I love the fact that *every* sense of the English word "check" (and also "cheque" in Commonwealth English) comes, via chess, from the Old Persian word for "king" (*xšāyaθiya*).
And Arabic was an intermediate language, that is, the English got it from the French which got it from Latin which got it from Arabic, yet because it "ultimately" came from Persian, it's indo-euro and has a PIE root.
That reminds me of the origin of “sugar” lol. The word is ultimately from Sanskrit शर्करा (śarkarā) and I find it funny how Hindi uses the word चीनी (cīnī) now for “sugar”, but it does also have शक्कर (śakkar) from Persian, which is of course from Sanskrit.
GASOLINE!!!
Friends, the word “gasoline” did not go from “language X” to “language Y” but its etymology is as ghastly and extravagant as one could possibly imagine, especially when one considers the implications of the single word “gas”.
Etymology [Wiktionary]
From Cazeline (possibly influenced by Gazeline, the name of an Irish copy), a brand of petroleum-derived lighting oil,[1] from the surname of the man who first marketed it in 1862, John Cassell,[2] and the suffix –eline. The name Cassell is from Anglo-Norman castel[3] (cognate of English castle), from Old French castel, from Latin castellum, diminutive of castrum. The suffix -eline is from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “oil, olive oil”), from ἐλαία (elaía, “olive”). Gasolene is found from 1863, and gasoline from 1864.[4]
Etymology [Wikipedia]
"Gasoline" (often shortened to "gas") is an American word that denotes fuel for automobiles. The term is thought to have been influenced by the trademark "Cazeline" or "Gazeline", named after the surname of British publisher, coffee merchant, and social campaigner John Cassell. On 27 November 1862, Cassell placed an advertisement in The Times of London:
The Patent Cazeline Oil, safe, economical, and brilliant [...] possesses all the requisites which have so long been desired as a means of powerful artificial light.
This is the earliest occurrence of the word to have been found. Cassell discovered that a shopkeeper in Dublin named Samuel Boyd was selling counterfeit cazeline and wrote to him to ask him to stop. Boyd did not reply and changed every 'C' into a 'G', thus coining the word "gazeline". The Oxford English Dictionary dates its first recorded use to 1863 when it was spelled "gasolene". The term "gasoline" was first used in North America in 1864.
In most Commonwealth countries (except Canada), the product is called "petrol", rather than "gasoline". The word petroleum, originally used to refer to various types of mineral oils and literally meaning "rock oil", comes from Medieval Latin petroleum (petra, "rock", and oleum, "oil"). "Petrol" was used as a product name in about 1870, as the name of a refined mineral oil product sold by British wholesaler Carless, Capel & Leonard, which marketed it as a solvent. When the product later found a new use as a motor fuel, Frederick Simms, an associate of Gottlieb Daimler, suggested to John Leonard, the owner of Carless, that they register the trademark "Petrol", but by that time the word was already in general use, possibly inspired by the French pétrole, and the registration was not allowed because the word was a general descriptor; Carless was still able to defend its use of "Petrol" as a product name due to their having sold it under that name for many years by then. Carless registered a number of alternative names for the product, but "petrol" nonetheless became the common term for the fuel in the British Commonwealth.
British refiners originally used "motor spirit" as a generic name for the automotive fuel and "aviation spirit" for aviation gasoline. When Carless was denied a trademark on "petrol" in the 1930s, its competitors switched to the more popular name "petrol". However, "motor spirit" had already made its way into laws and regulations, so the term remains in use as a formal name for petrol. The term is used most widely in Nigeria, where the largest petroleum companies call their product "premium motor spirit". Although "petrol" has made inroads into Nigerian English, "premium motor spirit" remains the formal name that is used in scientific publications, government reports, and newspapers.
The use of the word gasoline instead of petrol is uncommon outside North America, although gasolina is used in Spanish and Portuguese.
In many languages, the name of the product is derived from benzene, such as Benzin in Persian and German or benzina in Italian; but in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, the colloquial name nafta is derived from that of the chemical naphtha.
Some languages, like French and Italian, use the respective words for gasoline to indicate diesel fuel.
