On 2006-07-11 21:22, squilluncus wrote:
> What to say then about German Bild? Has it something to do with
> 'twin', then from *dwi, well known in Latin.
No chance. In Germanic, *dwi- gives twi- (German zwi-).
> But is there any Germanic evidence of such a development?
Nope.
> Or is it perhaps *bheid, findere, making two out of one?
The potential cognates are a little obscure. They include Celtic *bili-
'good' and Gk. pHílos 'dear, friendly', cf. OE bil(e)-wit 'merciful,
gentle', OHG bil-li:h 'convenient' (Mod.Ger. billig 'cheap'). <Bild>
reflects the corresponding PGmc. abstract noun *Biliþo: 'pleasantness'
(hence, 'a pretty sight, form, picture'). Underlying all of these is PIE
*bHilo- with some kind of 'pleasing' semantics, no doubt to be cut
morphologically as *bHi-lo- and so presupposing a root like *bHei-, but
I know of no other obvious derivatives, and the root meaning is highly
uncertain.
Piotr