universitato = Rus. университет, Lit. universitetas, Pol. uniwersytet, Ger. Universität, Fre. université, Ita. università, Eng. university, Lat. universitas
universo = Ita. universo, Eng. universe, Lat. universum
unu = Yid. ejn, Ger. ein, Fre. un, Ita. uno, Eng. one, Lat. unus
unuanima = Fre. unanime, Ita. unanime, Eng. unanimous, Lat. unanimus
unufoje = Fre. une fois
unuforma = Fre. uniforme, Ita. uniforme, Eng. uniform, Lat. uniformis
E.D.E.L. is not an Esperanto – English dictionary; it is for speakers of both English and Esperanto. Therefore I chose to omit the explanation of the meaning of the Esperanto words. If in doubt about the meaning of an Esperanto word, please consult an Esperanto dictionary.
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The Zamenhof Languages
In my opinion, Zamenhof spoke only four languages well. Of these, three were his native languages: Yid. (Yiddish, in his lifetime the language of the Jews living in Bialystok and later in Warsaw), Rus. (his father talked to his family at home in Russian; apart from that, this was the official language of Poland that time, also at school) and Pol. (Polish, the language of the common people living in Warsaw, both Jewish and Gentile). In addition, Zamenhof spoke very well Ger. (German), a language whose perfect command had been a must for all educated Jews living in Warsaw.
As his family hailed from Lithuania, Zamenhof had a keen interest in Lit. (Lithuanian), and although he never spoke this language fluently, his knowledge of Lit. words was clearly reflected in the vocabulary of Esperanto. In addition, it is clear he liked the sounds of this language: Esperanto phonology is obviously following the phonological patterns of Lit. The idea that all Esperanto nouns should end with an -o was – at least in part – borrowed from the masculine ending of Lit. nouns, e.g. fokuso = Lit. fokusas; kokoso = Lit. kokosas; lotuso = Lit. lotosas; patoso = Lit. patosas; radiuso = Lit. radiusas; sinuso = Lit. sinusas; viruso = Lit. virusas.
I started my etymologies with equivalents in the 5 languages cited above.
In his childhood, Zamenhof learned Fre. (French), a language which, at that time, was very much in vogue among educated people all over the Russian Empire, including Poland.
At secondary school and the university, Zamenhof must have picked up a lot of words in Lat. (Latin), and during that time or later on he learned to speak passably Ita. and Eng. (Italian and English). So the second group of my etymologies include the equivalents in these 4 languages.
Zamenhof also learned some classical Greek, but I found only a few traces of this language among the Esperanto words he had constructed. As a consequence, in all instances where the classical Greek word was borrowed by Latin, I included the Latin word, but not the classical Greek word, considering the latter as a redundancy. I included classical Greek only where the etymology is clearly classical Greek, i.e. not a later borrowing by Latin or Romance languages, e.g. amelo = Gre. amylon; ek- = Gre. ek-; hepato = Gre. hepar; kaj = Gre. kai; kripta = Ger. kryptos; osto = Gre. osteon; ronko = Gre. rhonkhos.
As all 10 languages cited above are Indo-European languages, we might fairly assume that Esperanto is also an Indo-European language. Consequently, I have deliberately omitted any reference to Hebrew and Aramaic – two clearly non-Indo-European Zamenhof Languages.
The 13th Zamenhof Language was Spa. (Spanish). However, as I found hardly any traces of this language among the Esperanto words, I deliberately omitted Spa. words from my list. I still made some rare exceptions from this rule is, e.g. ĉino = Spa. chino; iri = Spa. ir; flano = Spa. flan.
Dut. (Dutch) was definitively not a Zamenhof Language. However, I still felt some words should be included; Zamenhof must have heard or rather read some Dut. in his youth, e.g. gisto = Dut. gist; strato = Dut. straat.
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Semantics
In many cases, Zamenhof deliberately chose, in comparison with his source language, another meaning for his words. A good example is sinjorino = Ita. signorina: while sinjorino means 'mrs.', Ita. signorina means 'young lady'. In such cases, the etymology is clearly following the form, not the meaning. In other cases, where the Esperanto meaning is too far-off, I chose not to list these in my E.D.E.L.
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In harmony with some renowned dictionaries (e.g. Oxford, Webster, etc.), for Gre. words I chose to drop the Gre. script, replacing it with transcription. In written Esperanto (as in written Lat.) there seems to be no difference between long and short e and o (that is, between epsilon and êta, and omicron and ômega), so I decided not to mark these.
I also decided to Latinize Yiddish, using ts (and not tz, because ts is usually not Hebrew tsadey, but rather Hebrew tet + samekh) wherever appropriate. The diphtongs ai, ei and oi are spelled as in Esperanto, i.e. aj, ej and oj.
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Lat. consonant clusters: as Zamenhof seemed to insist on keeping all double and multiple consonants, I excluded words with only simple consonants from my list, e.g. perfekta = Ger. perfekt, Eng. perfect, Lat. perfectus (without Fre. parfait, Ita. perfetto); plumo = Fre. plume, Lat. pluma (without Italian piuma); adapti = Rus. адаптировать, Lit. adaptuoti, Fre. adapter, Eng. adapt, Lat. adaptare (without Ita. adattare).