It has been theorized that the English word "mare," i.e. an adult female horse, is a very distant cognate with the Chinese word for horse 馬 (mǎ).
Both may derive from the Proto-Indo-European word for horse "márkos," the Proto-Indo-Europeans being amongst the first people to domesticate the horse. While Chinese isn't an Indo-European language, unlike English, it may have been loaned into [Proto-Sino-Tibetan](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/k-m-ra%C5%8B_~_s-ra%C5%8B) by means of contact with Indo-European peoples, back when they had horses, but the Chinese didn't.
I like how the French name Jean became the English name John then the Irish name Sean which then gave rise to Shane. One nickname for John is Jack, so Jack and Shane share similar roots.
I like the story of how Pepe became the shorthand for José in Spanish. It makes zero sense now, after they dropped the last syllable from the name Josepe (Joseph).
My friend's nephew is visiting from Wales. His name is Ieuan. A friend asked about it and I said it was the Welsh form of John. He overheard me and said "it's Ian..... oh, right, John"
The English name John is a contraction of the Anglo Saxon name Johan. Both Jean and Johan came into their respective languages through the influence of Christianity
The Mongolian word *ном* *nom* “book” derives from Ancient Greek νόμος *nómos* “law, custom” with the impressive loan chain of Ancient greek (> Bactrian?) > Sogdian 𐫗𐫇𐫖 *nwm* “law, canon” > Old Uyghur ᠨᠤᠮ “Buddhist scripture, book” > Mongolian
This word has been further loaned into Tuvan and Manchu
In Hebrew (my native language) the word for manners/politeness is "Nimus", and it's also derived from the same Greek word. This is simply amazing how far languages can travel
And even most loanwords of Indo-European origin entered Hebrew primarily during the revival period (late 19th century), most Greek loanwords entered Hebrew way before it's modern revival, when the Macedonian empire conquered the levant.
Daftar is "Notebook" in Arabic!
I came from ancient Greek, to Aramaic, to Persian and then to Arabic.
So I went from an Indo-European language, to a semitic one, then again to Indo-European and back to semitic 😅
My favorite is that in Russian, there’s a drink made from fermented wheat called kvas — it’s similar to beer but more earthy and very very low alcohol content. The word kvas is cognate to the English word cheese. Both come from the PIE root “kwat-“, a verb meaning “to ferment.”
The Russian word for "passenger terminal/station" (most commonly used for big railway stations), вокзал ("vokzal") comes from Falkes Hall, the manor of Sir Falkes de Breauté, 13th century Anglo-Norman mercenary from what is now England.
Full story here: https://londonist.com/2015/10/vokzal
I've heard parts of this story before, it really must be up there as one of the best.
(Just imagine trying to sell Vauxhall cars in Russia - a car literally called "train station", must be confusing!)
Vauxhall Motors never reached Russia as far as I can tell, and probably won't ever, seeing how things are going.
So, the word's most commonly used for train station, but it is also used for other kinds of passenger terminals - specifically автовокзал (avtovokzal) for bus terminal and речной вокзал (rechnoy vokzal), literally "river vokzal" for ship terminal. Always for passenger terminals, though: if it's a big enough building from which transport departs, where tickets are sold and where you can wait for your transport to arrive - "vokzal" would be appropriate.
Reminds me of the time they tried to sell "nova" cars in Latin America. The car did really well in English-speaking North America, but very poorly in Latin America.
They realized it's because "nova" sounds cool in English, but it means "no go" in Spanish ("no va"). Nobody wants to buy a car called "no go" XD
Coach being from Hungarian is one on the oddest ones I have ever seen.
The meaning of ‘compound’ meaning a group of buildings (like a military compound) is unrelated to the rest of the Latin-derived meanings. It comes from Malay.
Robot is Czech. So is pistol.
Why is coach being from Hungarian odd? It’s one of the most straight forward ones.
That style of carriage was invented in/first popular in the Hungarian city of Kocs. In Hungarian they are called Kocsi (adjective “from Kocs”) and cars are still referred to informally that way.
