Barry Garcia wrote:
>Elsevier's concise Spanish etymological dictionary :
>containing 10000 entries, 1300 word families /
It's online?? Where? Where!?
>
>The book is nice, it even shows the probably arabic sources for spanish
>words. I'm finding it very useful. One of the interesting etymologies for
>"thistle" (abrojo). The book states that it probably comes from the phrase
>"aperi oculos!" (open your eyes!), which the book says was a warning to
>those reaping and or working in fields covered in thistles.
I'm sure Elsevier only contains the most scrupulous scholarship-- but IMHO
that etymology seems worthy of St. Isidore of Seville (e.g. vulpes 'fox' <
vul = vol(a)- 'fly' and pes 'foot', "fleet of foot". Right) ;-)