Lat. final -ns: when declined, Lat. final -ns gets substituted with a -nt-. As a consequence, I decided to include in such cases not the basic Lat. word, but rather its pl. (plural) to show the --nt- "hidden" behind the ns: e.g. dento = Lat. (pl.) dentes; aroganta = Lat. (pl.) arrogantes.
Lat. final -s: when declined, Lat. final -s gets sometimes substituted with an -r-. As a consequence, I decided to include in such cases not the basic Lat. word, but rather its pl. (plural) to show the -r- "hidden" behind the -s: floro = Lat. (pl.) flores; kruro = Lat. (pl.) crures.
Lat. final -tia: as Zamenhof decided to use -co, I included only variants with c, excluding variants with z and ti, e.g. distanco = Fre. distance, Eng. distance (without Ger. Distanz, Ita. distanza, Lat. distantia). Exception from this rule is the omnipresent Esperanto suffix -eco, where I included all variants, including Ita. -ezza and Lat. -tia, e.g. avareco = Fre. avarice, Ita. avarezza, Eng. avarice, Lat. avaritia.
Lat. final -tio: Zamenhof decided to use -cio, I included all variants, including Ita. -zione, e.g. deklinacio = Lit. deklinacija, Pol. deklinacja, Ger. Deklination, Fre. déclination, Ita. declinazione, Eng. declination.
Lat. final -x: when declined, Latin final -x gets substituted with either -c- or -g-. As a consequence, I decided to include not the basic Lat. word, but rather its pl. (plural) to show the -c- or -g- "hidden" behind the -x, e.g. grego = Lat. (pl.) greges; leĝo = Lat. (pl.) leges; reĝo = Lat. (pl.) reges; faŭko = Lat. (pl.) fauces; feliĉa = Lat. (pl.) felices.
Lat. initial h's: as Zamenhof seemed to insist on keeping all initial h's, I excluded words without inital h from my list, e.g. havi = Eng. have (without Fre. avoir, Ita. avere); historio = Pol. historia, Fre. histoire, Eng. history (without Rus. иcтopия, Ita. istoria). As Russian changed these initial h to г, I left them out as well.
b/v alternations: as Zamenhof was reluctant to replace b's with v's and vice versa, I excluded such words from my list, e.g. havi = Eng. have (without Yid. hobn, Ger. haben, Lat. habere).
Lit. final ė and e are assumed to be equivalent, e.g. akvarelo = Lit. akvarele; bazo = Lit. baze; bulko = Lit. bulkute; dozo = Lit. doze; flanelo = Lit. flanele; muso = Lit. muse.
f/v alternations: as Zamenhof did not hesitate to alternate f and v (cf. haveno instead of *hafeno, etc.), I also included all such words in my list, e.g. haveno = Ger. Hafen, Eng. haven; lafo = Ita. lava.
k/g and t/d alternations: as Zamenhof did not hesitate to alternate k and g, and t and d before the final vowel (cf. pego instead of *peko, pordo instead of *porto, etc.), I also included all such words in my list, e.g. vorto = Yid. vort, Ger. Wort, Eng. word. On the other hand, if the alternation occurs in an initial position, I excluded such words from my list, e.g. danci = Eng. dance (without Rus. танцевать, Ger. tanzen); trinki = Yid. trinkn, Ger. trinken (without Eng. drink). Exemption from this rule is e.g. krifo = Fre. griffe.
Ger. initial pf and f are assumed to be equivalent, e.g. fajfi = Yid. fayfn, Ger. pfeifen; flegi = Ger. pflegen; fosto = Ger. Pfosten; funto = Rus. фyнт, Ger. Pfund; fuŝi = Ger. pfuschen.
s/z alternations: as Zamenhof did not hesitate to alternate s and z, I also included all such words in my list, e.g. dozo = Rus. дозa, Lit. doze, Pol. doza, Ger. Dose, Fre. dose, Ita. dose, Eng. dose, Gre. dosis; zorgi = Yid. zorgn, Ger. sorgen.
Ger. ß and ss are assumed to be equivalent, e.g. amboso = Ger. Amboss; baso = Ger. Bass; ekspreso = Ger. Express; floso = Ger. Floss; futbalo = Ger. Fussball; kiso = Ger. Kuss; kompaso = Ger. Kompass; kompromiso = Ger. Kompromiss; kongreso = Ger. Kongress; nukso = Ger. Nuss.
Eng. initial th and t are assumed to be equivalent, e.g. tiam = Eng. then, Lat. tum; tie = Rus. тaм, Lit. ten, Pol. tam, Eng. there; tio = Rus. то, Lit. ta, Pol. to, Eng. that; tondri = Fre. tonner, Ita. tonare, Eng. thunder, Lat. tonare; tri = Rus. три, Lit. trys, Fre. trois, Ita. tre, Eng. three, Lat. tres.
Ger./Ita. z: as Esperanto uses only c where German orthography replaced c with z, and the same goes for Italian in a lot of instances, I decided, as a rule, to omit such Ger./Ita. words, e.g. danci = Eng. dance (without Ita. danzare). One exception from this rule is the Italian ending -ezza, e.g. akuteco = Ita. acutezza. Exceptions from this rule are Ger. words of non-Lat. origin, such as caro = Rus. цaрь, Ger. Zar, Fre. tsar, Ita. zar, Eng. tsar; celo = Yid. tsil, Rus. цель, Pol. cel, Ger. Ziel; colo = Yid. tsol, Lit. colis, Ger. Zoll.