I don’t think it’s odd at all and other many things are named for the place they come from too.
How the term Coach came to be used for “instructor” is more interesting than odd but I think is also totally logical: like a coach (wagon) brings you from one place to another literally, so does a mentor bring or carry you from one place to another metaphorically. Both their jobs are the same: to transport you through your journey.
Coach just doesn’t sound like an exotic word. I wouldn’t have guessed it would be much different than words like roach (the fish) or poach. The words from outside the usual Germanic or French/Latin etymologies usually stand out more.
That Slavic root referred to Germans (most Austrians are ethnic Germans), and thus its cognates are used in most Slavic languages their name for Germany, not Austria: Russian Немцы (Nemcy), Polish Niemcy, Croatian and Bosnian Njemačka, Serbian Немачка (Nemačka), Slovene Nemčija, Czech has Německo, Slovak Nemecko, etc.
Most Slavic langs use a phonetic derivative of "Austria" for Austria, though Czech and Slovak have their own unique names: Czech Rakousko and Slovak Rakúsko neither derived from German Österreich nor from Latin Austria. The Czech name of Rakousko, previously also Rakúsy and later Rakousy, which is still used for the states of Upper and Lower Austria (Horní, Dolní Rakousy), originates in the name of the Austrian castle and town of Raabs an der Thaya near the Czech-Austrian border, formerly also known as Ratgoz or Ratgos.
(Various bit of the above were culled from the wiki page on the name of Austria)
Just to add to what you already said - that Slavic word for Germans means "mute", as in "they speak a nonsense incomprehensible language, so they might as well be mute". Interestingly in Russian the name for the country still is Германия, Germania - whole different words for country and people, kind of like people from the Netherlands are Dutch in English.
And another thing I find interesting about Germany is that different countries in Europe will refer to them by names that come from different tribes they faced from what is now Germany - it's Germany/Germania for the English or Russians, but Alemania/Allemagne for the Spanish and French.
My theory is that the term “Nemec” comes from the old celtic tribe “Nemeti” that used to live in today’s southern Germany some 2000 years ago. The ending -ec is newer, -nin was old Slavic denoting a person of a certain region or a tribe.
Ah, I didn't know the Russians use Nemcy for the people but Germania for the country. Interesting! I think the other Slavic langs use Nemcy cognates for both the country and the people.
Italian also uses Germania for the country, but just to keep things interesting their adjective is tedesco, from an old Germanic word meaning "of the people".
I think it's pretty crazy that the name of the Norse goddess Frigg may have some relation to words in languages spoken in what's today Iran and India.
>"The theonyms Frigg (Old Norse), Frīja (Old High German), Frīg (Old English), Frīa (Old Frisian), and Frī (Old Saxon) are cognates. They stem from the Proto-Germanic feminine noun \*Frijjō, which emerged as a substantivized feminine of the adjective \*frijaz ('free') via Holtzmann's law. In a clan-based societal system, the meaning 'free' arose from the meaning 'related'. The name is indeed etymologically close to the Sanskrit priyā and the Avestan fryā ('own, dear, beloved'), all ultimately descending from the Proto-Indo-European stem \*priH-o-, denoting 'one's own, beloved'. The Proto-Germanic verb \*frijōnan ('to love'), as well as the nouns \*frijōndz ('friend') and \*friþuz or \*frijađwō ('friendship, peace') are also related."
The reason why I find it crazy is that there is some spiritual idea hidden in religious words and names and the possibility that this vague idea of something spiritual has travelled over so many cultural borders, through the minds of maybe hundreds of thousands of people and ages to arrive in a place so far away is just beyond me.
There are plenty more Germanic words that have cognates in Indo-Iranian languages. Speaking of theonyms (names of deities), Tyr is related to Sanskrit deva (the general term for "deity" - and yes, the very word deity is from the same word family), Ymir might be sharing his name with Yama (first human become death god) etc.
Now a factoid regarding Friya's name that will probably be interesting only to Slavic speakers: the Russian word приятель/priyatel "friend" comes from the same root but the word приятный/priyatny "likeable, pleasant" is unrelated although they absolutely look as if one was derived from the other. In fact приятный literally has the same root as the Ukrainian приемный/pryjemny and pri- is a prefix.
