Re: [tied] Re: Yellow as an PIE word

----- Original Message -----
From: "Miguel Carrasquer" <mcv@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2003 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Yellow as an PIE word



> Lat. viridis, from vireo "to be green", root *wis-/*weis- "to grow".

This reminds me of European rivernames with *-w(e)is-, such as the Wear, the Weser, and the Vistula. They are traditionally assigned en masse to the 'stink, poison, mud' root, together with <virus> (*weisos) and <bison> (*wis(o)nto-). How about connecting them (or at least some of them) with German Wiese 'meadow' and OE wi:sc (*weiska-) 'piece of meadow in the bend of a river' instead? From the purely topographical point of view a Germanic *weisk-(V)lo: would make more sense as the etymology of Vistula/Viscla.

Piotr