--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> What about *xraina- < *kWrói[h2]-no- 'something valuable' from the
> root *kWreih2- 'buy' (converse of 'livestock' --> 'wealth', as in
> <feoh> or <pecu:nia>)? It could be compared to OLith. krieno
> (gen.), Latv. kriens 'price for a bride' (which, incidentally, was
> often paid in cattle, and among the old Finns and Saami in
> reindeer). The root seems to be otherwise unattested in Germanic,
> but as it occurs in Celtic and Balto-Slavic (not to mention other
> branches), the absence may be due to relatively late lexical
> replacement of the old verb by the relatives of <buy> and <kaufen>
> (the latter, borrowed from Germanic, has almost ousted the native
> reflexes of *kWreih2- from Slavic).
That leaves the question of who those Germanic- or at least
IE-speaking people were who used reindeers as a dowry.
Here's my go at the Gmc. *skat- "treasure; tax" word:
'Zbigniew Gol/a,b
The Origins of the Slavs
pp. 368-9
13) skotU 'cattle.' Its semantic relationship to Slav. gove,do is not
clear, although we should assume a primary distinction; the word is
attested in all Slavic languages, e.g., OCS skotU 'pecus, iumentum,'
Russ. skot 'Vieh' (in ORuss. also 'Besitz; Geld, Steuer,' the latter
under the influence of ONorse), Pol. skot, S-C sk`òt, etc. idem. Most
scholars derive it from PGermc. *skatta-, attested by Goth. skatts
'de:nárion, mnã,' OHG scaz 'denarius,' OE sceatt 'Schatz, Geld,
Besitz, Reichtum; Münze, Denar, etc.,' OIc. skattr 'Steuer,' and only
in OFries. skett 'Schatz, Geld' and 'Vieh.' This semantic difference,
Germc. 'treasure, money' ~ Slav. 'cattle,' against a comparative
background would rather point towards Slavic as the source of the
borrowing (cf. lat. pecus 'cattle' -> pecunia 'money,' etc.), the more
so that the word does not have any satisfactory etymology in Germanic.
So it is at least questionable that it was borrowed by the Slavs from
Germanic (Kiparsky, 1934:186-88). In view of the above Martynov
(1963:183-87) has proposed a Slavic etymology of the word and included
it in his list of prehistorical Slav. loanwords in Germanic with the
medium degree of plausibility. Martynov's etymology (skotU is
allegedly related to OCS sUc^etati 'verbinden, vereinigen,' etc., and
its primary form is *sUkotU and the meaning 'increase in breeding' as
in S-C and Sloven.) is too speculative and does not explain important
formal problems, among other things the double consonant in Germanic
(skatta-). All difficulties would be removed if we derived PSlav.
skotU from the primary *skok-to-, a noun based upon the Slav. verb
skoc^iti, etc., 'jump' (for the formation cf. potU from *pok-to-
'sweat' ~ *pek-ti 'bake,' mostU from *mot-to- 'bridge' ~ *mesti
'throw,' etc.)22 and reconstructed its primary meaning as 'calf,
calves (collective),' i.e., 'jumping (young animal[s])'; the semantic
content is obvious to anybody familiar with the behavior of calves. So
the geminate in Germanic could easily be interpreted as reflecting an
earlier PSlav. stage *skotto- before the ultimate simplification of
the consonant clusters (*skokto- > *skotto- > skoto- ). In view of the
above, skotU should rather be removed from the list of Germc.
loanwords in Slavic and qualified as a Slav. loanword in Germanic.
The above etymology of skotU as *skok-to- was proposed by M. Rudnicki
(Prasl/owian´szczyzna-Lechia-Polska, 1961, II, 79). There is, however,
another etymology, that by E. Stankiewicz (in A Festschrift in Honor
of Boris O. Unbegaun, 1968:219-26), deriving skotU from *skop-to- cf.
Slav. skopiti 'castrate'). This latter seems to have better semantic
justification against a wide background of cultural and linguistic
facts, although formally either one explains satisfactorily the
geminate in Germc. skatta-.
