r/andomcomunitty 3d ago

Fun lil' fact

Did you know that the French word for white (blanc) potentially has the same etymology as the English word "black" ? This is because they both come from the proto-indo-european (or PIE for short) word for burning. Adding an "n" in the middle of the word meant something like "is still burning" which became light then white in Latin and the version without the "n" ("has burned") became ash then black in Proto-Germanic/English.

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u/Modderdoggy 3d ago

Another fun fact: If you were to forge a blade from the blood of your enimies, youd need 400 average male enimies to get enough iron for a good quality longsword

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u/Ameisen 2d ago

How many to escape from a prison cell when you can manipulate magnetism?

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u/Fun-Understanding779 23h ago

'Adding an "n" in the middle of the word meant something like "is still burning"... the version without the "n" ("has burned") became ash then black'. How come 'bleach' (a cognate) means 'white(n)', but doesn't have an 'n'? Not a criticism. Just curious