From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 17470
Date: 2003-01-08
----- Original Message -----
From: <kalyan97@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 12:21 PM
Subject: [tied] snake, naga
> na_ga means snake.
>
> Was the possibility of the words, 'snake' and 'na_ga' being cognate
> discussed on the list? In what messages? Thanks.
Yes, several times, but the messages are difficult to locate. I've found this one, but there's more somewhere:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/12002
In brief, Old Indic <na:ga-> may be related to Eng. naked via PIE *nogW- 'naked', cf. Skt. nagna-), but <snake> (< *snak-o:n) is an agent noun derived from a Germanic verb root meanig 'creep, crawl, glide', without clear external connections.
Piotr