Re: OT: an axe to grind
From: | wayne chevrier <wachevrier@...> |
Date: | Saturday, February 11, 2006, 18:29 |
Paul Bennett nevesht:
>
>On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 22:37:08 -0500, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
>wrote:
>
>>On 2/9/06, Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> wrote:
>>>Those latter two might be related to PIE *nsi-, which canonically means
>>>"sword", but if one root can become the word for both "salmon" and "ten
>>>thousand", I suspect the semantic chasm between "sword" to "axe" would
>>>not be too large to bridge.
>>
>>Yow! Where did that happen?
>
>In PIE, of all places. As I understand it, the languages in question are
>those of Scandinavia (for "salmon") and India (for "ten thousand"). That
>might be the linguistic equivalent of a campfire tale, but I was told it
>as true, by several different science shows on TV, and I have never been
>proven wrong to my face, on this point at least. The root in question is
>lAek^s-, give or take the vagaries of your favorite transcription system.
>
"Lakh" actually means "one hundred thousand", but in Greek the words for
"ten thousand" and "ant" are related.
--Wayne Chevrier
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