Re: OT: an axe to grind
| From: | Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, February 10, 2006, 22:29 |
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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.
Paul
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