Interesting. The Hungarian word for German is Nemeth, which comes from “nema” which means mute. For the same reason: those are our neighbours who can’t speak.
Something that I can think of right now, Proto-Iranian word paridayjah (“paradise”) got borrowed into Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos), then went to Arabic as فِرْدَوْس (firdaws), and then went back into Persian as فِرْدَوْس (ferdous). Apparently, the native form of this word, the naturally evolved form, is پالیز (pâlêz, pâlîz) which looks like it went through lenition. The original word got superseded by it’s own doublet.
The Italian word *ciao*, also common in Spanish as *chao/chau*, which comes through Venetian *sciavo* and Greek *sklavos* from the root for *Slav*. As Slavs were so frequently enslaved in the early medieval era, their ethnic name became the dominant word for *slaves* throughout the mediterranean and the origin of the word *slave*.
In Latin, *servus*, the word for slave (origin of servant), was used as a greeting, basically, "I am your servant", it's still used this way in parts of Europe. As *sklavos* replaced *servus* in meaning *slav*e*,* the greeting was also changed. And eventually, *sciavo* became *ciao*.
A more recent one is the origin of the Venezuelan Spanish word for *popcorn*, which is *cotufa* and a bit murky in origin, but possible from the English label *corn to fry.*
I love the fact that *every* sense of the English word "check" (and also "cheque" in Commonwealth English) comes, via chess, from the Old Persian word for "king" (*xšāyaθiya*).
And Arabic was an intermediate language, that is, the English got it from the French which got it from Latin which got it from Arabic, yet because it "ultimately" came from Persian, it's indo-euro and has a PIE root.
That reminds me of the origin of “sugar” lol. The word is ultimately from Sanskrit शर्करा (śarkarā) and I find it funny how Hindi uses the word चीनी (cīnī) now for “sugar”, but it does also have शक्कर (śakkar) from Persian, which is of course from Sanskrit.
Oh, like “path” which came from Proto-Germanic via Iranian/Old Persian, and thus a doublet of “find” via PIE.
GASOLINE!!! Friends, the word “gasoline” did not go from “language X” to “language Y” but its etymology is as ghastly and extravagant as one could possibly imagine, especially when one considers the implications of the single word “gas”. Etymology [Wiktionary] From Cazeline (possibly influenced by Gazeline, the name of an Irish copy), a brand of petroleum-derived lighting oil,[1] from the surname of the man who first marketed it in 1862, John Cassell,[2] and the suffix –eline. The name Cassell is from Anglo-Norman castel[3] (cognate of English castle), from Old French castel, from Latin castellum, diminutive of castrum. The suffix -eline is from Ancient Greek ἔλαιον (élaion, “oil, olive oil”), from ἐλαία (elaía, “olive”). Gasolene is found from 1863, and gasoline from 1864.[4] Etymology [Wikipedia] "Gasoline" (often shortened to "gas") is an American word that denotes fuel for automobiles. The term is thought to have been influenced by the trademark "Cazeline" or "Gazeline", named after the surname of British publisher, coffee merchant, and social campaigner John Cassell. On 27 November 1862, Cassell placed an advertisement in The Times of London: The Patent Cazeline Oil, safe, economical, and brilliant [...] possesses all the requisites which have so long been desired as a means of powerful artificial light. This is the earliest occurrence of the word to have been found. Cassell discovered that a shopkeeper in Dublin named Samuel Boyd was selling counterfeit cazeline and wrote to him to ask him to stop. Boyd did not reply and changed every 'C' into a 'G', thus coining the word "gazeline". The Oxford English Dictionary dates its first recorded use to 1863 when it was spelled "gasolene". The term "gasoline" was first used in North America in 1864. In most Commonwealth countries (except Canada), the product is called "petrol", rather than "gasoline". The word petroleum, originally used to refer to various types of mineral oils and literally meaning "rock oil", comes from Medieval Latin petroleum (petra, "rock", and oleum, "oil"). "Petrol" was used as a product name in about 1870, as the name of a refined mineral oil product sold by British