--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> On 2008-09-25 21:17, Brian M. Scott wrote:
>
> > Watkins, at least, derives <axis> and <axle> from a
> > different root, *ak^s-.
>
> <axis> is usually derived from *h2ak^- 'sharp'...
>
> > Also Latin <a:la> 'wing, upper arm'
> > (< *axla).
>
> ... but this one has sometimes been analysed as *h2ag^-tlo-
'instrument
> of driving, propeller', and the same derivation might work for
Germanic
> *axslo:. Jens Rasmussen, in a 2002 article, has argued that the
<axis>
> word may reflect a decompositional, reduced byform of *h2ag^-tlo-
(cf.
> Gk. hamaksa '[framework of a] wagon' < *sm.-h2ak^Tih2).
>
> Piotr
>
How do OHG <ahsala>, OE <eaxl> "shoulder" fit into this derivation?
I always thought they derived from the sense "pivot point" (like
<axis>, OHG <ahsa>, OE <eax>, on which the wheels pivot), i.e. the
shoulder-joint (and cf. OHG <uohsana>, OE <o:xn> "armpit"). It would
seem there should be a root *ag^-/ak^-/ak^s- meaning "to pivot"
(or "turn" or some other basic meaning). Could it be that "wing" is
the original meaning of Latin <a:la>, from "propeller" < *ag^-, and
that through the meaning "upper arm" the meanings "shoulder"
and "armpit" in Germanic derive from this? It doesn't seem likely to
me (so where do the meanings "shoulder" and "armpit" come from?), so
I am rather confused by all of these words and their ostensible
derivations. (I have just noticed that Latin <a:la>, after the
meaning "wing", is translated as "armpit" by my amateur's Bantam New
College Latin and English Dictionary, with no meaning "upper arm".)
AJ