Pag

I've taken all information on Indo-European roots from "The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European roots", revised and edited by Calvert Watkins, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2000. I've just written it in my own words (and possibly misinterpreted some of the information!). I bought it on Amazon a couple of years ago.

All Indo-European roots have been reconstructed, based on the various languages that have evolved from them. There is no written record of the original Indo-European language or languages, as they are pre-historic. You really have to admire the work done by linguists who have devoted their lives to reconstructing these roots. What I love is the way sounds have evolved. For instance, p and f are from the same letter originally - pag and fasten

The root pag means to fasten. There are various forms of it - There is a nasalized form pa-n-g, which has produced the Old English fang, which means plunder, booty. In Dutch, apparently, vangen means to catch. The nasalized form is at the root of the word newfangled.

In Latin, pangere meant to fasten. From it, you get compact, impact, impinge.

Another form of the root is pak (there are a few squiggles on top of the "a" in the dictionary that I can't reproduce here), which has given the Latin word pax, which means peace - "a binding together by treaty or agreement" That's where I find it becomes all so interesting - From this, you get the following words: peace, pacify, Pacific, appease.

Then, there is a suffixed form pak-slo, which has given the Latin word palus, which means stake (fixed in the ground). From this, you get palisade, pole, impale, travail (which means work in French) and travel! I read on a website somewhere that the words travail and travel were derived from a form of torture in which three (travail, travel) stakes (pag) were attached together. So the French word travail and the English word travel basically have their origin in some form of torture. Definitely not a holiday! Note, however, that I wasn't able to verify the validity of that statement. It sounds plausible, though.

And then, you have the words pagan and peasant, derived from the Latin pagus, which means "boundary staked out on the ground, district, village, country"

And here is another one: pectin, from the Greek pegnunai, to fasten, coagulate.

And here is my personal favourite: page (like a page you write on). Now, how does that relate to fasten?, you might wonder. The Latin pagina means "trellis to which a row of vines is fixed", hence (by metaphor) column of writing, page.

All of this from one little Indo-European root - pag

And this is why I love diachronic linguistics.