleged contraction to modern bók are not securely attested.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗0212
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
*
Proto-Oceanic / Austronesian
*tampu
sacred, forbidden; under ritual restriction
- DATE
- Proto-Oceanic reconstruction
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 3
Present-Day English / Indo-European
taboo
a ritual or social prohibition; prohibited or set apart
- DATE
- 1777–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Tongan / Austronesian
tabu / tapu
forbidden, prohibited, unlawful; historically also sacred or consecrated
- DATE
- Tongan
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Māori / Austronesian
tapu
sacred, prohibited, restricted, set apart, or under atua protection
- DATE
- Māori record–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Choctaw / Muskogean
*bayok
proposed early Choctaw form for a bayou or watercourse
- DATE
- proposed early Choctaw
- MATCH
- language
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle Chinese (reconstructed reading) / Sino-Tibetan
*drae
tea; name of a plant
- DATE
- Middle Chinese reconstruction
- MATCH
- language family
- DOSSIERS
- 5
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*ghos-pot-
guest-master; person embodying a reciprocal hospitality relationship
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 6
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*ghos-ti-
stranger, guest, host; person with reciprocal duties of hospitality
- DATE
- Proto-Indo-European prehistory
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 9
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*h₂ster-
star
- DATE
- c. 4500–2500 BCE
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*h₃reg̑-
move in a straight line; direct, lead, rule
- DATE
- oldest published Proto-Indo-European form
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 13
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*kad-
a proposed base used in a wider Celtic, Germanic, Italic, Iranian, and Greek comparison
- DATE
- proposed Proto-Indo-European base
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Proto-Indo-European / Indo-European
*kʷē̆d- / *kʷō̆d-
to bore, drill, prick, or stab; in Germanic reflexes, sharpen, whet, or incite
- DATE
- Pokorny Indo-European etymon
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
0324
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 12
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Did taboo originally mean only “forbidden”?
No. The Tongan reflexes and wider Oceanic reconstruction carry a semantic field that includes prohibited, under ritual restriction, sacred, holy, and consecrated.
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Did English taboo come from Māori tapu?
No. Merriam-Webster identifies Tongan tabu as the English donor. Māori tapu is a related Oceanic reflex, not the borrowing source.
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Does tapu mean only “forbidden”?
No. Te Aka defines a culturally specific field spanning sacredness, restriction, being set apart, prohibition, atua protection, and social or environmental responsibility.
openprobableposition text
Is the exact phonetic shape of *fi(j)and- directly known?
No. The form is a comparative reconstruction. Optional j notation, branch vowels, and the relation of written historical variants require analysis rather than direct Proto-Germanic observation.
openproposedposition text
Is the deepest *peh₁- route established?
No. The Germanic verb and lexicalized agent formation are firmer than the proposed Indo-European comparison, whose formal intermediates and semantic unity remain reconstructive.
openprobableposition text
Was the relative sense inherited or independently strengthened in Germanic branches?
The sources establish the sense across German and Nordic evidence but do not recover one complete prehistoric semantic tree.
openprobableposition text
Is the exact Proto-Germanic noun *hatiz- or *hataz?
The noun is reconstructed, and published notation reflects stem alternation and analytical choices. Koch prints *hataz ~ *hatiz- while Merriam-Webster foregrounds *hatiz-.
openboundaryposition text
Can aguacate be securely pushed deeper than āhuacatl?
Not from the reviewed sources. The institutional dictionaries reach the Nahuatl word and its historical witnesses but do not establish a deeper lexical ancestor.
openprobableposition text
Did English algorism arrive through French or directly from Medieval Latin?
The sources preserve both channels. Merriam-Webster names Middle French and Medieval Latin; Etymonline emphasizes Old French from Medieval Latin.
openproposedposition text
Is the deepest counting root *h₂rei- or *erei-dhmo- from *re-?
The references use different levels and notations: Merriam-Webster derives the Greek base through *h₂rei-, while Etymonline prints an expanded *erei-dhmo- formation tied to *re-.
openproposedposition text
Is Choctaw bayuk a securely attested source of bayou?
No. An early Choctaw *bayok is plausible and accepted in a major handbook, but later bayuk is not securely attested and contraction to bók was conjectural.
openprobableposition text
Is betroth built on truth or troth?
The historical base is Middle English trouth or trouthe, where the modern truth and troth spellings were not yet cleanly separated; mapping it to only one modern headword overstates the evidence.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 12
RANK 145GRADE Aranked-word prefix
English taboo did not come from Māori tapu.
Māori tapu and English taboo meet deeper in the Oceanic family. English borrowed the Tongan reflex; Māori independently preserves sacredness, prohibition, restriction, and atua protection.
RANK 159GRADE Aranked-word prefix
It did not begin as merely “forbidden.”
Tongan and reconstructed Oceanic evidence joins prohibition and ritual restriction with sacredness and consecration.
RANK 1GRADE Aranked reveal
A stranger became both guest and enemy.
The reciprocal outsider behind guest and host also became Latin hostis, “enemy.”
RANK 2GRADE Aranked reveal
Truth began with firmness and fidelity.
