Re: Vacillare

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Francesco Brighenti" <frabrig@...>
wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@> wrote:
>
> > Ernout-Meillet:
> >
> > 'uacillo: (uaccillo:, Lucr.3,502 tum quasi uaccillans consurgit et
> > onnis | paulatim redit in sensus), -a:s, -a:ui:, -a:tum, -a:re :
> > vaciller, chanceler (sens propre et dérivé).
> > Mot favori de Cicéron; non attesté avant lui, rare dans la 1.
> > impériale. Formes savantes dans les l. romanes, M.L.9112.
> > Dérivés: uacilla:tio:, -tor (Gloss.).
> > Mot expressif (cf. le type sorbillo:, etc.), d'origine obscure.
> > Le -cc-, attesté chez Lucrèce, est un exemple de gémination
> > expressive.'
> >
> > cf. Germ. wackeln "totter", Eng. waggle.
> >
> > The standard approach is to see the Lat. word as inherited, but
> > given the late attestation, could it be a Germanic loan?
>
> Indeed, the origin of the isolated Latin verb vacilla:re is deemed
> obscure by more than an author.

Note E.-M.'s 'gémination expressive'. That's usually reserved for
explaining Gmc, NWGmc in particular.

> Perhaps its origin is purely phonetic.

Aha. And that means, exactly? And the Germanic verb isn't?

> Conversely, the following is an example of what you refer to as
> the "standard approach":
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5edn5r
> (the proposed "wider" root here is *wak- ~ *wag- ~ *wek- ~ *weg-)

That's not nice. When that's the alternative, I prefer introducing
substrates; eg. an a-language to mop up the a-variants, the e-variants
the being the 'straight' ones.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/57206
Vang-ede, placename with *-iþi suffix. Venetic?

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/45312
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/35442
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/60969

It strengthens my suspicion that *wag- etc seems to be a 'water word',
originally meaning the narrow meadows or fields on both sides of a
(the) river.

> Differently in Pokorny:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5h3g68
> (the proposed root is *w&k- ~ *wa:k-; material restricted to Latin
> and Celtic reflexes only)
>
> *If* you concede that the root of the Lat. verb could be something
> like *wak- 'to be bent', then you might want to take a look at
> Hofmann's etymology (Lateinisches etymologisches Woerterbuch, p.
> 268):
>
> *wak-ro-layo: > *wakello: > vacillo: (pron. <wakillo:>)
>

Wakrolayo:? Hm.
Grimm says 'wackeln' is from 'wacken' (which would be cognate with
'wag' as in 'wag your finger', which is also another sense of
'wackeln'). There's no uacco: in Latin and uaco: means something else
which I can't reconcile with "wag".

After we travelled the states, my girlfriend and I introduced
'prokrastinere' into our private idiolect. I'm no Cicero; if I had
been, the word might have become standard in Danish.


Torsten