ζῷονzōon
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Root
-gwina
to be firm, tough, hardy; to hold out, to endure, to survive (also gwinya, to be robust)
Zoon descends from Shona gwina, to be hardy, to hold out alive
- Confidence
- 54/100
- Root language
- Shona
- Descent begins
- ζῷονAncient Greek
The consensus position
Mainstream comparative linguistics derives ζῷον from ζωός "alive" plus the neuter suffix -ιον, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷih₃wós "alive" and the root *gʷeyh₃- "to live", cognate with Latin vīvus, Sanskrit jīvá- and English quick. No relationship to Shona or any Bantu language 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
- Pelagiaparato spread out, to lay out flat, to clear a surface level
- Kérberoskerekato be smeared, streaked, marked with dirt; causative kerekedza, to streak or daub
- ἀποκτείνω-tekanato be cut off, be broken off, be severed, to snap
- μάχαιραmhakamatter, case, dispute, cause of quarrel; fault, blame, the grounds on which one is answerable
- βλασφημία-bvato come out, to issue forth; in the derived bvuma, to give voice, to assent
- Theosmutsakindness, favour, mercy