Re: [tied] PIE nit, louse's egg

From: João S. Lopes Filho
Message: 10442
Date: 2001-10-19

Louse in Latin is pedis ( diminutive pedic(u)lu in Romance), which must be <*pezdhi-.
cf. Avestan pazdu- "kind of insect" (*pezdhu-) and Greek phtheiros (*pzdh-erio- or *pzdhei-ro or *pzdhw-erio-).
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 3:37 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] PIE nit, louse's egg

*k^(o)nid- is the usual reconstruction. Perhaps there was an independent term like *gHlind- (cf. Lithuanian and Latin), and contamination may be responsible for the curious hybrid forms. The word must have belong to the "low" lexical register, where all kinds of colloquial irregularities are likely to occur.
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 2:31 AM
Subject: [tied] PIE nit, louse's egg

What's the PIE for louse's egg, nit?
 
Latin lens
Latvian gni~da
Lithuanuan glinda
Irish sned, gnit
Welsh nedd
Grk konis "dust"
OE hnitu = OHG hniz < PGerm *hnito:
Albanian theni
Armenian anic
Russian gnida (Other Slavic equivalents?)
 
*gnida is a common Slavic term.
 
It seems to exist a lot of corrupted variations of the same base.
I'd try to explain Latin as
 
*gnNd- (or knNd-) > gnend- > nend-> dissimilation > lend-. PIE *gnNd- (or knNd-) can explain Latvian, Lithuanina (dissimilated)
 Other words point to a *gnid-.
Greek, Germanic and Albanian point to a *k^nid-