Re: offer-command-announce-awake-aware-inquire-learn-understand-know

At 6:20:28 PM on Thursday, January 8, 2009, Andrew Jarrette
wrote:

> 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?

Try starting from 'to be aware; to make aware', as Watkins
does. That gives you 'awake', 'announce', 'command',
'understand', and 'know' without any difficulty. From
'know' to 'inquire' and 'find out' is a short step, as are
'present' from 'announce' and 'forbid' from 'command'.
'Offer' is an easy extension of 'present'.

Brian