--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer Vidal <miguelc@...>
wrote:
>
> On Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:52:24 -0000, "tgpedersen"
> <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> >http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/33467
> >http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/33527
> >What's the deal with Slavic pustynia "desert"?
> >Why does it have the same rare suffix?
>
> What's your source for "the ending of Dutch 'woestijn'
> "desert" is < *-unya"?
>
Apparently ultimately from Walde/Hofmann apud
Vennemann,
Etymology and phonotactics:
Latin grandis vs. Basque handi 'big' and similar problems
in his
Europa Vasconica - Europa Semitica
"
Engl. waste, both adjective and noun, is according to Onions (1966:
s.v.) a borrowing from Old Northern French, where wast was a variant
of g(u)ast, cf. Prov. gast, Port. gasto, Ital. guasto, all from
Romance *wasto, which apparently continues Lat. va:stus 'empty,
unoccupied, waste, desert, devastated', whence va:sta:re 'to make
empty, lay waste' and other derivatives (Walde/Hofmann 1982: s.v.
va:stus). This in turn is related to OH we:ste, OS wo:sti, OHG wuosti
(NHG wüst), Pre-West Gmc. *wo:sti- 'empty, unoccupied, waste', further
OE we:sten, OS wo:stunnia, OHG wuostinna, also wuosti (NHG Wüste)
'desert (noun)' (Walde/Hofmann 1982; s. v. va:stus, Kluge/Seebold
1995: s.v. wüst).
"
BTW the Romance *gw- < *w- shows the word is not a direct continuation
of Latin va:stus, but must be local (Germanic or NWBlock, vel sim.)
Torsten