Completely useless discovery of the day: Sky.

[mothwing]

"Sky: from ON sky: "cloud," from PGmc *skeujam: "cloud, cloud cover", from PIE base *skeu-: "to cover, conceal". Meaning "upper regions of the air" is attested from c.1300; replaced native heofon in this sense. In ME, the word can still mean both "cloud" and "heaven," as still in the skies, originally "the clouds.""
 

Today, "sky" is the word for "cloud" in Swedish, Danish and Norwegian. "Cloud" only became the word for "cloud" by the thirteenth century due to metaphoric extension - it used to mean "formation of rocks" (OE: clud).

The word for cloud used to be weolcan, which is the origin for the word "welkin",which is obviously very close to the modern German word: "Wolke".

On a related note - can anyone recommend Skeat's etymological dictionary? It seems to be fairly affordable (in contrast to Klein's and Partridge's) but I'd like something a little more up to date, yet inexpensive.

 

Comments

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

That is really interesting, especially cloud = rock formation! I love etymology.