A. wrote:
> Thank you for the rescue LOL
> So if Arete derives from PIE *h2ar-os/-es- then it certainly is not
> from *H2rtó- .... thus this sense of "moral rightness" is not based
> specifically upon *H2rtó- but rather as David seemed to suggest, all
> these various meanings all stem from the root essence of *H2ar-
>
> Therefore I really can stop obsessing over *H2rtó- and *H2rtá- !
It can't be directly from *h2r.tó-, that's for sure, but yes, it's
probably from the same root, *h2ar- 'arrange, fit together'. The
proposed intermediate form *h2áros/-es- is not directly attested, as far
as I know (Gk. aros, areos 'use, profit' doesn't fit semantically), but
would belong to a fully productive type. Gk. arestos 'acceptable,
satisfactory' would also be derived from it. The original meaning of
*h2ar- was technical rather than moral, hence its use in terms for
vehicles and their parts (Gk. harma), implements of war (Lat. arma), or
in the vocabulary of masonry (Gk. harmos) and sailing (Gk. armena). The
rest is the figurative extension of 'arrangement, structure' and 'order'.
PIotr