Thank you! That made it all worth while. Tim -----Original Message----- From: pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:pbs-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Rimmer Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 2:07 PM To: Pacific Bulb Society Subject: Re: [pbs] off topic yards and gardens I passed this discussion on to a family member who is a language professor specializing in Old English and this was his response regarding the ancient root words for garden and yard as in back yard: "All of these words are related. Comparative study of Indo-European languages suggests that an early Germanic word *war-, meaning "to watch or guard" was the basis for all of them. The variety in modern English is due to overlapping waves of influence. A noun form of the word, *gardo-z, meaning a small piece on enclosed land, became garthr in Old Norse. To the south it was borrowed into popular Latin as *gardinumand thence in to modern French jardin and Italian giardino. It was also carried to England by the Anglo-Saxons as geard, where the pronunciation of the initial g was softened to y, giving modern English yard. Later, when the Normans invaded England, they brought a variant of the French version, gardin, which led to the modern English garden. This word had develop the more specific meaning of an enclosed, cultivated space, so the two words continued to existed side by side. Meanwhile, Scandinavians entering the north of England brought garthrwith them, and it left the word gard or gart in northern English dialects. Guard and warden come from the same Germanic root but took different paths that led to the different initial vowel sounds." Rimmer de Vries Southeast Michigan continental Zone 5- coldest and snowiest winter in memory the pink and yellow Velthiemia are blooming nicely by my window