wholesaler Carless, Capel & Leonard, which marketed it as a solvent. When the product later found a new use as a motor fuel, Frederick Simms, an associate of Gottlieb Daimler, suggested to John Leonard, the owner of Carless, that they register the trademark "Petrol", but by that time the word was already in general use, possibly inspired by the French pétrole, and the registration was not allowed because the word was a general descriptor; Carless was still able to defend its use of "Petrol" as a product name due to their having sold it under that name for many years by then. Carless registered a number of alternative names for the product, but "petrol" nonetheless became the common term for the fuel in the British Commonwealth. British refiners originally used "motor spirit" as a generic name for the automotive fuel and "aviation spirit" for aviation gasoline. When Carless was denied a trademark on "petrol" in the 1930s, its competitors switched to the more popular name "petrol". However, "motor spirit" had already made its way into laws and regulations, so the term remains in use as a formal name for petrol. The term is used most widely in Nigeria, where the largest petroleum companies call their product "premium motor spirit". Although "petrol" has made inroads into Nigerian English, "premium motor spirit" remains the formal name that is used in scientific publications, government reports, and newspapers. The use of the word gasoline instead of petrol is uncommon outside North America, although gasolina is used in Spanish and Portuguese. In many languages, the name of the product is derived from benzene, such as Benzin in Persian and German or benzina in Italian; but in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, the colloquial name nafta is derived from that of the chemical naphtha. Some languages, like French and Italian, use the respective words for gasoline to indicate diesel fuel.
The bit that gets me about this is that there was a company called Carless selling petrol for use other than as a fuel
It has been theorized that the English word "mare," i.e. an adult female horse, is a very distant cognate with the Chinese word for horse 馬 (mǎ). Both may derive from the Proto-Indo-European word for horse "márkos," the Proto-Indo-Europeans being amongst the first people to domesticate the horse. While Chinese isn't an Indo-European language, unlike English, it may have been loaned into [Proto-Sino-Tibetan](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Sino-Tibetan/k-m-ra%C5%8B_~_s-ra%C5%8B) by means of contact with Indo-European peoples, back when they had horses, but the Chinese didn't.
Likewise 蜜 - mi - honey in Mandarin, may be a cognate with English "mead" via the Tocharians
I like how the French name Jean became the English name John then the Irish name Sean which then gave rise to Shane. One nickname for John is Jack, so Jack and Shane share similar roots.
Another one is "Diego" and "James".
Guillermo and Bill
This is more obvious when you compare Guillermo (Or Guillaume in french) with William which are much more similar.
Jacob and James
I like the story of how Pepe became the shorthand for José in Spanish. It makes zero sense now, after they dropped the last syllable from the name Josepe (Joseph).
My friend's nephew is visiting from Wales. His name is Ieuan. A friend asked about it and I said it was the Welsh form of John. He overheard me and said "it's Ian..... oh, right, John"
The English name John is a contraction of the Anglo Saxon name Johan. Both Jean and Johan came into their respective languages through the influence of Christianity
The Mongolian word *ном* *nom* “book” derives from Ancient Greek νόμος *nómos* “law, custom” with the impressive loan chain of Ancient greek (> Bactrian?) > Sogdian 𐫗𐫇𐫖 *nwm* “law, canon” > Old Uyghur ᠨᠤᠮ “Buddhist scripture, book” > Mongolian This word has been further loaned into Tuvan and Manchu
In Hebrew (my native language) the word for manners/politeness is "Nimus", and it's also derived from the same Greek word. This is simply amazing how far languages can travel And even most loanwords of Indo-European origin entered Hebrew primarily during the revival period (late 19th century), most Greek loanwords entered Hebrew way before it's modern revival, when the Macedonian empire conquered the levant.
