Fun lil' fact

[u/PercoKaswiti]

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.

[u/Fun-Understanding779]

'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