Δρύ-ς > Dru > Tree

Δρυς (drys = oak) was  the most sacred of all trees and its worship was popoular in ancient Europe. Τhe Druid or Drouide (Δρυίδης – Δρουίδης) was the priest.

In many European languages, Eastern and Western, they name the tree like this:
drv-oa in slavic, derwen in welsh, drusk in albanian and of course δένδρο (dendro) in greek.

The dental consonant δ (d), from medium becomes high (t). The vowel υ (y-u) is transformed into ee and makes the English tree. In protogermanic is trewan and in gothic triu.

When the letters u and r changed position, from oak (dru) comes the latin dur-us to mean hard because the tree is a symbol of strength and hardness! The word returns in Greek and when someone is strong and standing up, we say that he is ντούρος (ntouros-douros)!

tree

Αλδ-αίνω > Alt, Old

There is an ancient greek verb that influenced … the age of some Europeans: αλδαίνω (aldaino-aldeno)  = growing, fed!

The germans say alt and and the english old, and they mean the years that pass over us, the age …

Related with aldaino is άλμα – άλτης (alma – altis) =the jump – jumper, because during the jump … we grow!

old

Κίρκ-ος > Circ-us

The κίρκος (kirkos) is in old greek  the ring. In latin is circus and circa means around.
The famous circus named after the circular shape.

Κύκλος (kyklos) is the circle and κυκλώνας (kyklonas) is the hurricane, cyclon .

circus

Σπόγγ-ος > Spong-e

The most famous sponge in the world owes its name to the ancient greek σπόγγος [spóŋɡos] (=sponge). In Ionic dialect is σφόγγος (sfongos-σφουγγάρι-sfungari in new Greek)
and by removing the “s” (sigma) from the begining remain in Latin fungus.

In Spanish they say esponja, spugna in Italian, eponge in France and of course the English sponge.

A variant we listen in German and Scandinavian, schwamm and svamp respectively. Even in the East it’s called similar by removing the ”p” (pi), sunk in Armenian, sunger in Turkish.

Here’s how we say SpongeBob in various languages:
Bob Sfungarakis, Bob Esponja, Bob l’éponge, Sünger Bob, Schwamkopf, etc.

σπόγγος

Νύ, νυν, νυν-ί > Nu, nun, nini

Νυν (nyn) in old greek means now from the root word νυ (ny) which means present, at this moment, the immediate past and ends νυνί (nyni) to say the new born baby.

In anglosaxon and german the νυ translated to nu, nou and today the english say now and the german nun and they mean just right now!

In latinospanish nini, ninio is the baby, the infant(=νήπιο-nipio in greek) and the weather phenomenon el ninio because of its short term.

Related is the νέο (neo=new), a word that moved in almost all european:
neo, new, neu, nuovo, novo, novi, nouveau, ny, nuevo, nou, naujas, niew, nowy, etc.

now

Σπεύδ-ε > Sped-e > Speed

Σπεύδ-ω (spevd-o) in ancient and modern greek means to make fast,quickly, succeed, and generally it has to do with speed. The imperative is σπεύδ-ε (spevd-e) and becomes a sped-e in the old english to become speed in new!

In anglo-saxon it also meets as spaed.

That’s why the fast, sympathetic,wellknown mouse from the cartoons, named after the speed that distinguishes him and called Speedy Gonzales. (arrrimba!)

speed