Re: [tied] Latin piscis - Celtic eiskos - Germanic fiskaz

----- Original Message -----
From: "Glen Gordon" <glengordon01@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 22, 2003 3:35 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Latin piscis - Celtic eiskos - Germanic fiskaz


> Personally, I'm not totally sure but I would presume that the forms are all based on a common adjectival root *peisk- and that it was used to make a descriptive noun. Does *peisk- mean "spotted"? I can't remember - it's in the recesses of my mind and I can't relinquish it from the cobwebs.

Yes, it's one of those early Cybalist questions now buried somewhere in the archives. The hypothesis was that the common word was *peik^-sko-, meaning a fish with bright-coloured markings, such as the rainbow trout (from *peik^- 'paint'). The Germanic and Latin forms could be accounted for as reflexes of *peik^sk- with closed syllable shortening, e.g. *peik^sko- > *fi:xska- *fixska- > *fiska-.

Piotr