I would like to present here an amazing word cluster which I have found in Serbian and

Irish. The word cluster is related to heat (warmth), the most basic sources of heat and
the most basic uses of heat. The fact that this word cluster relates to such basic terms,
suggests that it originated very early, maybe even in Neolithic and maybe even in
Paleolithic time. Apart from Serbian and Irish, this word cluster is found in part in other
"Slavic" languages and in traces in other "Celtic" languages. I would really appreciate
any additional information regarding the existence of the words from this word cluster in
other languages.

Heat is extremely important for sustaining life. Without heat there is no life. But the
amount of heat has to be just right. Too little heat and the water in our bodies freezes,
the chemical processes in our bodies stop and we freeze and die. Too much heat and
the water in our bodes evaporates, the chemical processes in our bodies go our of
control and we burn and die. The main source of heat in our solar system is the Sun.
The reason why there is no life on the planets which are closer to the Sun than Earth is
that the amount of heat that reaches them from the sun is too big. On those planets the
Sun in the sky is a "blazing scorching ball of fire". The reason why there is no life on the
planets which are further from the Sun than Earth is that the amount of heat that
reaches them from the sun is too small. On those planets the Sun in the sky is at best a
"cold white disc" and at worst a "cold white speck". Luckily the Earth is at the "just right"
distance from the Sun so that the amount of heat that we get from the Sun is "just right"
to sustain life. On Earth the Sun in the sky is "that warm thing which heats us up".

I Serbian we have these words and expressions related to the Sun and and heat:

grejati, grijati - to heat
greje, grije - it heats, it warms.
greje nas, grije nas, greje ni, grije ni - heats us, warms us
sunce grane - sun appears, dawns, starts warming
sunce greje, grije - sun heats, sun warms
sunce sine - sun starts shining
sunce sije, sija - sun shines
grejan, grijan - heated, warm

In Irish, the Sun, the main source of heat is called "grian", which in Serbian literally
means heated, warm. The sun, "grian", is "that warm thing in the sky", the source of
heat which "grije nas" warms us.

Official etymology for the Irish word grian states that the word comes from Old Irish
gran, from Proto-Indo-European *ghrein, from Proto-Indo-European *gher- (to shine,
glow; grey)" which of course has nothing to do with burning and heating.

This makes absolutely no sense. Two major sources of light on earth are the sun and
fire, both generating light through burning and producing heat at the same time. Can
someone please explain to me how can the name for the Sun, which is yellow - orange,
hot, bright, alive (like burning fire), and which gives off both heat and light (like burning
fire), be logically derived from the same root used for color grey, which is cold, dead?
Gray ash is what is left after fire dies and there is no more light and heat. Does anyone
really think that ancient people would do something like that? Even natural shiny grey
objects, like moon, stars are linked with cold, night and darkness, not heat, day and
light. And all man made grey shiny objects like metal and mirror reflect light, they don't
generate it. Plus all the man made shining grey things are much younger than the word
for sun. This why I don't agree with the official etymology for the word "grian" and why I
think the word "grian" meaning sun, comes from "grije" meaning heats and ultimately
from gar, gor meaning fire, burning.

But the heat that reaches the Earth from the Sun is not always and everywhere the
same. Depending on the longitude and altitude, the time of the year and time of the
day, the heat given off by the sun can vary dramatically. As a consequence the outside
temperature rises and falls. If the outside temperature becomes too high or too low, this
can severely affect the biochemical processes in our bodies. This is why the living
beings had to develop extremely complex heating and cooling systems and processes
in order to regulate their body temperature in a constantly changing temperature of their
living environment.

Like most of the other higher animals, humans developed ability to produce their own
heat from food and to warm their own bodies. But producing heat is extremely energy
consuming. The colder it gets, the more heat needs to be produced to heat the body up
and more food needs to be consumed to sustain this heat production. The problem is
that the colder it gets, the less food there is to be eaten. This makes survival in the cold
climate very difficult and this is why originally most people lived in warm and temperate
areas where it never gets too cold.

