696
Oh no my harvest is too bountiful (europe.pub)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] 30 points 1 year ago* (7 children)

Fun fact: "nuclear" ultimately comes from the Latin nucula, 'little nut'. The c and l being adjacent is the result of metathesis, similar to pronouncing "ask" as "ax".

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Now go further back. Where does the latin word nucula come from?

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    went further back lol

    Latin: Nux - nut nuculus - diminutive of nut ("little nut")

    Proto-Indo-European: kneu - nut

    I can't find much on where the -culus suffix originated, which seams to be the the place we would want to look if trying to tie the pronunciation of nuclear to the earliest etymological root.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    -ulus according to Wiktionary:
    From Proto-Italic *-elos (whence Faliscan -𐌄𐌋𐌏𐌔 (-elos)), from Proto-Indo-European *-elós, thematized from Proto-Indo-European *-lós.[1] Cognate with Proto-Germanic *-ilaz and *-ulaz, whence no longer productive English -le (as in dimple and nozzle), Dutch -el, German -el.

    So the PIE for little nut would be something like *knewelós

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