--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Petr Hrubis <hrubisp@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> *pri- may also mean "to" (Czech pr^ipsat "add
> writing", pr^ide^lat "to put to, add to" etc.)
>
> pri:c^ina "cause" can thus be understood as something
> that was "added to reach a goal", hence a "cause".
>
One of the values of *pri- is 'presence', say "privesti" (*ved-
) 'cause somebody to be present by leading him/her'
(= 'bring'), "prizUvati" 'cause somebody to be present by calling'
(= 'invite'), so "pric^initi" is 'cause something to be present by
performing some action on it', which to me seems a good way to
say 'cause'.
Although several modern Slavic languages have the word "pric^ina", it
does not occur in Old Church Slavonic (unless it has cropped up in
one of the newly - or rather not so newly - discovered texts), which
has a single instance of "pric^initi" with the value of 'add, hitch
onto something' (according to the one-volume Staroslavjanskij slovar'
of 1994). It looks suspiciously like a learned formation.
W.
Willem