Christophe wrote:
> Oh, now I understand how Spanish macho and French mâle could be cognates:
in the
> first case, only the "u" was lost, leading to "masclo", while in the
second, the
> whole syllable "cu" was lost, leading to "maslo". Then the usual sound
changes
> of both languages led to /matSo/ "macho" and /mAl/ "mâle" (now simply
> pronounced /mal/).
Italian has maschio /maskjo/, which clearly hints to *masclo.
> Still, I don't see where "femelle" (female) derives from. Not
> "femina", for sure...
feminilis?
>
> Christophe.
>
Luca