Vadim:
>Well, I have not been here for a long, but now I'm >back... :-)
>
>
>petusek <petusek@...> wrote:
>
>
>> Could anybody help me with OCz lada "virgin, girl", S-Cr lada "wife",
R/Ukr lada "wife, mistress", please? Any cognates? Any etymological
attempts?
>
>> If it is a loan, does it have something to do with Gr. Léda, Letó, Lat.
La:to:na??? Thanks for any help or advice.
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>
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>In (archaic) Russian <lada> is more frequently not "wife, mistress", but
"beloved, dear" (and therefore one may use it as denoting not only a woman,
but a male >too). This seems to be a primary meaning; "virgin, wife" etc.
must be secondary. I think, here we have an obvious link with R. <lad> "a
proper order", <ladnyj> >"fine, good", <ladno> "well". Although <lad> have
not got any good etymology yet (Goth. le:tan "to let"?), it does not seem to
be a loan...
>
>==========
>Vadim Ponaryadov
Hm, yes, Vadim, I know, we have got similar expressions in Czech, (Cz
{<lad>, <ladny'>,<ladne^>}= {<lad>, <ladnyj>, <ladno>}:)), and I can
remember a Polish adjective <Ladny> "nice, cute, fine" and an adverb
<Ladnie> (I hope I am not wrong). The PS verb *laditi (be in an accord, be
tuned up, tune up, order and sim.) is sometimes derived from *lagoditi (Cz
lahodit "taste excellent", "be enjoable", and sim.) via haplology, i.e.
*lagoditi > *laditi, (there is an adj lahodny' "delicious" in Czech). But
this is just one of several considered possibilities.
Another reconstructions starts with *ladU < *la:-dho- from the pronominal
element *la and the reduced form of the IE root *dhe: "to lay (down), put,
etc." (cf. Czech <bez ladu a skladu> "in a total disarray, disorder". Machek
thinks Rus./Ukr. <lado> is secondary, being derived from f. <lada>, as he,
moreover, claims it is an old Black-sea, Asia Minor loan. But he does not
explain where it is from, which non-IE languages it is present in, that is a
pity...what is your opinion, Vadim?
Petusek