Re: Ramsons [was: Felice Vinci's "Homer in the Baltic" theory: lingu

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

> I have a new tentative proposal concerning the "wisent" word. Not
> anything seriously developed yet, but perhaps worth considering as an
> alternative to the usual stinker etymology. We have this evidently
> archaic root *wes-, which occurs in Hitt. wesiya- 'graze' < *wés-je/o-
> and westara < *wés-tor- 'shepherd', OIr. fess and OIc. vist 'food' <
> *wes-tah2, PGmc. *wes-a-/*wis-i- 'feast', etc. I am pretty convinced
> that the 'spring' word *we:s-r./*wes-n- belongs here as well, with the
> etymological meaning of '(the onset of) the grazing season'. So perhaps
> the Germanic wisent was, somewhat prosaically, 'the grazer' (*wés-(o)nt-
> > *wesanð- ~ *we/isunð-) rather than 'the stinker'.

And Proto-Slavic *veselU (c) 'merry' < *'satisfied' (pace Vasmer: to Old Indic vásu- 'good')?

Sergei