What's in a word?

My sister thought I would be interested in this link, and she was correct. Recently a study was conducted, examining at least 700 Eurasiatic languages.  As linguists are aware, certain words reoccur in many languages in similar form or sound. This finding indicates that at some point, like human evolution, languages branched off from earlier languages. Some of the words I would predict to be consistent in many languages would include 'mother, hand, you, man, fire, or this.' But 'to spit' is weird, and 'worm' is bizarre. 

By Wilson Andrews and David Brown, Published: May 6, 2013
  "A research team led by Mark Pagel at the University of Reading in England has identified 23 “ultra-conserved words” that have remained largely unchanged for 15,000 years. Words that sound and mean the same thing in different languages are called “cognates”. These are 23 words that have cognates in at least four of the seven Eurasiatic language families. Those languages, about 700 in all, are spoken in an area extending from the British Isles to western China and from the Arctic to southern India. Only one word, “thou” (the singular form of “you”), has a cognate in all seven families."

All 23 “ultra-conserved words”

Listed by the number of language families in which they have cognates. 

7 - thou
6 - I
5 - not, that, we, to give, who
4 - this, what, man/male, ye, old, mother, to hear, hand, fire ,to pull, black, to flow, bark, ashes, to spit, worm

Linguists identify 15,000-year-old ‘ultra-conserved words.' To hear the words, click here.