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

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud@...>
wrote:

>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...>
> To: "Andrew Jarrette" <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 9:21 AM
> Subject: Re: [tied]
> 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
> >
> =======
>
> what's the difference between *bheudh and *bheidh ?
>
> A.
>

That raises another question I have always had: if the *bheidh- root
has to do with "faith" (Lat. <fide:s>, Greek <pístis), then it is an
easy shift from "have faith, trust" to "have faith (or trust) that
someone will come or return" = "wait (faithfully)", which is what Gmc
*bi:dan means in the Gmc languages in which it survives (English "bide
(one's time), abide (somewhere)". But it seems that Pokorny and many
other scholars only reluctantly assign Gmc *bi:dan to this root, or
they do not place it under this root at all. I've never understood
this reluctance, it seems such a natural shift of meaning.
By the way, the meaning "persuade" prevalent in Greek <peitho:> is
from "cause someone to trust you (or what you say or advise)", or is
it another derivation of meaning?

Andrew