I've always wondered how the IE root *bheudh- can have such a rich
diversity of evolved meanings in the branches in which it survived:
"offer, present, announce, command, forbid" in Germanic (and how can
it have such unrelated meanings in this branch alone); "awake" in
Balto-Slavic and Indic; "be aware" in Indic (not to mention a slightly
different Iranian meaning which I currently forget); "inquire, find
out, understand, know" in Greek. These meanings all seem so unrelated
to each other -- how did they all evolve from a primitive meaning
"awake", if that was the original meaning? Particularly the Germanic
meanings! Is it possible that the Germanic verbs (<anabiudan>,
<faurbiudan>, <biotan>, <intbiotan>, <gibiotan>, etc. and in other
languages) derive from a different but homophonous root? Can anyone
explain to me how the various meanings above all derive from the
meaning "awake", especially the Germanic meanings?
Andrew