Before truth centered factual correspondence, its family named what was firm, faithful, and steadfast.
RANK 3GRADE Aranked reveal
Robot named forced labor before machinery.
The machine word begins in Czech robota: compulsory labor, corvée, or drudgery.
RANK 4GRADE Acontrarian claim
Humility is an earth-and-lowness metaphor.
Latin humus “ground” produced humilis “low,” then humilitās “lowness,” before the moral virtue.
RANK 5GRADE Aranked reveal
Calculation began with a pebble in the hand.
Latin calculus was a small stone used for reckoning before calculation became abstract.
RANK 6GRADE Aranked reveal
Evidence became a thread you could follow.
Old English cliewen was a ball of thread; the labyrinth metaphor turned it into guidance through uncertainty.
RANK 8GRADE Aranked reveal
Etymology calls itself the “true account.”
Greek ἔτυμος “true, real” joined -λογία “account or study”; even that truth-word reaches a reconstructed root.
RANK 19GRADE Aranked reveal
The x of rēx is a whole nominative sound change in one letter.
Latin starts from the bound stem rēg-, adds nominative -s, devoices g to k, and writes the resulting /ks/ as x. Genitive rēgis makes the stem visible—but it is a sibling case form, not an ancestor.
RANK 20GRADE Aranked reveal
King is a kin-word, not a royal word.
English king continues Old English cyning and Germanic *kuninga-, built on the kin or lineage base *kunja-. Latin rēx, royal, and regal belong to a different root—and even “leader of the kin” overstates the disputed original Germanic sense.
RANK 23GRADE Aranked reveal
The d in kindred is an intruder—and kind is not in the word.
Kindred is kin plus a fossilized native element meaning a condition or state. One branch reaches the birth root; the other reaches a fit-together root. The modern d arrived between n and r after the compound already existed.
0412
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
comparative lexicon17 CLAIM LINKS
TAPU [OC] — Prohibited, under ritual restriction, taboo
Simon J. Greenhill · Ross Clark · Bruce Biggs / 2010
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary8 CLAIM LINKS
Taboo — Word History
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗institutional lexicon4 CLAIM LINKS
Tapu — Te Aka Māori Dictionary
John C. Moorfield / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical text edition2 CLAIM LINKS
Tatian: Lateinisch und altdeutsch mit ausführlichem Glossar, 2nd ed. — section 72, p. 96
Eduard Sievers (editor) / 1892
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗etymological dictionary80 CLAIM LINKS
A Handbook of Germanic Etymology — *xataz, *xatjanan, and *xatōjanan
Vladimir Orel / 2003
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly reference72 CLAIM LINKS
Indo-European Root reg-
Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors / 2022
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly reference60 CLAIM LINKS
Indo-European Root: dhghem-
Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors / 2022
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗research article59 CLAIM LINKS
On the syntax of the Agent nouns in Gothic: the case of nd-formations
Daniel Ayora Estevan / 2023
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly reference48 CLAIM LINKS
Indo-European Root: dheigh-
Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors / 2022
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary48 CLAIM LINKS
Oudnederlands Woordenboek — fīunt
Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal editorial team / 2009
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly reference43 CLAIM LINKS
Indo-European Root deru-
Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors / 2022
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗scholarly reference37 CLAIM LINKS
Indo-European Root genə-
Calvert Watkins and American Heritage Dictionary Editors / 2022
author or editorAUDIT EVERY USE ↗0512
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexicographic first-use record for taboo
taboo / taboo / 1777
Taboo — Word Historyattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexical corpus record
Te Waka Maori o Niu Tirani example
tapu / tapu / 1872 corpus example reported by Te Aka
Tapu — Te Aka Māori Dictionaryattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Matthew 5:44
hatjan / hatjan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 6 — folio 3v, Matthew 5:42–47witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 1:71
hatan / hatan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 145 — folio 123r, Luke 1:69–77witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 6:27
hatan / hatan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 186 — folio 143v, Luke 6:25–30witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 1:71
fijan / fijan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 145 — folio 123r, Luke 1:69–77witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 6:27
fijan / fijan / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 186 — folio 143v, Luke 6:25–30witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, Luke 10:19
fijands / fijands / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 228 — folio 164v, Luke 10:17–21witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Codex Argenteus, John 7:23
hatizōn / hatizōn / early 6th century
Codex Argenteus facsimile 60 — folio 94v, John 7:22–28witness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Heliand manuscript M, enemy command
hatan / hatōn / Heliand composition circa 830–840; Munich manuscript second half of the ninth century
Heliand — BSB Cgm 25, scan 45, folio 22r, hatan locuswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Heliand manuscript M, arrest scene
hatan / hatōn / Heliand composition circa 830–840; Munich manuscript second half of the ninth century
Heliand — BSB Cgm 25, scan 142, hatandiero locuswitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗DIRECTLY INSPECTEDmanuscript
Holm perg 15 4° folio 89v
hata / hata / c1200
ONP manuscript record — Holm perg 15 4° with folio 89v scanwitness excerpt / OPEN RECORD ↗06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.