After seeing a word in French, a light bulb went on, but I don't know if I'm right. Since there are such awesome experts here, I thought I'd ask. Do the words "winter" and "hibernate" share etymologies? Thanks! :0)

hmm.
from etymonline:

and


strange that "gheim=winter" isn't mentioned in the etymology for winter....

and coincidentally, I've been listening to Bon Iver

And what is French for winter?

hiver

which is why I thought you brought up hibernate?

hiver and invierno share the same root, she added helpfully.

Bon Iver sang the Emma Song in a lift in the Amsterdam Paradiso theater last year. A song.
(Behind) Closed Doors

*ghei- is not the source of the word "winter", so it's not strange at all.

?
so, doesn't your kink confirm that "gheim" IS the base for winter?

so, doesn't your kink confirm that "gheim" IS the base for winter?

No, goofy's link shows that the PIE root glossed as winter is the origin of Latin hiems 'winter], hibernus] 'pertaining to winter', (it's also the source of Sanskrit hima 'cold, frost; snow' whence Himalayas the mountain range). Some derive English winter (and the other Germanic words like German Winter) from PIE *kweid- 'white, light'.

Looks like right from the PIE root the diversion and confusion starts?
Today's word has in it's tail another winter word:

brumal:
[From Latin brumalis (pertaining to winter), from brevima dies (shortest day or winter solstice), from brevis (short). Other words that are derived from the same Latin root are abbreviate, abridge, brevity, breve, and brevet.] Those Romans...

Exactly! I am actually surprised that there doesn't seem to be a connection.

ok, I'm confused. PIE gheim -> heims -> winter, no?

maybe I'm just not reading the nomenclature correctly?

ok, I'm confused. PIE gheim -> heims -> winter, no?

No. We have two different PIE roots:

1. *gheim-- 'winter' > Latin hiems > French hiver.

2. *kweid 'white, light (in color)' > English white, winter.

You're confusing the the meaning of a Latin word or PIE root (which is given in English) with the roots and words in other languages. The problem is one of those words we are discussing shows up both as a word the etymology of which we are discussing (e.g., winter) as well as the given meaning of the some foreign words (e.g., hiems, hiver). I try in my posts to distinguish between the two different kinds of words by putting the roots under discussion in italics and the meanings in 'single quotation marks' (actually foot signs for the nit-pickier than I).

The thing is that PIE *gh- does not correspond to an English w-, but to English g-, as in the etymology for go I posted in another thread. PIE *kw- corresponds to Old English hw- (by Grimm's law of stops turning into fricatives), which becomes wh- in English. There is a problem with PIE *kweid- (see link in AHD) being the actual root that English winter 'winter' came from, and that is what happened to the h. That's why I hedged and said "some" trace English winter back to PIE *kweid- 'white'. The truth is more likely that we will never know. It is interesting that all many of the IE daughter languages, except for the Germanic, have survivals of the PIE root *gheim- 'winter': e.g., Baltic, Slavic, Greek, Italic, Indic.

ah! the foot signs ' ' make all the difference. I was confusing root etymology with meaning.

thank you, zmj, for taking the time to clear that up for me!

and my fiancée laughs at me because I say "hwite"...

:¬ )

because I say "hwite"

Sadly my dialect lacks these hs. Do you pronounce the h in whale? I ask because it is not, etymologically speaking, supposed to be there. (And how many syllables in drawer? 1, 1.5, 2, or 3?)

whale - yup, I say hwale. silly me. learning my hws apparently transfers to all whs!

and drawer, well, is that a wooden place in a cabinet, or someone who draws? 1.5 for the former, and 2 for the latter.

:¬ )

so the reason for the absence of *gheim is a little German(ic) secret?

so the reason for the absence of *gheim is a little German(ic) secret?

धन! Best laugh I've had in a month. Thanks. (But just in case, German geheim 'secret' is related to German Heimat 'homeland', English home < PIE *tkei- (link).)

Okay, all gobbledygook aside, what is the Final Answer??? Is, or is there not, a connection between hibernate and winter? I can't pull out a definitive answer from all the posts... thanks! :0)

PS I say hwite, hwile, hwy, hwich, etc. etc. I have been "corrected" by my students for pronouncing them incorrectly...

well of course there's a connection; hibernation is what your sensible Northern mammal does during the winter! all kidding aside, it would seem to depend on your frame of reference, ron replied, relatively speaking.

There's no etymological connection.

Okay, all gobbledygook aside, what is the Final Answer?

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." [Arthur C. Clarke]

As tsuwm said earlier: if you're asking about semantics, yes they are related. And, as goofy said a little later on: if you're asking about etymological connection, no.

I have been "corrected" by my students for pronouncing them incorrectly...

Yeah, prescriptivism is a female dog, ain't it. I've stopped correcting most people who pronounce often with a t or err as air. As Faldo said elsewheres: "shift happens".

actuarially, that's been said around these parts, early and often, by Max (y'all should read some of these old threads!)