[tied] Re: alb. gji (breast) - maybe PIE *sei-N-

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "m_iacomi" <m_iacomi@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "alex" wrote:
> > It is a wish to see Latin "sinus" being the Rom. "sân"

> > which does not meant bosom; the meaning "bosom" is a new one,
>
> Yeah, right. See the expression "a scuipa în sân", equally valid

for

> men and women, in which "sân" means `bosom`.
>
> > a meaning of the "educated" society which felt the word "TâTã" as
> > vulgare, thus they prefered using "sân".
>
> "TâTã" means `breast`, not `bosom`.

English is tricky here, not having a simple non-vulgar word for
the 'female breast' or 'female bosom'. The clear, simple words
('tit', 'boob', 'dug') are vulgar, archaic or both. (If you
claimed 'mamma' was simple, I would retort that that it was medical
Latin. It won't be clearly understood.) Distrust your dictionary -
a couple of mine just say that 'tit' means 'teat', but it doesn't!
('Teat' means '(female) nipple', but feeding bottles and lactating
cows have teats, not nipples. Small oil cans - such as for
bicycles - have nipples, not teats.) Apart from when talking of
specifically female anatomy, 'bosom' is abstract; one's bosom is
where someone is when one hugs them. 'Breast' is a physical part of
the anatomy, and in the singular is possessed by both men and
women. One can eat chicken 'breast'; one can't eat
chicken 'bosom'. (I'm not sure chickens have bosoms.)

Thus, when talking of anatomy, 'bosom' clearly means the female
breast (as opposed to the bilateral breast of a female).

> > I guess otiginary the word "sân" meant something else, an object
> where
> > one could put somethin in like a bag and the extension to the
> meaning
> > "breast" come from the fact that a good plase to put something

in is

> > your chemise as in a bag.
>
> "Wise" guess. Based on... ?!
>
> > There are good reasons to belive this meaning from the

expresions

> which
> > are stil alive in the langauge and from the object of clothes

which

> are
> > used with the meaning of bag.
>
> Can you be more specific?!

Presumably he could always cite the classical authors. I quote part
of the entry in my Collins pocket Latin dictionary: '(toga) fold,
pocket, purse; (person) bosom; (fig.) protection, love, heart,
hiding-place. *in sinu: gaude:re* be secretly glad.'

Richard.