H. Kuhn
Chatti und Mattium
Die langen Tenues des Altgermanischen
Die gotische Bibel aus dem 4. Jahrhundert enthält nur ganz wenige
Wörter mit einer langen Tenuis, und keins davon wird altererbt sein.
Was da ist, sind atta 'Vater' und skatts 'Münze' (mit skattja
'Wechsler'), aikklesjo 'Gemeinde', sakkus 'Sack' und smakka 'Feige',
dazu die biblischen Namen Arkippus, Filippus und Zakkaius. Außer für
diese letzten ist fremde Herkunft auch für aikklesjo und sakkus sicher
und für smakka und skatts aus sachlichen Gründen sehr wahrscheinlich.
Die Germanen haben das Geldwesen von anderen Völkern übernommen, es
aber nicht erst durch Griechen und Römer kennengelernt. Von den
bezeugten gotischen Münznamen sind assarjus und drakma sicher fremd,
kintus und skatts von dunklem Ursprung und nur skilliggs wenigstens
dem Suffix nach germanisch. Aber auch das sicher fremdstämmige
*panning- / *paning- 'Pfennig' hat dasselbe Suffix. Daß skatt später
auch als 'Vieh' bezeugt ist, besagt für seine Herkunft ebenso wenig
wie isl. peningur 'Pfennig' in derselben Verwendung und an. eyrir, aus
lat. (solidus) aureus, im Sinne von Zahlungsmittel und auch 'Habe'
allgemein. Hier ist ein Rückgang und lange währender Tiefstand der
Geldwirtschaft wirksam gewesen. G. Kossack machte mich auf eine
germanische Kulturgruppe des 1. vorchristlichen Jahrhunderts in
Bessarabien und der Moldau aufmerksam, in deren nichtgriechischer
Nachbarschaft schon Geld im Umlauf war. In einer solchen Umgebung
werden Wörter wie skatts und kintus zu den östlichen Germanen gekommen
sein. Im übrigen wohnten die Bastarner damals schon lange in den
dortigen Gegenden.'
So the geminated -tt- of *skatt-, if it is the result of -kt- or the
like, that process probably took place outside of Germanic (or there
would be many more geminates in early Germanic).
Here is a verb which seems more semantically relevant than "jump"
http://runeberg.org/svetym/0828.html
sko sig, vid försäljning o. d. göra sig oskälig el.olovlig vinst, riva
åt sig, t. ex. sko sig på någons bekostnad, t. ex. Österling 1700: 'Du
har aldrig skodt dig af det som du hafver kiöpt för dem'; jfr
Asteropherus 1609: 'alt skall iagh först skoo taskan min, V för X kan
iagh well skryfua' = 110. sko seg. Närmast väl en bildlig anv. av sko
sig, skaffa sig skor, i vilket fall dock ex. från 1609 representerar
en oursprunglig konstruktion. Detta senare utgår emellertid närmast
från betyd., 'fastsy på kanten av ett plagg' (till skydd o.
förstärkning) o. kunde sålunda jämföras med eng. line (one's purse),
fylla, späcka, egentl.: fodra, kanta; en överensstämmelse, som möjl.
talar för att vi här i själva verket ha den äldsta
formen för detta uttryck. Åtm. i no. sammansmält med sko(a) i ungef.
samma betyd., till sko, glupsk o. d., biform till skjød = isl. skø´dr,
skadlig, av germ. *sko:þia-, möjlighetsadj. till skada (jfr angenäm,
bekväm, för adj., gäv, häv, tök osv.); jfr även no. skaa seg
= isl. skásk, förbättra sitt läge, till adj. skaa, utsatt för, i
sammans. Jfr härtill även Psilander Xen. Lid. s. 234, Torp Etym. ordb.
under nämnda ord.
