From: tgpedersen
Message: 29008
Date: 2004-01-02
><tuft>,
> > Falk & Torp
> > "
> > <toft> or <tofte>
> > (danish = plot at a building, field near the farm outside the
> village
> > community, plot for the house), Sw.dial. <toft>, Norw.dial.
> > <toft> "plot for a house", ON <topt>, <tupt> id. (loaned to ASthat
> > <toft> "plot"). Word is identical to <tomt>, qv.
> >
> > <tomt>, Sw. <tomt>, O.Sw. <tompt> next to <toft>, with which the
> word
> > is probably identical; see <toft>. Germ. basic form *tumftô = IE
> *dm.p
> > (e)dâ, cf Greek <dápedon> "floor, plot" from *dm.-pedo-, Lith
> > dimstis "farmyard, farm" from dm.pdti-. The word is composed of
> *dm.-
> > weakest [zero] grade of *dem "house, building" (cf. <timber>) and
> > *pedo- "plot, yard". The real meaning of <tomt> is thus <house
> plot>.
> > A completely different word is the verbal noun High German
> > <zunft> "guild" belonging to Germanic *teman "fit". Further
> > <tomte> "house gnome" [nisse] also <tufte>, <tomtegubbe>,
> <tuftekarl>
> > (<tunkarl>), Sw <tomte>, <tomtegubbe>
> > "
> > But why not *dm-pot- "master of the plot (or house)" for the
> <tomte>,
> > who is explained in legends as the soul of one of the previous
> owners
> > (corresponding to Latin Lares).
> >
> > I still think all the IE *dem-, *dom- words belong together. A
> plot,
> > before it could built on had to be emptied (ON <tom-> "empty") of
> the
> > foreign spirits living on it. If I could find a way to connect it
> to
> > *tom- "cut up, divide" I'd do that, but then I'd have to claim
> > the root was a loan into IE (which I believe anyway:And to make matters worse; since the -pedo part is related to PIE
> >
> > http://www.angelfire.com/rant/tgpedersen/Adm.html
> >
> > )
>
> And while I'm at it ruining the remaning shreds of my reputation,
> from
>
> http://www.cbold.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Docs/Guthrie.html
> Guthrie's Proto-Bantu forms
>
> -dèm- to cultivate
> -dèmÒ work
> (-dím- to become extinguished; to extinguish [?= to empty])
> -dímò spirit
> -dómÈ husband; man
> -dómÈ male