Pat’s Polemics

Here’s an example of how comparing vocabulary among languages proves interesting. The word in Urdu, yttyfaaq = coincidence, accident, concord, agreement, is borrowed from Arabic. I don’t know what the Arabic root means, but it is noticeable that accident and coincidence both derive from Latin words meaning ‘fall’. Concord and agreement can be taken as a falling together, though obviously not sharing the fall- root. Yttyfaaqan means ‘accidentally’ and only that meaning of the previously mentioned ones (it can also mean ‘suddenly’). It helps to remember words when you notice such ‘falling together’ and coincidence.