But even in warm and temperate areas it sometimes gets cold. In a cold environment,
most of the heat produced and distributed in the body leaks out into
the surrounding through the body surface. Animals developed thick furs which insulate
them from the environment and prevent the leaking of the body heat out through the
body surface. Animals also cuddle, huddle, hug, pile up, get close together, lie on top of
each other, to minimize the total surface through which the heat can escape and to
maximize the usage of the body heat of the whole group.



People also developed body hairs, but they were nowhere near as good as animal furs
in insulating the body from the cold. But luckily humans also developed large powerful
brains which allowed them to figure out many different ways to wrap, cover their bodies
and prevent the body heat from leaking into the environment. First people also cuddled,
huddles and hugged, piled up together and on top of each other. Then they realized
that they can also pile dried leaves, grass, moss, branches on top of themselves to
create insulating shelters. Eventually humans invented sharp and pointy tools with
which they killed fury animals and skinned them. To skin the animal you scrape its skin
off using a sharp blade. In Serbian the verb to scrape, scratch is "krz", the word
"krzano" means scraped, and the word for fur is "krzno", which literally means what you
scrape off the animal. Once the fur is scraped off the animal body and once it is
cleaned and tanned to prevent rotting, the fur can be wrapped around the body to stop
the body heat from leaking into the cold environment.



Wrapping your body with animal fur as a way of keeping warm is so efficient that it
continued to be used almost unchanged until today.

The national library of Aurstralia has these great images of Aboriginal people wearing
animal skins to keep themselves warm in the 19th century.


And here is a picture of a Romanian shepherd today, wearing animal fur cloak
(kabanica) and fur hat (ubara).



People then developed ways to harness wool and other plant and animal fibers and
produce cloths and clothes to complement animal skins as insulators, but the idea was
still the same: wrap yourself tight with insulating materials to prevent body heat from
leaking out. Cover yourself with insulating materials. Get close together, push together,
huddle, cuddle, hug, pile up to minimize the group body surface and maximize the
usage of the body heat of the whole group.



Irish word "gar" means near, nearness, proximity, get close. In Scots Gaelic the same
word "gar" means warm. In Irish the word "gor" means warmth. In Breton the same
word "gor" means burning and in Welsh the word "gwrs" means heat and "*gor"
means I warm. The word "gar" is a root of the word "garadh" which means warm, from
people huddling close together for warmth. In Scots Gaelic the word "gar" also means
us. Us, close together, huddling for warmth...

In Serbian, Czeck and Polish we have all these words which relate to closeness and
movement from and to closeness, which seem to all come from the same root:

g(a)r, g(u)r = put close to, next to, press, push, move closer, move towards.

Serbian: gariti, gurati - push

Serbian: grnuti, grtati, grliti - gather, bring close together, hug
Polish: garn, gart - gather, bring close together, rake, cuddle, grab, hug

Serbian: ogrnuti, ogrtati - wrap around. ogrta - robe, cape
Polish: ogarn - embrace, encompass. encircle, invade, wrap around, cloth
Czech: ohrnout - Wrap, roll
From o + gar + nj + ti = around + put next to + it + you

Serbian: zagrnuti, zgrtati - cover it, wrap it.
Czech: zahrnout - cover, cover with earth, fill, comprise , embrace, include, smother

From za + gar + nj + ti = on, after + put next to + it + you

Serbian: nagrnuti - push press through.
Czech: nahrnout - pile up , heap up , mound

From na + gar + nj + ti = on + put next to, press against, push + it + you =

Serbian: odgrnuti, odgurnuti - uncover, push away, clear (away)
Czech: odhrnout - remove, plow off/away, open, draw aside, clear (away)

From od + gar, gur + nj + ti = from + close to, next to, press, push, move + it + you

Czech: vyhrnout - push away, rake out, bulldoze away, roll up

I am wandering if the root for the above words was "gar" which lost "a" in Serbian and
Czech or "gr" which got "a" added in Polish and Irish? The reason why I believe that the
original root was "gr" are these words in Sanskrit:

(ghti) - take, hold,grasp, understand, take back, claim, pick, approve, put on,
lay the hand on, grapple, follow, take possession of, receive into the mind, captivate,
observe, abstract, imprison, undertake

