book

book = a collection of printed pages bound together in English

What do English “book”, German “Buch”, Dutch “boek”, Danish “bog”, Icelandic “bók”, Norwegian & Swedish “bok”, all meaning “book”, have in common with the Slavic “buk” (Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, Croatian), “bukev” (Slovene), “бук” {buk} (Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian) and “букa” {buka} (Macedonian), meaning “beech”?

Well, they are cognates. They all come from the Proto-Indo-European *bʰehǵos (beech).

In Germanic languages the meaning change from “beech” to “book” is explained by the fact that smooth beech bark was commonly used as parchment.
*bʰehǵos (beech) in PIE > *bōkō (beech), *bōks (beech, book) in Proto-Germanic > *bōkijā (beech) in Proto-West-Germanic, “bók” (beech, book) in Old Norse > “book” / “beech” in English, “Buch” / “Buche” in German, “boek” / “beuk” in Dutch, “bog” / “bøg” in Danish, “bók” / “beyki” in Icelandic, “bok” / “bøk” in Norwegian and “bok” / “bok” in Swedish.

In Slavic languages the path was as follows:
*bʰehǵos (beech) in PIE > *bōkō (beech) in Proto-Germanic > *bukъ (beech) in Proto-Slavic > “buk” in Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lower Sorbian, Upper Sorbian, Croatian, “bukev” in Slovene, “бук” {buk} in Russian, Belarussian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Bulgarian and “букa” {buka} in Macedonian

Photo by @lukaszdaciuk (Instagram)

#dailylogorrhoea #logorrhoea #linguistics #words #languages #focail #teangacha #słowa #języki #sanat #kielet #слова #мови #slova #jazyky #kelimeler #diller