From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 20392
Date: 2003-03-27
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel J. Milton" <dmilt1896@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 5:29 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: to buy-revised
> Abdullah, are you seriously suggesting that Russian kupyt' and
> kupat' are related?
> The first must at least be related to (and most probably derived
> from one of) the similar Germanic words for "buy" (Buck suggests
> Gothic *kaupjan as the source -- kaupon "carry on business" is
> actually attested), and the standard idea is that these derive from
> Latin 'caupo'. I don't have an etymology for kupat' (if anyone is
> able to use Leiden's on-line Database of the Inherited Slavic
> Lexicon, please tell me how), but anyway doesn't it, in Russian at
> least, basically mean "immerse in water" or "bathe", with
> cleanliness an unessential consequence?
> Dan
Of course they are unrelated, and the /u/ of the 'bathe' verb reflects a nasal vowel (cf. Pol. ka,pac').
Piotr