The Foot Book / El libro del pie

The next volume of the Illustrated Dictionary of Proto-Indo-European is now available. In this book, we trace the word for foot used thousands of years ago to dozens of words we use today. The etymologies take us from the mounatins of Italy to the ocean depths, from the Spanish Civil War to Greek tragedy, and from Moroccan shoemakers to a Parisian circus.

You can order directly here. If you enjoy the book, please leave a review on Amazon. It really does help get the word out.

There are two versions of the book, one in English and another in Spanish. Most of the words appear in both books (expedition/expedición, pedigree/pedigrí), but there are some words that only appear in one of the books...

In English, it's a platypus (flat-footed), but in Spanish it's an ornitorrinco (bird's beak).

In Spanish, piojo (little foot) is the word for head lice.

In English, unfettered is to have the chains removed from your feet. In Spanish, it's sin limitaciones.

In English, impeach is to essentially put the chains on the feet. In Spanish, it's procesar or censurar.

In Spanish, apoyar is to support, to literally "put on a podium."

In Spanish, peaje is a toll. It comes from Latin and is what one has to pay for "setting foot in a place."