One older meaning of the word & #39;quick& #39; is & #39;living& #39;.

We can see this in the phrase & #39;the quick and the dead& #39;, which is a translation of Latin & #39;vīvōs et mortuōs& #39;.

However, & #39;quick& #39; is not only a translation of vīvōs - the two words are in fact distantly related to each other. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">

*gʷ was a sound in PIE, present in *gʷeih₃- & #39;live& #39;.

Through Grimm& #39;s law, *gʷ became /kw/ in Old English, hence English & #39;quick& #39;.

In Latin, *gʷ simplified to just /w/, hence vīvus & #39;living& #39;.

In Greek, *gʷ sometimes became /b/, as in bíos & #39;life& #39; (from which we get & #39;biology& #39;).

However, to reconstruct an ancestor sound, we need more examples of English /kw/ (or just /k/) corresponding to Latin /w/ and Greek /b/.

For example, we have English & #39;come& #39;, Latin veniō & #39;I come& #39; and Greek baínō & #39;I go& #39;.

These three can be derived from the PIE root *gʷem-.

Moreover, cows give us evidence for the sound *gʷ!

While English has & #39;cow& #39; and German Kuh, Greek has boûs (from which we get & #39;butter& #39;). We can derive these from PIE *gʷeh₃u-.

However, bōs, the Latin word for & #39;cow& #39;, is a surprise - we& #39;d expect it to begin with /w/.

An unexpected sound is important - it may mean we need to revise the theory.

However, we can explain Latin bōs as a borrowing from one of the Sabellian languages.

In these languages, the word for & #39;cow& #39; did begin with /b/ - for example, we know that the word in Umbrian was bum.