Re: Newest natlang?

On Wed, 1 Oct 2008 18:03:18 -0000, caeruleancentaur
<caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:

>The PIE root *reg- (move-, direct-, -in a straight line) gives
>English (through *rog- in Germanic) the word "rake,"
>(German "rechen") the garden implement not because of the lines it
>makes in the soil, but because it consists of straight pieces of
>wood.  So I don't see "raak" and "rake" as being related.
How do we know which of those two motivated the semantic extension?  Is
there a cognate in some other lang applied to a different straight-handled
tool?  Were rakes once characterised by being uniquely or specially
straight, more so than a hoe or a broom or whatever else?  I can't bring
myself to read the AHD's statement as strong enough to exclude other
semantic developments, but only as one possible explanation of the fact that
a noun derived from 'straight' might mean 'rake'.

Anyway the OED splits from the AHD here and traces "rake" back to the base
of _reke_ v. 3 'To cover up in earth or ashes' <> Goth. _rikan_ 'to heap
up', no PIE antecedent provided.

The relevant bit of the AHD:
| IV. O-grade form *rog-. 1. rake1, from Old English raca, racu, rake
| (implement with straight pieces of wood), from Germanic *rak. 2. rack1, from
| Middle Dutch rec, framework, from Germanic *rak-. 3. Possibly Germanic
| *rankaz (with nasal infix). rank2, from Old English ranc, straight, strong,
| hence haughty, overbearing. 4. reckon, from Old English gerecenian, to
| arrange in order, recount (ge-, collective prefix; see kom), from Germanic
| *rakinaz, ready, straightforward.
[...]

Alex

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