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Looking at the etymology of "equanimous":
1600–10; < L aequanimitās, equiv. to aequ(us) even, plain, equal + anim(us) mind, spirit, feelings + -itās -ity
"aequus" sounds a lot like "aqua"... and I can see how calm water is even and plain. is there any relation between the two? if not, where does each come from, if they can be traced further back?
This is really more about Latin than English, but anyway.
Aqua comes from the (reconstructed/hypothetical) Proto-Indo-European *akʷā-, "water", whence the Old English ǽ, "river", and a few others (follow the link).
