βροντήbrontē

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Ancient Greek

Root

bvuma

to roar, rumble, boom; to hum; and hence to assent, to say yes

Greek brontē, thunder, from Shona bvuma, to roar and rumble

Confidence
61/100
Root language
Shona
Descent begins
βροντήGreek

The consensus position

Mainstream comparative linguistics derives βροντή from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem- 'to hum, roar' via a pre-form *bromtā with -mt- assimilating to -nt-, alongside βρέμω and βρόμος, with cognates in Latin fremō, Old English breman and Sanskrit bhramara-. Beekes flags the irregular formation and considers the word possibly Pre-Greek or reshaped by substrate influence; no relation to Bantu is recognised.

The working behind this.

The full descent — 7 links from the attested form down to the root — the segment-by-segment correspondences, the phonological breakdown and the case for the derivation are behind an account.

An account opens 10 entries in full, free.

Elsewhere in the corpus