"Slit," "Slip," "Slim," "Slight"; "Brusque," "Brisk"--Wha?

       "Slit," "slip," "slim," "slight."  We know the words have similarities.  But is it accidental that they are words about thin things?  It's not onomatopoeia in the sense of words imitating sounds.  It's words imitating thinness.  Even the lips uttering them are a very thin space apart from one another saying them.

       "Brusque," "brisk."  Oh, yes, they come from words in French and Italian, both going back to Latin bruscus butcher's-broom, a plant with bristly twigs, and isn't that exactly what you'd expect would apply to short, abrupt, blunt manner or speech ("brisk" deriving from "brusque" but less negative in connotation)?  And don't those words  befit the meaning they go with in all four languages!  Yet it's not onomatopoeia; it's imitative not of sound but of behavior.

       OK.  Let's give this language credit!!