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Episode 7: More Indo-European Words

The History of English Podcast

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The Ancient Indo European Word Look

The ancient indo european word spik could mean the act of looking at something, or it could mean how something looked. Spek is also the root of the latin word specra, which is actually the source of the words spectate and spectator,. And old english also had the word wef, which meant woman. Now let's turn to a word which the indo europeans had for man. They had the word man, and they had a separate wiro, which meant man as well. Both of these words came into old english from the Indo-European route word man. In other words, man strictly referred to males, adult males, really. So

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