Re: [tied] radical PIE for finger?

From: CeiSerith@...
Message: 15474
Date: 2002-09-14

In a message dated 9/14/2002 1:56:04 AM Eastern Standard Time, alexmoeller@... writes:


in Pokorny list which I have, I found as radical PIE for
finger, the radical  "gwistis". I sthis the only one or is
already an another radical there?


   The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (ed. Mallory and Adams; this particular entry is by Adams) doesn't give that root.  It does give *po'lik(o)s as "finger, thumg, and *po'liHxos as "pertaining to a finger," citing words from Latin, and RusCS, Rus; it also mentions words with meanings such as "grope about" and "seek" from ON, OE, OHG, Bulg, NPers, and possibly Latin.  Adams has this to say:  "Though only found in Slavic and Latin, the similarity in form and the identity of meaning strongly suggests at least late PIE status for this word.  Certainly no other word for "finger" looks to be reconstructable for PIE."

David Fickett-Wilbar