[mjklin]

Something I’ve noticed that I’ve never seen remarked on: English has weird pairs of opposite where only one is Germanic/Nordic and the other one is “made up” or otherwise unclear.

Examples:

German: man

Unclear: woman (not frau or kvinna)

German: white (weiss/vit/etc)

Unclear: black (bläck means ink in Swedish but?)

Swedish: up

Unclear: down (not undan or ner)

German: full (voll)

Unclear: empty (not leer or tom)