Re: The oddness of Gaelic words in p-

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 6:46:24 AM on Sunday, June 1, 2008, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> > Here are some comparanda:
> > Jysk:
> > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/30336
> > NWB:
> > http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/KuhnText/list.html
>
> > I have peppered the various entries (from Kuhn) with what
> > I could find in Irish, Welsh and Breton (occurrences in
> > Breton are particularly difficult to explain as loans from
> > English).
>
> And the very first one completely misses the obvious source
> of Irish <peacadh>, Breton <péc'hed>, and Welsh <pechod>
> (not to mention OIr <peccad>): these are borrowings of Latin
> <peccatum>.

Yes, we've discussed those before, and my answer now as then is that a
derivation from Latin is likely, but there's the odd chance it goes
with the rest of Kuhn's items. For one thing, the geminate in Latin
bothers me, and further I wonder if the whole thing doesn't have do
with the whole *mak- discussion
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/48817 , ff
plus the various *bak- "staff" words (that would be a Gandalf stick,
NB), so that it was a complex of "holy strike, holy blow" (the result
of which is a macula etc). That would include the other point you
complained about last time around, the peace kiss *pok- etc. Another
holy touch. In this case they would have been aligned with Latin by
learned etymology. Bok!


Torsten