Re: Farmers on wheels

----- Original Message -----

From: Glen Gordon

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2000 11:35 PM

Subject: [cybalist] Re: Odp: Odp: Glen acknowledges Agricola as masculine, Mea culpa

Piotr wrote: > Colere, colo, colui, cultum. You're right. Cult, culture & colony >are >in this family; even pole is (Greek polos 'pivot, axis' is from >*kWolos). So... if this colere is related to the Greek polos meaning "pivot, axis"... wouldn't that mean that it derives from a *kWel- that means "to turn" and NOT "to attend to" just as in "wheel"?? I've already answered that. But just for the sake of precision: PIE did not have a root with a meaning as general as that of English 'turn'. The semantic development was 'go around' > 'attend to' > 'cultivate', whereas meanings like 'wheel' or 'pivot' derive directly from 'go around' in the literal, physical sense, which is also ONE OF the senses of English 'turn'. Greek has boukolos 'cowherd' (cf. bucolic). It was somebody who tended cattle, not turned them over or made them spin.   Piotr