Re: Albanian "vatër"

>Ever heard of idioms? <vetera:nus> meant etymologically 'an experienced
>person', but its use was idiomatically limited to a particular occupation
>where experience was a great asset. We also have <veterasco:> 'grow old' and
><vetera:tor> 'an old hand, old stager'. The distribution of the word is of
>course pan-Romance (cf. Fr. vétéran), and Lat. vetus, veter- (*wetes-)
>belongs to a very well documented Indo-European etymon.

Methinks Alex is intrigued by this: on the one hand, there is
the "veteran" who quits his army job and gets, as a retiree
(i.e. as a veteran), inter alia, the right to settle down as a
colonist. OTOH, there is the idiomatic wording in Romanian
(and in Albanian, as Mr Konushevci put it today): an ex-soldier
is allowed to go back to the "vatr&", i.e. hearth = figurative
for home (cf. Rum. "a fi lãsat la vatrã").

But, AFAIK, I've never heard/read that Rum. vatr& (deemed
as a Balkanic substrate word) is related to "b&trân" < veteranus.

>Piotr

George