Language Of Confusion: Not Buried

Now, as I said last week, bury is from the Proto Indo European root bhergh-, to hide or protect. But there’s also another bhergh, this one meaning high and having a bunch of completely different words descended from it.
 
The first is barrow, but not like a wheel barrow which has a totally separate origin. This one means a mound, a hill, or a grave mound, and yet, I want to emphasize, it is not at all related to the hide/protect bhergh-, or burrow or borrow. While I don’t think this is the stupidest etymology I’ve seen this year, it is definitely up there. That barrow comes from the Old English beorg, a mountain, hill, or barrow from the Proto Germanic bergaz, which is from the high bhergh-, possibly because hills are high and etymology is dumb.
 
What is related to this is burg, as in a town or a city, which showed up in 1843 in American English from borough. Borough comes from the Old English burg/burh which means a city or town. It’s from the Proto Germanic burgs, which is from bhergh-, with the thought that burgs were originally hill forts and fortified elevations before they became town names. You’d think it would be from the protect burg, but no. It’s also amusing that bourgeoisie is also from burg. It showed up in 1707 meaning the people of a French town (i.e. the French middle class), with the French bourgeois from the Old French burgeis/borjois, from borc, a town or village, from the Frankish burg, from bhergh-.
 
More on the WTF side of things is burglar. It showed up in the mid sixteenth century from the Anglo Latin burglator/burgator. It’s from the Medieval Latin burgator, from burgare, to break open or commit burglary. It’s from the classical Latin burgus, which means a borough, fortress, or castle. I guess because that’s where burglars break into?
 
Then there’s iceberg. It showed up in 1774 meaning a glacier shaped like a hill, so you probably see where this is going. It’s related to the Dutch ijsberg, where ijs is ice and berg means mountain. And is also from bhergh-. Well, this one makes sense at least. Mostly.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
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
Dictionary of Medieval Latin

Language Of Confusion: Can You Tell I’m Cold?

I’ve already gone over several words related to ice and the cold. How about some more?
 
Glacier
Glacier is relatively recent since they have an actual year for when it showed up: 1744. It’s from the French glacier, which, you know, means glacier. That’s from the Old French glace, from the Vulgar Latin glacia, from the classical Latin glacies, which literally means ice. That word can be traced all the way back to the Proto Indo European gel-, cold or freeze. That is indeed where gel comes from, in addition to being the origin for jelly, cold, chill, and congeal, which is just gel with the con- (with) prefix in front of it.
 
Flurry
Flurry is another word that is quite recent. In relation to snow, it showed up in 1828, though the word did show up in the early eighteenth century meaning commotion, and then even earlier in the late seventeenth century it meant a gust or squall. Yes, that means it went from meaning weather, to a less literal usage, and then back to weather again. As to where it’s from before that, it’s uncertain. It may be imitative—so people named the word because of how it sounds, which is weird because I don’t think flurries sound like flurry—or it’s from flurr, to scatter or fly with a whirring noise. Yeah, sure, why not?
 
Iceberg
Now, I’ve already gone over what ice means, but what about the -berg part? Iceberg showed up in… 1774. Okay, I swear, it’s a coincidence that all these words are from the same time period. Anyway, it meant a “glacier humped like a hill”, and then by 1820 meant a glacier at sea. It’s actually from the Dutch ijsberg, which if you break it up, means ice mountain. Berg is actually from the Proto Indo European bhergh-, high. Icebergs look like ice mountains.
 
Avalanche
Finally today, avalanche showed up in… 1763. Did we just see snow for the first time or something??? Anyway, it’s from the French avalanche, means the same thing, from the Romansch avalantze, meaning descent. That certainly has to be the first time Romansch has appeared on this blog. It’s not a huge language, as only about seventy thousand people speak it in the Swiss canton of Grisons, and it’s made up of a bunch of closely related dialects. And apparently it gave English the word avalanche.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Encyclopaedia Britannica