From: dgkilday57
Message: 68388
Date: 2012-01-21
>I would not rule out an early borrowing of a noun 'girdle, sash' from PIE to Proto-Semitic, with further borrowing into neighboring Proto-Cushitic. A parallel is Arabic <burj-> 'tower' along with the Punic name for the citadel of Carthage, borrowed into Greek as <Bursa>. The story about Dido and the oxhide probably originated as a Greek folk-etymology, since this name sounded like the ordinary Greek word for 'oxhide'. Proto-Semitic probably borrowed this from the PIE root-noun *bHorg^H-s 'protection, defense'. The root itself can be regarded as an extension of *bHer- 'to carry', namely *bHer-g^H- 'to carry inside, keep in a protected place, protect', with the same extension as *sneh2/4-g^H- 'to dive (in)' from *sneh2/4- 'to float, swim'.
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "The Egyptian Chronicles" <the_egyptian_chronicles@> wrote:
>
> > Since we are on the topic of 'bind', the following example is another
> > unexplained match between Arabic and Germanic.
> >
> > POKORNY: #444 *gherdh- 'to gird, enclose, encompass'...
> >
> > Compare with CLASSICAL ARABIC (???) ghrD (v. & n.), literally,
> > 'to gird a girth upon a camel (or any beast)'
> >
> > www.theegyptianchronicles.com/LINKS/GHRD.html
>
> F. Steingass' Arabic-English Dictionary gives:
>
> 1) garaD- (inf. garD-) 'to strap the girth-leather across the camel's chest'
> 2) gurDa-t, girDa-t (pl. gurD, guruD) 'girth of a camel'
>
> Also, from a vocabulary of Sudan Arabic:
>
> gurDa-, gurda- 'girth of a camel saddle'
>
> This Arabic word may belong in an Afroasiatic root *g-r-d. Compare:
>
> HIGH EAST CUSHITIC:
> Sidaama/Sidamo gurd- 'to tie a knot', gurda- 'knot'
>
> LOW EAST CUSHITIC:
> Oromo gurda-, gurda:- 'a woven sash worn around the waist'
>
> SOUTHERN SEMITIC:
> Gurage gurda- 'an institutional form of ritual bond-friendship made between distantly related clansmen that creates ritual ties and reciprocal obligations'
> Amharic gurda- 'strip of cloth or rope tied around the waist of a person or the middle of an animal'
>
> (?) CENTRAL SEMITIC:
> Syriac gar'da:- 'web, weaving'
> Jewish Aramaic gar'da:-, gir'da:- 'fiber/fringe of a tissue'
>
> Nostraticist Aron Dolgopolsky compares the above Afroasiatic lexemes with the PIE root *gherdh- 'to gird' to provide them with a Nostratic etymology, but his choice is, of course, open to doubt.