alex wrote:
>>láb [la:b] "leg, foot"
>
>can it be the Hungarian word is a loan from Romanian?
Take a look at láb here (Hung.-Engl. dict.):
http://lablegfoot.notlong.com
>Of course the vulgar word for onanismus seems to derive from
>the derogative denomination for "hand" which is "laba".
>Are you indeed shure this is a loan from Hungarian?
The Romanian onanistic sense (still vulgar slang) is not
older than the middle of the 20th c. Hungarian <láb> must
have been taken into the Carpathian from Hungarian's
successive Urheimats beyond the river of Dnepr. At least
I expect it to be found in the earliest Hungarian texts.
OTOH, in Romanian laba~ means only the foot of certain
animals; as well as the foot of humans in contrast with
the leg, since in Romanian <picior> is ambiguous: it
both means "leg" and "foot." (Also <talpa> "sole" might
be a Hung. loanie <talp> [tOlp], although in some Northern
German dialects you find a similar word meaning the same:
dalp.)
Otherwise, in Romanian <laba> means the hand of a
pugnacious slob, as in the menace "Iti dau o laba,"
meaning "I'm gonna hit you in the face," or "Ick hau
dir eene uffn Kopp." Or, colloquially, if a big
hulk-like guy friendly taps your shoulder or your
shoulder blades (see below), he lets a "laba" fall
as heavy as a log on a pencilneck's shoulder, as
a sign of friendship. :^)
>I ask because the le:p- is a IE root which fets damm
>good the Rom. meanings
I don't know. If it's PIE, then I'd be curious myself
to learn of other derivatives, aside of Rum. laba and
Hung. láb.
>In fact the PIE root seems to be in Pokorny the root
>1172 *le:p flach sein; Hand-, Fußfläche, Schulterblatt,
>Schaufel, Ruderblatt u. dgl.'
Boy-oh-boy, Hungarians have further words that'd fit
here: <lap> [lOp] "sheet, card, flat; Blatt." And
<lapos> [lOpoS] (actually adjectival derivation of
<lap>) "flat, even." (Hence e.g. the name of the
province of La~puS, Tzara La~puSului.) A further
derivation <lapocka> ['lOpotzkO] means "Schulterblatt,
shoulder blade."
As for "Schaufel," Hung. <lapát> ['lOpa:t]. It can
100% be translated as <lopata> into Romanian. But here
I guess that the path to PIE crosses Slavic realms
(<lopatka?>).
>Alex
George