Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-31481772-20180317114631

I am very glad to present the third post of the Word of the Week series, together with Federico. This time, we talk about Nemesis (Roman form: Invidia). Nemesis is the Greek goddess of balance and revenge. She is the daughter of Erebus and Nyx. "Nemesis" is the source of the English word "nemesis", which means "arch-enemy" and also "inescapable downfall". and the Italian word "nemesi" meaning arch-enemy (someone who is envious and wants to take you down). "Invidia" is the source of French "envie", English "envy", "envious", Italian "invidia", "invidioso" and Spanish "envidia", "envidioso".

"Nemesis" comes from the Greek word "nemein" meaning "to give what is due", which is believed to come from the PIE word "nem" meaning "to take". "nem" is the source of " German "nehmen", Dutch "nemen" and Latvian "nemt", all meaning "to take". It is also the source of Latin "numerus", meaning "number". The descendants of the Latin word include Italian "numero", Spanish "número", French "nombre" and English "number". (Yes, number!)

In Proto-Indo-Iranian, a daughter of PIE and ancestor of many South Asian and Middle Eastern languages, the word "nem" changed to "nam", and came to mean "offering, prayer, respect". It is the source of the Indian greeting "namaste" (literally, "I bow to you") and the word "naman" (meaning "obeisance"). "nam" is also the source of the Persian word "namaaz", meaning "prayer". After the Persians converted to Islam, the word came to be widely used by Muslims in the Indian subcontinent.

Thank you for reading this post! We would like you to try and find words in languages you know that are related to "nem", "nam", "invidia", etc. If you do find some words, please comment them below.

You can find the previous Word of the Week here. 