Re: [tied] "Sinew" versus "Sinus"

----- Original Message -----
From: "alex_lycos" <altamix@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 11:25 AM
Subject: Re: [tied] "Sinew" versus "Sinus"


> Rom. "însãila"=to stitch is given by DEX as conf. 'saia'.
>
> saia (1)= thin thread . unknown etymology
> saia (2)= provisorium refuge for animals cf. DEX from turkish "saye"=
> shadow
> saia (3)= thin texture, clothes made of this texture, from turkish
> "saya"
>
> I always suspected this is loan from Gothic( I have a list with more
> such words, but now I seen the "insailjan" here and remembered about).
> If I am not wrong regarding the loaning from Gothic of the word
> "însãila" I have a big problem regarding the time of closing the
> rhotacism of intervocalic "l". Should it have been already done in the
> III-IV centuries?

I am pretty sure it was much later than that (Miguel, George or Marius are better qualified to give you the details). Gothic insáiljan (OE sæ:lan < *sailjan-) means 'bind with ropes', which is not quite the same as stitching.

Dictionaries derive Fr. saie 'cloth of fine texture' (Eng. say) from Lat. saga, pl. of <sagum> 'military cloak'. It's a word of trade, which must have wandered to and fro in Europe.

Piotr