Re: Glass, eye

From: Torsten
Message: 65062
Date: 2009-09-19

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
>
> > > > As for
> > > > http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/58962
> > > > I think now it's rather like this
> > > > *gel(w)-án,- -> *gl-án,-
> > > > in (endingless) nom. *gl-án,# -> glak-
> > > > in genitive (as appropriate for a mass noun) *gl-án,-s- ->
> > > > *gla:s- with a lot of back and forth borrowing, of course
> > > > (Lat. gla:ns, glandis, Russ. glaz, German Glanz etc).
> > >
> > > Lat. <gla:ns> 'acorn' belongs with Greek <balanos>; very likely
> > > <Blandusia> reflects the P-Italic cognate 'productive in
> > > acorns' vel sim., Proto-Italic *gWlan-d-, PIE *gW(e)lh2-n-.
> > >
> >
> > That's right, except it's probably better to lose the laryngeal
> > and reconstruct instead *g(W)l-ánd-, some nominal form
> > (participle?) of *g(W)elW- "freeze; coagulate". And it's a
> > substrate loan, cf
> >
> > Collinder
> >
> > 'Saami gielo ~ gíllumâ- clot of coagulated blood |
> >
> > [? Mansi keel&p blood; red |
> >
> > Khanty
> > N Kazym haþt&p: h. juh alder (juh tree),
> > S Nizjam hatt&p menstruation blood; blood] ||
> >
> > Yurak Samoyed sielw blood that has dried to a hard condition.'
> >
> >
> > Any theory that includes the verb reconstructed as PIE *g(W)el-
> > etc (Pokorny sidesteps it: 'wohl ursprünglich "Eiche"', "probably
> > originally "oak"") will have to account for the distribution of
> > the Uralic word.
>
> This might be the orignal sense of the word *gland- etc
> nicely situated semantically between "eye", "shiny pebble" and
> "gel".
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitreous_humour
> Anyone who's cooked cod will know what I'm talking about: the
> gelatinous vitreous body of the eye turns into a small white round
> pebble.

Another one for 'glass' collection:
Ernout-Meillet:
'gramiae, -a:rum (a:?) f.pl.:
- oculorum sunt uitia quas alii glamas uocant, P.F.85,26.
Glamae est apparenté ou emprunté à
gr. glama (cf. glé:mion) dont proviennent
glamáo:, glámo:n, glaurós etc., v. Boisacq s.u.,
et n'est pas apparenté à gramiae. Les dictionnaires donnent de gramia un dérivé
gramio:sus.
Mais Nonius, xxy,15, cite la forme
grammo:(n)sus
dans un sénaire de Caecilius (R3286):
grammonsis oculis ipsa, atratis dentibus;
et la même forme se retrouve dans les gloses, cf. Landgraf, ALLG 9,403 et suiv., Glossar., Latina III 153.
Grammo:sus suppose un substantif *gramma, qui présente la même gémination que le mot gotique cité plus bas. De ce gramma a pu être dérivé un adj. *gramius dont gramiae serait le f.pl. substantivé.
Mot rare, populaire. Aucune des formes n'a passé dans les langues romanes.
On rapproche got. qrammiþa "ikmás" (avec gémination expressive?), dont le sens est plus général, et v. sl. grIme^z^dI "chassie" dont la formation n'est pas claire.'

Apparently people imagined puss in the eye as leaking vitreus humor.
Also apparently gra- and gla- alternated, pace Ernout-Meillet. Gk. glaurós seems to indicate nasalization, *glaN-ró-


Torsten