"sko sig, in selling etc take an unreasonable or illegal profit, grab,
eg sko sig på någons bekostnad "enrich oneself at someone's expense"
eg. ... At least in No. merged with sko(a) in appr. the same
sense, from sko "greedy" etc, sideform to skjød = Icel. skø´dr
"harmful", from Gmc. *sko:þia-, potential adj. to skada ..., cf. also
No. skaa seg = Icel. skásk "improve one's lot", from the adj. skaa
"exposed to", in cmpds. ..."
skock, även: antal av 60, fsv. skokker, skock, flock = da. skok ds., i
no.-da. o. ä. da. även: flock, skara; väl lån från mlty. schock n., 60
kärvar, antal av 60, av fsax. skok n. = mhty. schoc m., flock, hop,
som n. även: antal av 60 (ty. schock n., antal av 60), meng. schokke,
rök, skyl (eng. shock), av germ. *skukka-, jämte skuk- i mhty.
schock(e), liten hop, av ie. *(s)kug-, besl. med lett. (s)kauds^e,
stor sädes- el. höstack, o. antagl. även litau. kúgis ds., mlty., ty.
hocke, stack, samt möjl. (enl. Fröhde m. fl.) också
lat. cumulus, hög, råga (i så fall av *kug-mulus); väl ytterst till
grundroten i hög. - Med avs. på betyd, av '60', ett minne av ett
gammalt räknesystem med 12, se under tolv.
"skock, also: set of 60, OSw. skokker "bundle, flock" = da. skok id.,
in No.-Da. and also Da.: "flock, crowd"; presumably loan from MLG
schock n., 60 sheaves, set of 60, from OS. skok n. = MHG schoc m.,
"flock, heap", as n. also: "set of 60" (Germ. schock n., set of 60),
MEng. schokke, "stack, stook" (Eng. shock), from Gmc. *skukka-,
besides skuk- in MHG schock(e), small heap, from PIE *(s)kug-, rel. to
Latv. (s)kauds^e, large straw or haystack, and prob. also Lith. kúgis
id., MLG, Germ. hocke "stack", plus poss. (acc. to Fröhde i. a.) also
Lat. cumulus "hill, heap" (if so then from *kug-mulus); prob.
ultimately to the basic root of hög. -
Wrt. the sense of '60', a relic of an old counting system with 12, see
tolv."
Related to Eng. sheaf. Recent history as a loan includes 'shock' from
'shock troops', from the large number of pikes of such troops
(coordinated mass attack).
http://runeberg.org/svetym/0812.html
skakel el. skackel, fsv. *skakul (i plur. halmskakla) = isl. sko,kull,
da. skagle ds., motsv. lty. schakel, ring i en kedja, östfris.: hälla,
ägs. scacol (eng. shackle), av germ. *skakula-, varav fin. kakkula
(från ackus.); till ä. nsv. skak,
hälla, boja, jfr fsv. skakhælda, sv. dial. skak, kedja, lty. schake,
länk, i avljuds-förh. till no. skaak, skakel, sv. dial. skak,
(hals)kedja, o. möjl. fno. tillnamnet skak (Liden SNF I. 1: 35 f.);
grundbetyd, väl: kedja; fört till en ie. rot (s)ke(n)g i lat. cingo,
omgjordar, som dock kan vara en ombildning (med anledning av
formerna cinxi, cintum) av ett *cinco o. höra till grek. kákala,
murgördel, o. podo-kák(k)e:, fotblock (*kn.k-), sanskr. ka:nci:,
gördel (*kenk-), som i alla händelser vore avlägset besläktade.'
Eng. shackle.
So a "treasure" is some kind of bundle, and so is tax. Of iron bars,
perhaps, raw material for swords? Who pais tax to whom then?
Tacitus, Germania, 43
'Nor less powerful are the several people beyond them; namely, the
Marsignians, the Gothinians, the Osians and the Burians, who
altogether enclose the Marcomanians and Quadians behind. Of those, the
Marsignians and the Burians in speech and dress resemble the Suevians.
From the Gallic language spoken by the Gothinians, and from that of
Pannonia by the Osians, it is manifest that neither of these people
are Germans; as it is also from their bearing to pay tribute. Upon
them as upon aliens their tribute is imposed, partly by the
Sarmatians, partly by the Quadians. The Gothinians, to heighten their
disgrace, are forced to labour in the iron mines. By all these several
nations but little level country is possessed: they are seated amongst
forests, and upon the ridges and declivities of mountains. For, Suevia
is parted by a continual ridge of mountains; beyond which, live many
distinct nations.'
Torsten