HN Showcase
Back to browse
Tree, truth, druid and tar share one Proto-Indo-European root

Tree, truth, druid and tar share one Proto-Indo-European root

by stared·Jun 25, 2026·3 points·1 comment
Visit ProjectView on HN

AI Analysis

●●SolidCozyRabbit Hole

Beautiful scroll narrative showing how tree, truth, and druid share one ancient root.

Strengths
  • •Explorable explanation format makes etymology engaging and interactive
  • •Well-researched content connecting diverse words to single PIE root
  • •Clean visual design with branch-like scroll progression
Weaknesses
  • •Scroll-based explorable format is established pattern, not technically novel
  • •Single-page educational content with limited reusability
Category
Education
Target Audience

Language enthusiasts, educators, curious learners

Similar To

Explorable Explanations · Observable notebooks

Post Description

Did you know that truth, druid, dryad, tar and dendrite all grew from the same root as the word tree? A single Proto-Indo-European root, *deru-.

Source code: https://github.com/stared/tree-of-tree

I am grateful to Miroslav Šedivý, a Czechoslovak polyglot I met at PiterPy 2018, who sparked a curiosity that Polish 'zdrowy' (healthy) is from 'drewno' (wood) or 'drzewo' (tree), which are related to the English word 'tree'. A few weeks ago I saw Odd Pride's short on the tree of life, which prompted me to make an explorable explanation (https://p.migdal.pl/blog/2024/05/science-games-explorable-ex...), a medium close to my heart.

Similar Projects