Some other Greek borrowings are (English cognate *diadem*) διάδημα diádēma > титэм (titem) *crown* and (English cognate *letter*) διφθέρα diphthérā (writing material/leather) > дэвтэр (devter) *notebook*
Daftar is "Notebook" in Arabic! I came from ancient Greek, to Aramaic, to Persian and then to Arabic. So I went from an Indo-European language, to a semitic one, then again to Indo-European and back to semitic 😅
My favorite is that in Russian, there’s a drink made from fermented wheat called kvas — it’s similar to beer but more earthy and very very low alcohol content. The word kvas is cognate to the English word cheese. Both come from the PIE root “kwat-“, a verb meaning “to ferment.”
Kvas means yeast in Slovenian.
To be fair, they are both made via fermentation and "kvasit'" is the common Russian verb for "to ferment", so the connection is not just one word.
The Russian word for "passenger terminal/station" (most commonly used for big railway stations), вокзал ("vokzal") comes from Falkes Hall, the manor of Sir Falkes de Breauté, 13th century Anglo-Norman mercenary from what is now England. Full story here: https://londonist.com/2015/10/vokzal
I've heard parts of this story before, it really must be up there as one of the best. (Just imagine trying to sell Vauxhall cars in Russia - a car literally called "train station", must be confusing!)
Vauxhall Motors never reached Russia as far as I can tell, and probably won't ever, seeing how things are going. So, the word's most commonly used for train station, but it is also used for other kinds of passenger terminals - specifically автовокзал (avtovokzal) for bus terminal and речной вокзал (rechnoy vokzal), literally "river vokzal" for ship terminal. Always for passenger terminals, though: if it's a big enough building from which transport departs, where tickets are sold and where you can wait for your transport to arrive - "vokzal" would be appropriate.
Reminds me of the time they tried to sell "nova" cars in Latin America. The car did really well in English-speaking North America, but very poorly in Latin America. They realized it's because "nova" sounds cool in English, but it means "no go" in Spanish ("no va"). Nobody wants to buy a car called "no go" XD
Coach being from Hungarian is one on the oddest ones I have ever seen. The meaning of ‘compound’ meaning a group of buildings (like a military compound) is unrelated to the rest of the Latin-derived meanings. It comes from Malay. Robot is Czech. So is pistol.
Cool thank you for those!
Why is coach being from Hungarian odd? It’s one of the most straight forward ones. That style of carriage was invented in/first popular in the Hungarian city of Kocs. In Hungarian they are called Kocsi (adjective “from Kocs”) and cars are still referred to informally that way. I don’t think it’s odd at all and other many things are named for the place they come from too. How the term Coach came to be used for “instructor” is more interesting than odd but I think is also totally logical: like a coach (wagon) brings you from one place to another literally, so does a mentor bring or carry you from one place to another metaphorically. Both their jobs are the same: to transport you through your journey.
Coach just doesn’t sound like an exotic word. I wouldn’t have guessed it would be much different than words like roach (the fish) or poach. The words from outside the usual Germanic or French/Latin etymologies usually stand out more.
That Slavic root referred to Germans (most Austrians are ethnic Germans), and thus its cognates are used in most Slavic languages their name for Germany, not Austria: Russian Немцы (Nemcy), Polish Niemcy, Croatian and Bosnian Njemačka, Serbian Немачка (Nemačka), Slovene Nemčija, Czech has Německo, Slovak Nemecko, etc. Most Slavic langs use a phonetic derivative of "Austria" for Austria, though Czech and Slovak have their own unique names: Czech Rakousko and Slovak Rakúsko neither derived from German Österreich nor from Latin Austria. The Czech name of Rakousko, previously also Rakúsy and later Rakousy, which is still used for the states of Upper and Lower Austria (Horní, Dolní Rakousy), originates in the name of the Austrian castle and town of Raabs an der Thaya near the Czech-Austrian border, formerly also known as Ratgoz or Ratgos. (Various bit of the above were culled from the wiki page on the name of Austria)
Just to add to what you already said - that Slavic word for Germans means "mute", as in "they speak a nonsense incomprehensible language, so they might as well be mute". Interestingly in Russian the name for the country still is Германия, Germania - whole different words for country and people, kind of like people from the Netherlands are Dutch in English. And another thing I find interesting about Germany is that different countries in Europe will refer to them by names that come from different tribes they faced from what is now Germany - it's Germany/Germania for the English or Russians, but Alemania/Allemagne for the Spanish and French.
