I've heard that the words "walk" and "talk" do not have cognates in any other known language. That is, neither of these very common words in English have similar forms in other languages, Germanic, Romance, or Celtic (those that have large overlap in vocabulary etymology with English).
So my question is of two kinds:
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what are some other (common?) words that -do not- share etymology with words in any other language?
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what are some ways to such a search automatically? (I feel like oed.com used to allow plain old test search of any entry so that one could have looked for 'unknown' or something similar). Also are there any online English word lists that have some etymological info?
Best Answer
Online Etymological Dictionary is a good starting point for looking up words but if you want detailed information I think you'd have to pay for it, or head to the local library.
The entry for talk has a clue to its common roots with words like the German zählen (to count).