From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 143
Date: 1999-11-01
----- Original Message -----From: markodegard@...Sent: Monday, November 01, 1999 5:17 PMSubject: [cybalist] *kent
D.Q. Adams, in Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture notes under *kéntr/n- that the word means 'patches', 'patched clothing'. He speculates this is related to *kent, in that ancient clothing, particularly animal skins, would have been stitched together, i.e., 'pricked' with a needle. He also notes Latvian sits, 'hunting spear'. (My goodness! I'm seeing the kentum/satem isogloss here for myself for the first time! (p. 110).The entry for *kent ( by Joe Salmons and Mary Niepokuj, pp. 509-10) gives 'sharp' as the main sense. This is related to Old Norse hannar (<*hanþaraz) 'clever', Old High German handeg 'bitter, stern', Gothic handugs 'wise', Latvian sits 'hunting spear'. They say "the connection between the German and Greek forms is uncertain. The variant *keneth2- (k is circumflex) is seen in Avestan snath (th = theta) 'stab'. Widespread and old in IE."
I think the underlying semantic space is best expressed by "to prick, poke or jab with a sharp-pointed device".
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As far as I can see, there is sufficient evidence for reconstructing the root *kent-, exteded to *kent-ax- 'prick, stitch, stab, goad' in verb formation. I'm inclined to dismiss some of the proposed cognates as too speculative (e.g. what's happened to the nasal in the Latvian word??), but the "patchwork" word (= English cento from Latin cent~o, ~onis!) is OK, given that *kentax-trom is a possible word for a needle (also goad, spear, pinprick etc.). A nice family.Piotr