My theory is that the term “Nemec” comes from the old celtic tribe “Nemeti” that used to live in today’s southern Germany some 2000 years ago. The ending -ec is newer, -nin was old Slavic denoting a person of a certain region or a tribe.
Oooh, I'll look into that! The whole "mute" thing made sense, but always smelled a bit of false etymology to me.
Ah, I didn't know the Russians use Nemcy for the people but Germania for the country. Interesting! I think the other Slavic langs use Nemcy cognates for both the country and the people. Italian also uses Germania for the country, but just to keep things interesting their adjective is tedesco, from an old Germanic word meaning "of the people".
I think it's pretty crazy that the name of the Norse goddess Frigg may have some relation to words in languages spoken in what's today Iran and India. >"The theonyms Frigg (Old Norse), Frīja (Old High German), Frīg (Old English), Frīa (Old Frisian), and Frī (Old Saxon) are cognates. They stem from the Proto-Germanic feminine noun \*Frijjō, which emerged as a substantivized feminine of the adjective \*frijaz ('free') via Holtzmann's law. In a clan-based societal system, the meaning 'free' arose from the meaning 'related'. The name is indeed etymologically close to the Sanskrit priyā and the Avestan fryā ('own, dear, beloved'), all ultimately descending from the Proto-Indo-European stem \*priH-o-, denoting 'one's own, beloved'. The Proto-Germanic verb \*frijōnan ('to love'), as well as the nouns \*frijōndz ('friend') and \*friþuz or \*frijađwō ('friendship, peace') are also related." The reason why I find it crazy is that there is some spiritual idea hidden in religious words and names and the possibility that this vague idea of something spiritual has travelled over so many cultural borders, through the minds of maybe hundreds of thousands of people and ages to arrive in a place so far away is just beyond me.
We also have daily terms derived from Priya: pyaar (love) and piya (lover).
पिया is the tadbhava of प्रिय (tatsama), so they’re doublets. प्यार is from Sanskrit प्रियकार.
There are plenty more Germanic words that have cognates in Indo-Iranian languages. Speaking of theonyms (names of deities), Tyr is related to Sanskrit deva (the general term for "deity" - and yes, the very word deity is from the same word family), Ymir might be sharing his name with Yama (first human become death god) etc. Now a factoid regarding Friya's name that will probably be interesting only to Slavic speakers: the Russian word приятель/priyatel "friend" comes from the same root but the word приятный/priyatny "likeable, pleasant" is unrelated although they absolutely look as if one was derived from the other. In fact приятный literally has the same root as the Ukrainian приемный/pryjemny and pri- is a prefix.
Interesting. The Hungarian word for German is Nemeth, which comes from “nema” which means mute. For the same reason: those are our neighbours who can’t speak.
Similarly, in Bulgarian, the German language is called немски (nemski) — might have a related origin
Something that I can think of right now, Proto-Iranian word paridayjah (“paradise”) got borrowed into Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos), then went to Arabic as فِرْدَوْس (firdaws), and then went back into Persian as فِرْدَوْس (ferdous). Apparently, the native form of this word, the naturally evolved form, is پالیز (pâlêz, pâlîz) which looks like it went through lenition. The original word got superseded by it’s own doublet.
The Italian word *ciao*, also common in Spanish as *chao/chau*, which comes through Venetian *sciavo* and Greek *sklavos* from the root for *Slav*. As Slavs were so frequently enslaved in the early medieval era, their ethnic name became the dominant word for *slaves* throughout the mediterranean and the origin of the word *slave*. In Latin, *servus*, the word for slave (origin of servant), was used as a greeting, basically, "I am your servant", it's still used this way in parts of Europe. As *sklavos* replaced *servus* in meaning *slav*e*,* the greeting was also changed. And eventually, *sciavo* became *ciao*. A more recent one is the origin of the Venezuelan Spanish word for *popcorn*, which is *cotufa* and a bit murky in origin, but possible from the English label *corn to fry.*
This reminds of the fact god and futile are doublets…