Re: Greek vocabulary question

Tim Smith wrote:
> R A Brown wrote:
[snip]
>> "metr-" in English words may come from any of three Greek sources:
>>
>> In _metritits_ and _metrorrhagia_ it is from μήτρα /me:tra/ "womb."
>>
>> In _metronym_ and _metropolis_ it is from μητήρ /me:te:r/ (genitive:
>> μητρός /me:tros/) "mother."
>>
>> In _meter/metre_, _metric_, _metronome_ etc. it is from μέτρον
>> /metron/ "measure"
>
> I would guess that /me:te:r/ and /me:tra/ ultimately come from the same
> Indo-European root (since they both have long "e" and since the semantic
> connection between "mother" and "womb" is fairly straightforward),
Correct - from PIE *ma:tr ~ *ma:ter ~ *ma:tor

PIE /a:/ was retained in Doric Greek but became [E:] in Ionic & Attic
dialects and subsequently in standard classical Greek. By the Roman
period the sound had shifted to [e:].

But the PIE word itself is bimorphemic, consisting of two bound
morphemes: ma:- and the suffix -tr (with ablaut variants -ter and -tor)
found in the words for father (*p@tr), brother (*fra:tr) and sister
(*swestr).

but
> that /metron/ comes from a different source?
Indeed it does - I don't have an etymological dictionary to hand, but if
memory serves me aright, it's from a root *met- = 'measure' with suffix
-ro- denoting instrument, i.e. met-ro-n 'a measuring instrument.' But
certainly nothing to do with *ma:tr words.
--

Ray
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