Etymologically connected word pairs that I really like

[conuly]

Cling/clench
Drink/drench
Wring/wrench
Stink/stench

(Actually, only two of those latter words are causatives, and wring/wrench is much more distantly related than the others, but I still like the pairs. Now all we need is a new word "thinch" to match think and round it out.)

Comments

[jessie_c]

Wouldn't it be 'thench'?

[conuly]

I have the pin/pen merger, it sounds the same either way to me.

[jessie_c]

:)

Then let's examine why it's mouse/mice but not house/hice. Or why you have goose and geese but not moose and meese.

[conuly]

It IS louse/lice, though. As for moose, I think that word entered the English language after the sound changes that made the goose/geese foot/feet tooth/teeth plurals.

[conuly]

But! Bank/bench is another of word pair that seems to follow that pattern (alas, like wring/wrench it's another "more distant" pair that just sounds like the more similar ones). The "riverbank" meaning connects to "bench", which in turn connects back to the "moneybank" meaning.

[jessie_c]

Have you encountered David Crystal's The Stories of English? It's the best non-linguist's book on English linguistics I've ever found.

[greghousesgf]

thinch is the Grinch thinking.

[chomiji]

Well, think / thought, bring / brought.

There's also the whole glint - glimmer - glow - glisten - gleam constellation,

Also, it could be sting / stench, if your pattern were follow for that as well.

Pink (the verb) /pinch?

[conuly]

!!!

[conuly]

I have not, thank you!

[bibliofile]

wink/wench?

[conuly]

Wench: Middle English: abbreviation of obsolete wenchel ‘child, servant, prostitute’; perhaps related to Old English wancol ‘unsteady, inconstant’.

Wink: Old English wincian ‘close the eyes’, of Germanic origin; related to German winken ‘to wave’, also to wince1.

Alas, no.

[conuly]

Stink/stench really does follow the pattern and is related :)

Pink and pinch aren't connected, I'd already checked :(