(gbhti) - obtain, admit, undergo, include, take away, consider as, pluck,
begin, mention, take on one's self, gain over, recognise, choose, overpower,
apprehend, understand, keep, take back, draw water, put on
(rabh) - clasp, embrace, desire vehemently, take hold of, grasp, wish to embrace,
take hold of, keep fast, be grasped or clasped, firmly grip or grasp, seize, lay hold on

The first word is the equivalent of the Serbian word grnuti. The second is the equivalent
of the Serbian word grabiti, to grab. The third word is the equivalent of the Serbian word
rabiti, to use. Is it possible it comes from g(a)r + rab = bring close, get close, move
towards + take, use? Or maybe from ga + rab = him, it + use, take?

Also we have the word "grupa" meaning group. In Serbian we have words hrpa, vrpa,
rpa all meaning pile. Is it possible that the word grupa comes from g(a)r + rpa = pul,
push close together, get close together, be close + pile? Even the official etymology
which you can find in the above link says that the word relates to the meaning pile, so it
is quite possible that I could be right.

So originally people stayed warm by exposing themselves to the sun or by huddling
together or wrapping themselves with insulating materials like furs and clothes. Then
later they started using fire. They were still wrapping themselves with clothes and
animal furs, and they will still huddling and cuddling together, but now they were doing
this while sitting around the fire.


And in Serbian and Irish we find that the words related to fire, burning, heating using
fire have the same root found in the words for sun, heat and getting close together, root
gr (gar, gor, gur). That the root of all these words is "gr" we can see from these Sanskrit
words meaning "burn":

ghRNoti, gharNoti, gharNute - burn, shine

And this Persian word:

garm - warm, hot

We also find these fire related "gr" words in other "Celtic" languages. I would be
grateful for any updates on this part of the word cluster from Breton and Welsh
speakers.

Scots Gaelic: gar - warm
Breton: gor - burning
Welsh: gwrs - heat and "*gor" means I warm

And then there are the Irish and the Serbian languages:

Irish:

goraim -, I heat, warm, burn; bask; hatch.
gorim - warm

Hindi: garam - warm; Avestan: garema - warm; Persian: gorm - warm; Sanskrit: gharma
- warmth; Old Armenian: erm - warm

Serbian (Slavic):


gori - burns; goreti = gori ti = it burns, to burn
gorim - I am burning

What is interesting is that in Serbian the word "gori" means burns but also "up,
upwards".

gor, gore, gori - up, upwards

The fire goes up and the water falls down. The things go up in flame. Serbs used to
burn their dead so that they can get to heaven, which is up in the sky, quicker, carried
on the flames. What "gor" (burns) goes "gor" (up). Did the verb to burn come from the
word for up, going up?

Irish:

gor - warmth
garadh - warm
goradh - act of burning; blushing; heat; dan do ghoradh, take a shin heat, incubation,
keeping warm
garamhail - useful, profitable, neighborly; warm, snug, friendly;
gorai - place where chicks come out of eggs
gros - embers, hot ashes; heat; fire; pimples, blotches, spots or rash on the skin;
grosach - aighe, pl. -acha, f., fire, burning embers; ashes containing small coals of fire;
glowing
griosagh - fire

Serbian:

gori - burns
grejan, grijan - heated, warm
gorionik - burner, torch
gorenjak - big heat, hot weather
gorotina - what burns, burned place
gariti - to burn, to rush, to go fast
nagariti - put branches into the fire, feed the fire
garite - place where the fire used to burn
zgarite - something burned down
zgoreljak - something burned

Irish:

grios(c) - broil, grill
grscn - a broiled piece of meat; a piece of meat suitable for broiling; the
word occurs also in a place name, Gleann Ghrscn, a townland in East Kerry, but
whether
precisely in this sense is uncertain.

