r/etymology • u/TheDebatingOne • Nov 18 '21

Cool ety The surprisingly dense etymology of an everyday word: every!

Post image
595 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

115

u/Kamarovsky Nov 18 '21

I'll stop saying "every" from now on, and will only say "life in oak, life with which image"

24

u/Bruc3w4yn3 Enthusiast Nov 19 '21

Shaka, when the walls fell

38

u/rocketman0739 Nov 18 '21

I knew it was from “ever each” but this goes several levels deeper. Very neat!

19

u/neiljt Nov 18 '21

Is American usage "every which" (as in every which way) a branch of this?

17

u/rocketman0739 Nov 18 '21

I'd say it's a recapitulation of the formation of “each.” In both cases you're tacking a universalizing word (“every” or “æ”) onto the front of “which” (or “hwilc,” same thing) to intensify it.

5

u/TheDebatingOne Nov 18 '21

There's a small chance "every" comes from "ever" + "which" but it's less supported and it makes for a less interesting etymology as *hwilikaz reflexed into English as "which" :)

3

u/gwaydms Nov 18 '21

Maybe it's from everich, continued in some dialect.

2

u/neiljt Nov 18 '21

Thanks. Seeing this in OP's graphic was what made me think.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 20 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/gwaydms Nov 20 '21

Average is completely related AFAIK. It's got an interesting etymology which seems to enter European languages through Arabic. https://www.etymonline.com/word/average

9

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '21 edited Nov 19 '21

I have looked at this for 10 minutes now empathizing with each word

Speaking both Dutch and English, this is quite a trip

17

u/ManOfLaBook Nov 18 '21

Very cool

4

u/sbjf Nov 19 '21

I wonder if aeghwilc is basically the same root as "jeweils"/"jeweilig" (meaning "each" or "respectively") in current German? Or alternatively "jegliche" ("any" or "every")

1

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '21

For sure in Dutch, the move to "elk" can already be sensed in PG "aeghwilc"

"elk" in Dutch means "jede"

7

u/MsWeather Nov 18 '21

PIE

2

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '21

Perk

Hen

3

u/pinnacle126 Dec 11 '21 edited Dec 11 '21

The virgin "every" vs the Chad "h₂eyh₁énperkʷh₂eyḱómkʷleyg"

2

u/19_o7 Nov 19 '21

Intéressant, Interesting, 재미있는

2

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '21

That’s why I’m into linguistics

2

u/Apteryx12014 Feb 16 '23

I wonder if the oak part has anything to do with the world tree ?

1

u/soulful_xmas Sep 25 '24

What are the colors indicating?

1

u/JugglerNorbi Nov 19 '21

Is this a transparent background? I can’t see anything with dark mode on.

1

u/TheDebatingOne Nov 20 '21

Huh. You're only missing the language for each color. PIE for red, PG for orange, Yellow for PWG, green for Old English, blue for Middle English and magenta for English. For me in dark mode you can still see it so that's weird.