Re: [tied] Fw: Sorok i devianosto

<<I've just checked the dictionary I mentioned. Zaliznyak gives the only
meaning 'a commodity-money unit (first equal to the bunch of 40 skins)', and
the contexts seem to exclude the 'just a sack' meaning.>>

Just a quick note. I would ask how the "sack" word enters in here.
<tessarakonta> simply means forty of anything. I'm not aware of furs or
skins being "sacked" or needing to be (though they may have been wrapped in
sack-cloth, I suppose.)

<Shirt> is often connected to "short". Also English <skirt> and <shirt>
appear to be closely related. And the common usage of furs as a mantle, trim
or border may be connected to <skirt>, early meaning a "border or trim". (A
different possibility perhaps is that the skins were at some point cattle or
horse hides -- suggestive perhaps of Greek <skiron>, <skiros>, any hard
covering.)

As far as <soroku> as a shirt, perhaps it might be useful to point out that,
absent textiles, a shirt or skirt might well be made from animal skins or
furs -- so that the word might acquire both meanings -- "skins" and "shirts".

Steve Long