Re: That old Odin scenario ...

> > Well compare DEO
> > 'nem [easy] adj, MDa, No. id., OSw. næmber, ON næmr "leaning
> > easily", -næmr "what can be taken or learned" in cmpds. like
> > fastnæmr "steadfast", netnæmr "which can be taken with a net",
> > uppnæmr "which can be defeated", tornæmr "difficult to learn",
> > corrsp. to 2nd elmt. of Gothic andane:ms, Germ. angenehm
> > "pleasant"; from Germ. *ne:mia-, verbal adj. of II nemme ["take,
> > grasp; get an impression or understanding of"]. - Cf. fingernem
> > ["good with one's hands"], ... lærenem ["eager to learn"]...
> > tungnem ["slow in understanding"]'

> > and I nemme "capacity for understanding" (< *na:mia).

> > It seems 'nem' is short for some sort of compound (*let-nem?);
> > Slavic *nemU could be too (cf. 'tungnem'), cf. also today 'nem'
> > "easy" being used of people who are fooled easily. What to do with
> > the n- is of course an old problem, namely how to draw a
> > borderline between PIE *em- and *nem-.
>
> Is that supposed to account for *ne^mU 'speechless'?

No, the other sense, "stupid", which you pointed out yourself.

> Anyway, Slavic (alongside Celtic,

Pokorny air. nem f, mir. neim 'Gift' (vgl. nhd. Gift:geben);

> Italic, Baltic,

Pokorny lett. n,emt (kontaminiert aus nemt und jemt) 'nehmen'

> Tocharian and
> possibly Anatolian) has reflexes of *h1em- only (none of *nem-), so
> the *ne- + *h1em- etymology is not particularly problematic _within_
> Slavic.

Pokorny
lett. je,mu, je~mu, jem~t und jem^t, daneben n´emu, n´êmu, n´em^t
(wohl durch Kontamination einer Entsprechung von got. niman ,nehmen'
entstanden, ...)


It is difficult in at least Russian to analyze out the *em- verb from
prefixed compounds of it, since the preverbs add an extra -n-. From
that one might be false analysis arrive at a root *nem-. Now if that
process had been more widespread in the IE languages, the vacillation
between *em- and *nem- could be explained that way.


Torsten