Re: 'together vs. to gather'

In French:
together = "ensemble", coming from Latin in-simul.
Simul having both spatial and temporal meanings.
to gather = "se rassembler". Haven't found the exact
etymology, probably something like re-similari (?)

Interesting that in French we have to use "se", unlike
English, but like Russian for example: so-birat'sja
(so = union, sja = the same as French "se").
The opposite would be "raz-sypat'sja" ("se disperser")
"dis" having the exact meaning of "raz".

This brings me to a question I'm trying to solve. I've
often read that the concept "gender" (singular /
plural) attaches logically to the subject; if there is
a gender mark on the verb, it's only by some kind of
"sympathy". But how can we conceive verbs like "to
gather" or "to disperse" without the notion of plural
? Those verbs seem to BE plural in essence, they
require a plural subject.

--- Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> wrote:
> Merhaba!
>
> The words 'together' and 'to gather' are an
> interesting pair of look-alikes.
> They seem to have similar meanings, and I was
> wondering are they really
> related? Was there a vowel shift (and a
> ssquishing-together of 'to'
> and 'gather') to get 'together'? Are there any langs
> where 'to gather' is a
> verbal derivation from 'together', and/or 'together'
> is an adjectival
> derivation from 'to gather'?
>
> --Trebor

=====
Philippe Caquant

"Le langage est source de malentendus."
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

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