>Would any list members care to offer constructive comments?
Perhaps the verb "de-excitare" might help. OTOH, noteworthy
that "de$tept" is at the same time still today perceived as a...
past participle, sort of short form of "de$teptat". So, someone
who is "de$tept" (intelligent, bright) is so in the sense of...
"awake(n)". I have no idea how that "-p-" appeared in the word.
But I think it's worth mentioning that "complet" (complete) is
used by a vast majority of native-speakers as "complect" (which
is wrong), even by teachers. It could be that one tends to
adapt such cases to past participles ending in "-pt"/"-ct". Thus,
the speakers feel that, by doing so, it... sounds better.
>I can't think of any other Romanian examples where I would expect ge >
>$. However, does Latin fri:gidu- 'cold' survive in Romanian?
Only as "frig", plural "friguri /fri-gurj/. The adj. "frigid/-a" is a
neologism. So is "frigider".
OTOH "frigo, frictus est" survived as "frigere" > "a frige, frigere" /-dZe-/
& past participle "fript" (roasted); indicative present tense: "frig, frigi
/fridZ/, frigem, frigetzi, frig"; imperfect tense: "frigeam, frigeai, frigea,
frigeam, frigeatzi, frigeau"; perfect: "fripsei, fripse$i, fripse, fripserãm,
fripserãtzi, fripserã"; plusquam perf.: "fripsesem, -sese$i, -sese,
-seserãm, -seserãtzi, -seserã". "Fripturã" (any roasted chop of meat).
Other verbs of the same category: "(în)frânge, înfrânt; (s)curge, (s)curs;
strânge, strâns; plânge, plâns; trage, tras; culege, cules [these could very
well have developed as *trapt & *culept -- but it wasn't to be :-]"...
>vowels are not quite the same as in Latin digitu- 'finger', so there
>may well be some differences. Another possibility is Latin rigidu-
>'stiff', but I would expect that to be *reged if it survives.
I can't remember any word with this etymology < Lat. "rigeo" (other
than neologisms). But an interesting detail: Rum. "a rezema" + subst.
"reazem" (support, sustain, back, buttress, lean on), a substrate word,
has a Lat. correspondent in the word family of Lat. "rego, rexi, rectus".
>Richard.
George