Language Of Confusion: Burying

Today I think is a good day for looking at the word bury and all the words that are related to it, which have nothing to do with burial. Why would they? This is etymology.
 
Bury comes from the Old English byrgan, to bury or inter in a grave. It’s from the Proto Germanic burzjan-, protection or shelter, from the Proto Indo European root bhergh-, to hide or protect. Because you’re hiding someone with dirt I guess.
 
So while that one took on a bit of a morbid meaning, most of the other words descended from it didn’t. Harbor, for example. It showed up in the early twelfth century meaning a lodging for ships, from the Old English herebeorg, which meant military lodgings. Here literally meant army or host, while beorg translates to a mountain, hill, or barrow. Yeah, I’m guessing that’s figurative. The phrase is actually from the Proto Germanic harja-bergaz, lodgings, and the second half of the word comes from burzjan-, which means it’s from bhergh-. A mound of dirt and army lodgings are the reason we have harbor.
 
To make things more confusing, there’s borrow. No, that’s not a mistyping of burrow or barrow, both of which would make more sense. Borrow, like borrowing something. It comes from the Old English borgian, to pledge, which is from the Proto Germanic burg-, from bhergh-. And as far as I can tell, is not related to the suffices -burg or -berg. Because of course not.
 
And bargain is also from there. It showed up in the thirteenth century from the Old French bargaignier, which is from the Frankish borganjan, to lend. That’s from the Proto Germanic brogan, which is also from bhergh-. I can see this one being related to borrow, but the rest of them? That’s just bizarre.
 
Maybe next week I’ll do the other PIE bhergh-, just to show you how all the burg- words are somehow not related to this one.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Tony Jebson’s page on the Origins of Old English
Old English-English Dictionary