amadryades:

Albanian          mjaltë
Basque            eztia
Belarusian       мёд
Bosnian           med
Bulgarian         мед
Catalan            mel
Croatian          med
Czech             med
Danish            honning
Dutch              honing
Estonian         mesi
Finnish           hunaja
French           miel
Galician         mel
German        Honig
Greek           μέλι
Hungarian    méz
Icelandi         chunang
Irish                 mil
Italian             miele
Latvian          medus
Lithuanian     medus
Macedonian    мед
Maltese        għasel
Norwegian    honning
Polish            kochanie
Portuguese    mel
Romanian    miere
Russian       мед
Serbian        душо
Slovak          med
Slovenian    medu
Spanish      miel
Swedish     honung
Ukrainian    мед
Welsh        mêl
 

This thick golden fluid has its differentiations not only when it comes to colour, taste and herbal origin, but  even the very name of it has numerous variations, not all of them belonging to the same language family.

Linguists who study the Indo-European theory  estimate that the Proto-Indoeropean word for honey was  melit, which gave the Sanskrit word madhu, the Greek μέλις, the Latin mel and eventually words like μέλι(ττ)σσα or mellifluous. Hence the names mel, miel, miele, med, and all their variations.

So, what happened to the Northeners? It seems that the northern branches of the IE language tree ( ie. the Germanic branch, unlike the Slavs who remained loyal) followed a different path right from the beginning. They’d name honey after the colour of it, using the PIE word for “golden y ellow”, which is k(e)neko. That eventually evovled to the ancient Germanic huna(n)go, which became honung in Old Norse, and then hunig in Old English. Between Old English and now, the letter “g” following an “i” or an “e” sound has tended to drop away or turn into a “y,” meaning that the Medieval hunig became our modern-day “honey.”

Sources:  x , x

niimph:

“Sweet moon language,”

— Shams-ud-din Muhammad Hafiz, tr. by Daniel Ladinsky, from “With That Moon Language”

rosescentimental:

half the fun of tea is getting to hold the warm mug

perkwunos:

Many places have a “forest that shouldn’t be entered.” Even people who are used to working in the mountains feel there is something there. They are suddenly overcome with fear and it becomes the custom to avoid certain places. These places exist. I don’t know what is there, but I think they are real. I’m not a believer in the occult, but the world is more than we can fathom with our five senses. This world doesn’t exist just for humans. So I think it’s all right to have such things. This is why I think it’s a mistake to think about nature from the idea of efficiency, that forests should be preserved because they are essential for human beings …

I am concerned, because for me the deep forest is connected in some way to the darkness deep in my heart. I feel that if it is erased, then the darkness inside my heart would also disappear, and my existence would grow shallow.

Hayao Miyazaki, “Totoro Was Not Made as a Nostalgia Piece”, Starting Point: 1979-1996

ginsengsheetmask:

“A lover doesn’t discourage your growth. A lover says, ‘I see who you are today, I cannot wait to see who you become tomorrow.’”

sirenoirs:

“Death is only looking inward. Death is our ancient mother, our first mother.”

— Juan Ramón Jiménez, tr by Robert Bly, from “Death Is Looking Inward,”
(via violentwavesofemotion)

luthienne:

“Alas, how little the heart forgets—”

— Rainer Maria Rilke, from a letter to Countess Margot Sizzo-Noris-Crouy, January 6, 1923

loversinthebodega:

EVERYTHING WILL FALL INTO PLACE