--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "squilluncus" <grvs@...> wrote:
> Likewise: compes "a fetter together with a foot"?
> Contumelia an encounter from which you make your exit provided with
> tumid lips?
Formally, Latin con-cla:ve and com-pe:s are indeed some sort of
prepositional bahuvrihis, "(being) with a key" and "(being) with a
foot", like Greek para-thalássios "beside the sea", ap-
ánthro:pos "far from man, desolate". One may compare compe:s with
Greek sym-pod-ízo: "enchain" ("foot-chain" is simply péde: without
any preposition, cf. also Germ. Fessel < IE *pod-ilo-). My point was
that the preposition (as the first part of compounds) had a special
connotation ("enclosure"), which may play some role in concla:ve (and
compe:s).
Contume:lia is problematic. It may be connected with tumeo: (Ernout-
Meillet), but the derivation is enigmatic.
>
> The same for consul and consulere?
> What is sul? Something to do with sed- like solium?
> Two persons presiding the Senate together?
Co:nsul (co:nsulo:, co:nsilium) is also problematic. I haven't seen
your suggestion before, and it might work, if we accept d > l in an
unstressed syllable. Other solutions are either a derivation from the
IE root *k'ems- "declare publicly" (also in ce:nseo:; Ernout-
Meillet: "mais ni le sens, ni la forme ne s'expliquent bien") or a
compound with the IE root *sel- "take" (Gr. heleîn;
Pokorny: "fraglich").