Re: [tied] Re: IE thematic presents and the origin of their themati

tgpedersen wrote:

> As I try to keep reminding myself, there's always a downside to a
> snappy comeback. In this case you have just agreed with me that *bHo:r-
> didn't necessarily mean "habitual thief" from the beginning.

But there is such a thing as the prototypical meaning. A "thief" is
prototypically a kind of habitual criminal, i.e. somebody who keeps
stealing things, and only secondarily anyone who has pinched something,
sometime, somewhere.

> So *bhe:r- would mean "carrier, porter" if it had existed ...?

Yes. 'Carrier', unmarked for habituality, frequency or notoriousness.

Piotr