Words are like us, they have families. Etymologists hunt down the DNA of our vocabulary, so that we can find out their ancient ancestors from all around the world and we learn that we end up with words that have changed both spelling and meaning over the years but still retain similarities.

Words that sound similar sometimes seem to come from different sources. However, most European languages come from the branches of the great Indo-European language family and are all related way back.

Here are some examples:

Shine comes from Old English scinan ‘to shed light, be radiant, be resplendent, illuminate’. It’s interesting to note that the past tense of shine, as in ‘the sun shone’ is different when used as a transitive verb, as in ‘she shined her shoes’.

A relative of shine is sheen, which meant ‘beautiful’ or ‘resplendent’ and comes from the German schön ‘fair, beautiful’. In Middle English it was used after a woman’s name, meaning ‘fair one, beautiful woman’. Now it means the soft lustre on a surface or refers to the glossiness of a tin of paint. And of course it’s also a surname (actors Martin or Michael).

Another relative is shimmer, ‘to shine with a soft, tremulous light’ from Old English scymrian. It’s a little brighter than its rhyming mate ‘glimmer’ which means ‘to shine faintly with a wavering light’.

Some words referring to sound are plainly onomatopoeic, meaning they sound like the noise they describe.

Clang meaning ‘a metallic sound’ or ‘to make a ringing sound’ came from the Latin clangere ‘resound’. Clink from the Dutch klinken means ‘a sharp ringing sound such as striking metal or glass’. Maybe the meaning of clink as ‘prison’ comes from the sound of the keys clanking on the chain attached to the prison warder.

Clank, a loud sharp series of metallic sounds, is probably a blend of clang and clink. Clatter comes from the Low German klattern ‘to rattle’. And clash, meaning ‘to make a loud, sharp sound’ is possibly a blend of clap and crash and comes from German klatschen.

Grip comes from French gripper ‘to seize’ and grab, grope and grasp come from Old English grapian ‘to touch, feel, grope’.

Grapple (and grape) come from Old French grapil, a hook used to hook the grape bunches in vineyard harvesting.

This led to grippe, once meaning ‘influenza’ in French, referring to the constriction of the throat which felt like it was being ‘gripped’. This is where we also get gripe from, the intestinal colic pain that feels like the colon is being gripped. And if you have had a baby with gripe, you will certainly remember it!

Happy Father’s Day and happy puzzling!