Characteristics of Cognate Words
Cognates do not need to have the same meaning, which may have changed as the languages developed separately. For example, consider English starve and Dutch sterven or German sterben ("to die"); these three words all derive from the same Proto-Germanic root, *sterƀ- ("die"). English dish and German Tisch ("table"), with their flat surfaces, both come from Latin discus, but it would be a mistake to identify their later meanings. (Such potentially misleading cognate pairs are known as false friends.)
Read more about this topic: Cognate
Famous quotes containing the words characteristics of, cognate and/or words:
“Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Or of the garden where we first mislaid
Simplicity of wish and will, forgetting
Out of what cognate splendor all things came
To take their scattering names;”
—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)
“There are words in that letter to his wife, respecting the education of his daughters, which deserve to be framed and hung over every mantelpiece in the land. Compare this earnest wisdom with that of Poor Richard.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)