I doubt that etymology too. I believe the word is onomatopoetic and I
would consider the swedish verb porla which means ripple, purl, water
slowly travelling as a relative. Porla is also onomatopoetic,
describing the water as it flows down. You haven´t seen that word being
derived from latin, have you?
English have a lot of "mystery" words; dog, pig, curse, bad, smell,
croft. Anyone who´s had a go at these words have been frustrated at the
lack of cognates and kins.
Carl Hult
fredagen den 21 juli 2006 kl 10.10 skrev Brian M. Scott:
> At 2:56:18 AM on Friday, July 21, 2006, crismoc@...
> wrote:
>
> >> Does anyone know the etymology of English "pour", a
> >> common verb of mysterious origin?
>
> > It's commonly considered to derive from M.Eng.
> > "pouren">Norman French "purer"=to sift, whose etymon is,
> > in turn, considered to be Lat. "purare"=to purify (from
> > "purus").
>
> The OED(1989) casts considerable doubt on that etymology.
>
> Brian