"eye" in seven languages
Meaningeye
Spanish
/ˈoxo/
masc.inherited
French
/œj/
masc.inherited
plural: yeux
The plural yeux [jø] looks unrelated: it comes from OCULOS, worn down differently.
Italian
/ˈɔkkjo/
masc.inherited
Portuguese
/ˈoʎu/
masc.inherited
Romanian
/okʲ/
masc.inherited
plural: ochi
Catalan
/uʎ/
masc.inherited
English
/aɪ/
Indo-European kin · PIE *h₃ekʷ-
Native eye and borrowed ocular are distant cognates: both from PIE *h₃ekʷ-.
The Latin ancestor
OCULUM‘eye’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Spoken Latin squeezed OCULUM to *oclu; each sister then softened the cl its own way: Spanish to a throaty j, French to a glide, Italian to cchi.
English relatives: ocular, binoculars, inoculate
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esTiene los ojos azules.
- frElle a les yeux bleus.
- itHa gli occhi azzurri.
- ptEla tem olhos azuis.
- roAre ochi albaștri.
- caTé els ulls blaus.
- enShe has blue eyes.
The Latin family
OCUL-· eye
OCULUM, squeezed to *OCLU, is the classic showcase of the sisters' sound laws: ojo, œil, occhio. The learned branch is pure Latin (ocular, inoculate, from 'grafting a bud', an 'eye'), and French hides the root in aveugle 'blind', most likely from AB OCULĪS 'without eyes'. Portuguese olho, Romanian ochi and Catalan ull continue the pattern.
OCULUMeye
esojofrœilitocchioptolhoroochicaull
OCULĀREMof the eye
esocularfroculaireitoculareptocularroocularcaocularenocular
INOCULĀREto graft (insert a bud, 'an eye')
esinocularfrinoculeritinoculareptinocularroinoculacainoculareninoculate
MONOCULUM (Late Latin)one-eyed
esmonóculofrmonocleitmonocoloptmonóculoromonoclucamonocleenmonocle
AB OCULĪSwithout eyes
fraveugle