Re: [tied] West bird

On 2006-01-27 10:24, tgpedersen wrote:

> Where did 'motionless' come from? Perhaps from an original
> sense 'roost'?

Just trying to convey the connotations of the Sanskrit word, which is
used in contexts like 'sitting quietly near the fire altar during a
ceremony'. Literally, it means just 'sitting _down_' (<ni->). I've got
nothing against the idea that a nesting bird could be described as
*ni-sed- 'down-sitter' by the IEs. As regards the "original" meaning of
*sed-, it isn't something I would know much about, but obviously 'to
sit' is a very basic concept.

>>with
>>agentive *-sed-, which is just what we would expect to underlie
>
> *nisdos.
>
> Erh, and therefore ... ?

And therefore the support for the analysis of *nisdo- as *[ni-sd-]-o- is
overwhelmingly strong (also on the formal side). There is no such
support for a similar analysis of *hosdos.

>>There is no such evident connection in the case of the 'branch'
>
> word,
>
>>though of course I admit it as a possibility.
>
>
> The battle of the PIE Urheimat has determined, if not much else,
> that they had no monkeys around, which was the other possibility.
> Using 'perch' for 'branch' seems natural enough for me.

Agreed, but "natural" doesn't mean "necessary" or even "very common".
Words for 'branch' in various languages have all sorts of etymologies
(to do with arms, forks, growth, etc.).

Piotr