>caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@... schrieb:
>> Actually, in this expression, "con" is short for
>> "contra" which does mean "against." It has nothing
>> to do with "with," except in its derivation: contra
>> < a PIE suffixed form *kom-tra.
>Steven Williams <feurieaux@...> wrote:
>Oh, really? I had no idea. I thought they were two
>distinct lexemes, 'con' and 'contra', and that 'con'
>was the form of 'cum' used in prefixes and such.
>What did *tra mean in PIE?
You got me! The AHD PIE appendix doesn't say. It does that a lot.
I, too, would like to know its origin. Did someone just pick it out
of the air ("I know. Let's add "-tra" to "cum," pronounce
it "contra" & let it mean "against"!) or does it, too, have a known
etymology?
Charlie
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