Starling Hunter © 2011 1 Sagittarius 16: Sea gulls watching a ship The word s e a descends from the Old English s a e , “sheet of water, sea, lake”, by way of the Pre -Germanic saiwaz . 1 The word gull descends from the Welsh gwylan (gull),the Cornish guilan , the Breton goelann , and ultimately from the old Celtic voilenno-. 2 The word watch descends from the Indo-European (IE) root weg-2 which means “to be strong, lively.” 3 Its paronyms include waken, wait, watch, wicca, witch, bewitch, bivouac, waft, vegetable, vigor, ravigote ( a vinegar sauce seasoned with minced onion, capers, and herbs, used with boiled meats or fish) , vedette (a mounted sentinel stationed in advance of an outpost) , vigil, ve locity, vigilante, a n d reveille. Both the word ship a nd the suffix – ship descend from the root (s)kep- , the root and which is “the base of words with various technical meanings such as” to cut, scrape, and hack. 4 Among its paronyms are shape, landscape, scoop, scupper, shaft (the long narrow stem or body of a spear or arrow; a spear or arrow) , shabby, scab, sapsago (a hard green cheese made from skim-milk curd, colored and flavored with sweet clover) , scabrous (having or covered with scales or small projections and rough to the touch; difficult to handle; dealing with scandalous or salacious material) , scaphoid (shaped like a boat) , scapula (shoulder blade), capon (a male chicken castrated when young to improve the 1 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=sea 2 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gull 3 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, pp. 95 4 Watkins, C. (2000), The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots, pp. 77