@bosak I couldn't resist the temptation to click the button. Acrobat Reader froze and had to be restarted.

When I opened a pdf containing a scanned 505-page volume of a Spanish etymological dictionary, Adobe Acrobat Reader recommended that I "save time by reading a summary using AI Assistant". 🫠

@mirabilos @Tinido Interesting to read how you experienced those phases!

No, I don't understand these Middle and Old English texts with ease. I understand more than the average layman thanks to my lknowledge of historical phonology, grammar and vocabulary, but I'm more of a generalist than a specialist when it comes to those phases. Only people who have enough experience reading full texts become familiar enough with these languages to understand them fluently.

5/ ... an array of etymological dictionaries, such as that of Kroonen (2013), De Vaan (2008), Philippa et al. (2003-2009), and the Oxford English Dictionary.

If you're curious to hear how Proto-West Germanic *Frijjā dag ("Frigg's day") became Old English 'frīġedæġ' and eventually Modern English 'Friday', hree's a video I made in 2024:

4/ ... *frijaz ("free") became 'vrī' > 'vrij', and 'frī' > 'frei'.

Old Norse turned the double j of *Frijjō into gg, producing 'Frigg', just like *ajjan became 'egg' (which English borrowed).

It's knowledge of sound changes like these that allows us to distinguish look-alikes from real descendants. Without it, etymology becoming a guessing game that fosters wild claims.

As a historical linguist, I base my infographics on peer-reviewed scientific sources, among which ... 4/

3/

In Dutch and German, different sound changes operated. There, *fraujōn became 'vrouw(e)' and 'Frau'. Had these languages based their day name on *fraujōn, we would've ended up with **vrouwdag and **Frautag.

The sound string *-ij- in the Proto-Germanic genitive *Frijjōz became Dutch ij, regularly producing Middle Dutch 'vrīdag' and modern 'vrijdag'. Via Old High German 'frīatag', we get 'Freitag'. Compare how ... 3/

2/ ... propagated by non-linguistic sources written by people that go by the looks of words: "X looks like Y so X must descend from Y." It's the biggest pitfall when it comes to etymology.

My infographic explained that 'Frey(j)a' is completely unrelated to 'Friday'. The Old Norse name 'Freyja' comes from Proto-Germanic *fraujōn, which meant "lady". Old Norse regular sound changes made *au undergo i/j-umlaut, turning it into ey. Compare how *draumijanan became Old Norse 'dreyma'.

2/

When I published yesterday's infographic about the origin of the word 'friend', people were surprised that it's related to the first part of 'Friday' and its cognates, such as German 'Freitag' and Dutch 'vrijdag'. As my graphic explained, this part stems from the Proto-Germanic goddess name *Frijjō, which in Old Norse became 'Frigg'.

Several people expressed their disbelief and some even said I was wrong, claiming that 'Friday' contains 'Frey(j)a' instead. Sadly, that's a myth that's ... 1/