DJO-in ['dʑowɪn]
Historisch taalkundige, schrijver van 'Die goeie ouwe taal' en 'Woord voor woord, en vaste auteur bij Onze Taal
Historical linguist, writer
photo: Dirk-Jan van Dijk
| Linktree | https://www.linktr.ee/yvanspijk |
| All my infographics on Tumblr | https://www.tumblr.com/yvanspijk |
| Support me on Patreon | https://www.patreon.com/yvanspijk |
Waarom heeft 'zoeken' de vreemde verleden tijd 'zocht'?
Je ontdekt het in mijn nieuwe artikel - met uitstapjes naar het Engels, Duits, Brabants, Limburgs en Nedersaksisch.
Tussendoor kun je luisteren naar de gereconstrueerde uitspraak van historische woorden.
https://taalaandewandel.com/2026/03/29/zoeken-zocht-to-search/
Waarom heeft 'zoeken' de vreemde verleden tijd 'zocht'?
Je ontdekt het in mijn nieuwe artikel - met uitstapjes naar het Engels, Duits, Brabants, Limburgs en Nedersaksisch.
Tussendoor kun je luisteren naar de gereconstrueerde uitspraak van historische woorden.
https://taalaandewandel.com/2026/03/29/zoeken-zocht-to-search/
Despite their similar meaning and appearance, the verbs ‘to search’ and ‘to seek’ don’t have any etymological relationship whatsoever.
‘To seek’ comes straight from the Proto-Germanic ancestor of English, while ‘to search’ was borrowed from a French word related to ‘circle’. Searching is going around looking for something.
Click my new infographic to learn all about these word families.
‘To seek’ has the highly irregular past tense ‘sought’. Why does the k become a silent gh? And why ... 1/
2/ ... does it have ou instead of ee?
In the extra long article on my Patreon (1300 words, tier 1), you’ll learn that this irregular past tense started out perfectly regular but became irregular due to regular sound changes.
You’ll also discover that what happened with ‘to seek ~ sought’ is connected to the irregularities of verbs such as ‘to teach ~ taught’, ‘to think ~ thought’ and ‘to buy ~ bought’.
Despite their similar meaning and appearance, the verbs ‘to search’ and ‘to seek’ don’t have any etymological relationship whatsoever.
‘To seek’ comes straight from the Proto-Germanic ancestor of English, while ‘to search’ was borrowed from a French word related to ‘circle’. Searching is going around looking for something.
Click my new infographic to learn all about these word families.
‘To seek’ has the highly irregular past tense ‘sought’. Why does the k become a silent gh? And why ... 1/
The words ‘power’, ‘host’, ‘potential’, ‘impotent’, ‘possible’, ‘posse’, and ‘to possess’ all contain the same Proto-Indo-European word: *pótis, meaning “master”.
Click my new graphic to learn how they evolved through derivatives in Latin, sound changes in Romance, and borrowings into English:
The Indo-European word *pótis (“master”) also became Lithuanian ‘pàts’ (“husband”), Ancient Greek ‘pósis’ (“husband”), and Sanskrit ‘páti’ (“husband; master; lord”).
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Moreover, the word can be found in a number of derivatives:
- Ancient Greek ‘despótēs’ (“master; owner; despot”, from *déms pótis, “master of the house”), whence English ‘despot’;
- Proto-Slavic *gȍspodь (cognate of Latin ‘hospes’, from *gʰóstipotis), which became Czech ‘Hospodin’ (“God”), Russian ‘Gospódʹ’ (“God”), and Slovene ‘gospod’ (“gentleman; sir; God”) and many others.
- Gothic ‘brūþfaþs’ (“bridegroom”, with ‘faþs’ from Proto-Germanic *fadiz, from *potís).
The words ‘power’, ‘host’, ‘potential’, ‘impotent’, ‘possible’, ‘posse’, and ‘to possess’ all contain the same Proto-Indo-European word: *pótis, meaning “master”.
Click my new graphic to learn how they evolved through derivatives in Latin, sound changes in Romance, and borrowings into English:
The Indo-European word *pótis (“master”) also became Lithuanian ‘pàts’ (“husband”), Ancient Greek ‘pósis’ (“husband”), and Sanskrit ‘páti’ (“husband; master; lord”).
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Zondagmiddag vertellen Kristel Doreleijers en ik over de taal van verschillende generaties.
Zoals je van mij gewend bent, neem ik je mee in ons verre taalverleden - 50 tot 150 generaties terug.
Ik laat zien dat taal altijd verandert, maar niet verloedert.
22 maart van 13.30 uur tot 15.30 uur
Huis van het Boek, Prinsessegracht 30- 31, 2514 AP Den Haag
€ 7,50 voor leden van Onze Taal en vrienden van Huis van het Boek;
€ 10,- voor andere geïnteresseerden
Kaartverkoop:
https://onzetaalwebwinkel.nl/diversen/ticket-de-taal-van-mijn-generatie
Provincie Overijssel