I believe you are confusing the spoken sound of a particular cognate with the semantic meanings of the word that have remained consistent across different langu

I believe you are confusing the spoken sound of a particular cognate with the semantic meanings of the word that have remained consistent across different languages. For example, "fire" has a very direct translation in a large number of languages. Historically, it was believed that the evolution of word-use would preclude such semantic stability, but the words these researchers identified are perhaps suggestive of a common proto-Eurasiatic language. The fact that less used words like "flow" and "worm" remained consistent legitimizes this theory.