From: "P&G" sent: Saturday, July 05, 2003 12:57 PM
Richard:
English pose comes from Old French poser from late Latin pausare 'cease,
pause',
Peter:
I checked this after I sent my posting (always the wrong way round!),and I
see Skeat takes LLatin pausare to be from the Greek pauo:. (-s- in aorist
and future).
Richard:
Bette late than never!
You skipped a few stages. L. Latin pausa:re formed on L. Latin pausa
'pause' < Greek paûsis 'pause', formed on pauo: 'halt'. Note that Latin
borrowed a Greek noun, and not directly a Greek verb.
I don't think the -s- is connected with the -s- of the aorist and future.
I'm not sure where the verbal suffix -sis comes from. I'd guess PIE *-ti-
and relate it to the the Slavonic *-tI infinitive ending. Where do the
related adjectives in -tikos come from? Verbal adjectives in -tos?
Doing a bit of internal reconstruction, however, I spotted that the pauo: <
*pauso:, checked the Pokorny index at
http://flaez.ch/pokorny.html and
found *paus 'los-, ablassen' = 'free, leave off'. I don't know how secure
the connection is; Pokorny's off-lne at Leiden, and Bird gives the meanings
as 'free, loose'. Neither Onions nor Skeat cite any connections outside
Greek.
Richard.