Reflections, Reflections

I love discovering the etymology of words and expressions. Here are a few ancient roots from Sanskrit, that metamorphosed into various European languages:

Take the prefixes "un and a" denoting without or opposite and they are common to Indian and English languages and come from Sanskrit origins. Deva, Dyut, Dhola, Divas all derive from the original meaning bright and thus also day, dios, Zeus. Pitru gives rise to pater, father; Matru to mother; Bhratru to brother and fraternal; Dohitru to daughter. Devapitru – the godfather becomes Zeuspater and then Jupiter. Timir the darkness is to be feared and gives rise to timid and timorous. Janma, Janani are birth and mother who gives birth and from it stem gene, genesis, generate. Mrut, Mrutyu are dead and death and hence mortis, mortal, mortality. Sarpa is to slide or slither like a snake, so serpent and serpentine. Maans gives rise to old High German maz, Icelandic matr, then to meat meaning edible flesh. Madhu, Madhur are honey and sweet and from them we get mead and mellitus. Gnana is the basis of spelling knowledge with a K, and hence gnosis, Gnostic and ignorant. Agni is fire and hence the English words ignite, ignition, igneous. Raaj is rule and from it come regis, reign, royal, regina, regal, ragnar. Guru is preceptor but also heavy and hence urdu word gurur-pride, but also in English we have grave, gravid, gravity. Sthaan, Sthit, Sthiti meaning position, stable and condition, give rise to stand, stance, state, static. Vijaya becomes vici and then victory and invincible. Yoga, Yukta give yoke and Bandha, Bandhan are the root of bind, bound, boundary, bond and binding. Pada gives root to podia, podiatry, peddle, pedlar. Graha, Grahas meaning hold or planet and crocodile also give grasp.

Aksha generates ocular and Naas transforms to nose and nasal. Danta is the origin of dental, dentine and dent. Kanthha branches out into cant, chant cantor, canticle. Kapaala most likely changes to Greek kephalos and then cephalic.

Manu the first person gives us man, manual, manhood. Ada morphs to Latin edere, then German essen and to English eat. The relationship is manifest in humanity's faculty of color vision. Palit in Sanskrit is gray and from it comes pale and pallid. Rudra is red and from it comes rubro, ruby and ultimately red. Shweta is white and in Russian Svet is bright and hence Svetlana.

The interchangeability and derivational history of languages is marked by the mileposts of S metamorphosing to H as in Soma to Homa and J changing to Y and H. The Icelandic and Old English words for white are Hvitr and Hwit derived from the Sanskrit by replacing S by H and ultimately leading to white. Equally good is the origin of the names for numbers. Dwi, Tri, Chatur, Pancha, Shat, Sapta, Ashta, Nava, Dasha become Zwei, Trei etc. and end up as two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten but going through Tetra, Penta, Hexa, Hepta or Septa, Octa, Nano, Deca.

I wonder when the Pancha/Penta morphed or was substituted by the Cinq type word?

From wiki:

From latin quinque, from PIE ( Proto-Indo-European) penkwe, cognate with Spanish cinco, English five.

So apparently penkwe generated quinque, by having the "p" turn into a "q" and then a "ch/c" sound for the newer latin derived languages. And "penkwe" seems to have had another route as well: pancha/penta, preserving the initial "p" sound.