Serbian:

grejan, grijan - cooked

Irish:

garr - wooden pulp
gairg, -e, -eacha, f., a cormorant, a diver, black bird.
garrail - dirty

Serbian:

gar - hot ashes, soot
garav, garast, gares - covered in soot, black, dirty
garavilo - black color, paint
gara, gara, garka - names for black, dark animals
garvan - raven
garagan - black person, gypsy

Sanskrit: aGgara - charcoal

Irish:

garach, -aighe, id.garg - fierce, rough, cruel; bitter, acrid.
gorach - heat up, foolish, fickle; inflamed, heated.
gargaigh - make harsh, bitter; exacerbate, intensify (heat anger)
gairgeach - harsh, gruff, surly, irritable
goirt - bitter, sour, salt; sad, painful (also guirt).
grosaim - I urge, encourage, abet, incite, provoke, exasperate.
grosadh - act of burning, stimulating, urging; encouragement, excitement (also
grosughadh).
grs-neimh - burning venom, violence.

Serbian:

gorak, gorni, goraiv, goriv, grenkav, grk - bitter, acidic
ogoren - angry
garaknuti, garnuti - to encourage, to provoke, to excite, to inflame, to make fire bigger
garavica, goruica - stomach acid which causes burning sensation, reflux

Irish:

garn - underwood, thicket
garrn - grove
crann - tree (probably originally gran)

Serbian:

gora - forest, mountain (the thing which is tall, high and it burns)
grana, granjka - branch (of a tree), the things that burn
granje - branches, the things that burn
granjes - branched, with many branches
granjak - thicket, bushes
grm - bush, undergrowth
grmes - branched, with many branches
ugarak, ugarci - smoldering branches
ogrev - firewood

Old Norse: grein - branch; old Prussian: Garrin, garrjan - tree

I love this sentence in Irish: garrn (grove) is the place where we find lots of crann,
originally probably gran (trees). Trees are made from garr. When crann (tree) is put into
griosagh (fire) it gives us gorim (heat) and turns to grios (hot ashes) which you can use
to grios(c) (cook).

I don't know about the rest of the Indoeuropeans, but the Irish (Celts) and the Serbians
(Slavs) seem to have spent a lot of time together huddled around fires talking about
warmth to develop this kind of word cluster....



I have left my favorite words from this cluster for the end of this post.

Slash-and-burn is an agricultural technique that involves the cutting and burning of
plants in forests or woodlands to create fields. It is subsistence agriculture that typically
uses little technology. It is typically key in shifting cultivation agriculture, and in
transhumance livestock herding.



During the Neolithic Revolution, which included agricultural advancements, groups of
hunter-gatherers domesticated various plants and animals, permitting them to settle
down and practice agriculture, which provides more nutrition per hectare than hunting
and gathering. This happened in the river valleys of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Due to
this decrease in food from hunting, as human populations increased, agriculture
became more important. Some groups could easily plant their crops in open fields
along river valleys, but others had forests blocking their farming land.

In this context, humans used slash-and-burn agriculture to clear more land to make it
suitable for plants and animals. Thus, since Neolithic times, slash-and-burn techniques
have been widely used for converting forests into crop fields and pasture. Fire was
used before the Neolithic as well, and by hunter-gatherers up to present times.
Clearings created by fire were made for many reasons, such as to draw game animals
and to promote certain kinds of edible plants such as berries.

So in order to clear land for agriculture you burn the forest. This clears the land of trees
but is also fertilizes the soil. This burned patch of land becomes a field where you either
plant crops or you graze cattle when the grass grows on it. In the south Serbian dialect
we have a set of words which mean both the burned down forest and the field,
meadow.

garine, garinje, ogorevina - place where forest burned down
garina, garinka, garinje, ogorevina - meadow, field, clearing created when forest burned
down.

What is interesting, is that we find the same words in Irish. But after seeing all the other
words from this cluster that is quite to be expected:

garrai - field, garden (from gar + e = burned + is)
gort - field (from gor + to = burned + that, place).
goirtn - a little field; a small field of corn

It is quite possible that these words were the first words used for field and they could
have survived together with the rest of this amazing word cluster since the neolithic
time. What does this tell us about the link between the Irish ("Celtic") and the Serbian
("Slavic") languages? Should we reexamine this diagram?