[tied] Re: PIE for "eel"

From: tgpedersen@...
Message: 7843
Date: 2001-07-12

--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> Of course IE snakes could be "emanations of the principle of
crookedness" or creepy-crawly snakehood, but in that case derivatives
of *serp- 'to wind, be crooked, creep' were used, hence Lat. serpent-
, Gk. herpet- and Skt. sarpa-. CVC roots are almost never nasal-
infixed, so {h2engWH-} or the like would have to be treated as an
unalysable whole. Well, I'm not aware of such a verb root, whatever
its supposed meaning. On the other hand, the i-stem *h2ongWHis could
be adjectival, so maybe the root from which it was formed had been
lost. {h2eng^-} 'squeeze, tighten' does exist, but as I said its
association with serpents is at best folk-etymological.
>
> Piotr
>
>
>

Even I know that a serpent is something that serps. But...

"Man må sno sig, sagde ålen(, den lå på stegependen)"
"You have to [twist, wind, make shady deals] said the eel (, it was
lying in the frying pan)".
(Danish saying)

There´s your verb root (ON snúa).

And I wasn't thinking of just creepy-crawliness, but something more
destructive.

Torsten