*pIzd- 'fart' is quite well attested in
Slavic: there is Ukrainian pezdity (a byform of bzdity), Slovene pezdeti, and
Bulgarian p@...'a. There are moreover forms like Czech pezd and Old Polish piezd
< *pIzdU, Gen. bzda < *pIzda 'a fart'. In vulgar Polish you can say "Wiatr
piz'dzi" (with the Slavic lengthened grade) 'The wind's blowing like hell'. Of
course whenever the jer was lost there was automatic voicing assimilation, as
also in Polish bz'dzic', Czech bzditi, etc.
Lithuanian bezde.ti and Latvian bezde:t
look to me like Slavic loanwords with analogical b, or at least like
Slavic-influenced forms. The Slavic word *bUz-U 'elder(tree/berry)', of which
*bUzina is aderivative, is somewhat obscure but I don't think it belongs to
this smelly etymon. Its flowers are no match for roses in terms of fragrance
but they still smell a damn sight sweeter than the breaking of
wind.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2001 10:13 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: The sexual life of the IEs
You just outstarted me, that's the etymology by which I
wanted to supersede my -Id-derivative. The only difference would be that I
haven't heard of *pIzd-E-ti and analyzed *bUzd-E-ti, Lith. bezde.'ti 'the same'
and *buzina 'elder (Sambucus)' (may be of the same root in it's full original
form, not suffixed with -d- and heterosyllabic, meaning 'odoriferous
plant').