false cognate of the day

[kaberett]

tavern (Latin taberna) and town (German Zaun i.e. a fence)...

... except then you go back a bit further and "taberna" is PIE *treb-, "wooden beam", which sounds like it might be related back to fencing, and indeed is the source of the German Dorf "village", which is a bit like a town...

... but no! because town is in fact derived from PIE *dʰewh₂- ("to finish, come full circle"), via hill forts.

Obviously.

Comments

[davidgillon]

That's a bit beyond the Pale ;)

'treb' to 'dorf', yeah, that's obvious, right.

[wordweaverlynn]

Now I have an earworm of "There Is a Tavern in the Town."

[ewx]

Something seems to have gone with Wiktionary's referential integrity there; *dʰewh₂- is all smoke, mists and hazes (e.g. > dew in Modern English), rather than enclosures, completion and circles.

down < ofdūne "off the hill" is my favourite etymology in this area, anyway. hyper vs hypo, super vs sub, up vs ... down.