I am just starting to learn Russian and I noticed that these 2 words are very similar. Are they actually related? Is a square a place to keep your horse? Thanks in advance.
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It seems unlikely that they are related. Various online sources (wiktionary.org, lexicography.online) say that лошадь derives etymologically from Turkic languages, while площадь is either from Proto-Slavic or from Greek. Perhaps someone can cite an authoritative source.– ghostarbeiterMay 11, 2021 at 23:18
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1the etymology of both words is easily googleable. for instance, en.wiktionary.org/wiki/… and en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BB%D0%BE%D1%88%D0%B0%D0%B4%D1%8C– shabunc ♦May 12, 2021 at 6:02
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3They are not related any more than English "place" and "lace" are.– ElenaMay 16, 2021 at 17:44
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Not a similar. No, the "лошадь" and "площадь" have not any connections.– ПилумJun 19, 2021 at 12:49
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But if you call as "similar" - exactly the suffix of words, ha ha... :) "-адь" in this case... Then welcome in the Inflectional-Synthethic languages. :))) There are a tons these.. "similarities"... :) in this. This is the system of the word's constructing.. In this case this suffix show that words are the feminne gender.– ПилумJun 19, 2021 at 12:58
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1 Answer
They are not related any more than English "mare" and "square" are.
Лошадь is believed to originate from Turkic languages.
Площадь is a native Russian word, ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European etymon, which is also a distant ancestor of the English word "flake".
There are lots words in Russian. For purely statistical reasons, coincidences like this are dime a dozen.
