Re: [tied] Latin 'twenty'

From: Anthony Appleyard
Message: 26269
Date: 2003-10-07

Someone wrote:-
> Greek eíkosi/Fíkati (*ewi:km.ti) points to *h1wi-h1k^m.tíh1
> (presumably from *dwi-dk^m.tíh1 with twice *d > *h1). ...

This [wi-] could be related to the very common Sanskrit prefix [vi-]
= "apart". It may come from PIE [h1wi-]. It occurs in the Sanskrit
word "vimana". This is "apart - having-been-measured" and likeliest
at first meant "land measured out and made holy". Then it
meant "temple" and then "a god's palace". Then it was used for
Ravana's flying palace called [puSpaka] in the Rama_yana story. From
that it came to mean "mythical flying device" in many later Indian
stories. And now in Gujarati and Hindi it means "aeroplane". Near
Bangalore airport in India is a new suburb called Vimanapura. And
that is THAT word de-mysticised.