I think PIE *kentom (PIE kantom?) is *kent-om (PPIE *kant-om?) either gpl. "of flocks" or adverbially "flock-wise" , having to do with military organization
http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/55551It would therefore seem appropriate to look for an etymology for 'thousand' (Slav. tyse,t-, Lith. tukstant-, Estonian tuhat, -nde) ie. donor language *tu:s-ant- vel sim. (this smells Venetic or Old European, but it's North)
The list of PPGmc mobile-stress nouns
http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/62159contains, among others, the nouns
'*þre:xila- (*þraxila-?) : *þreGila- "Diener, Knecht"'
'*þranxu- : *þranGu-(?) "gedrängt"'
which shows that the whole *dran,W- complex
http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/60773http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/58459http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/61626might be part of the language these Germanic words are drawn from (probably the ar-/ur- etc language).
The list also contains
'*tuxila- : *tuGila- "Band, Riemen, Zügel"'
'*-tuxan- : *-tuGan- "Führer"'
probably cognate with Latin dux and Dutch touw "rope"
http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/160We have thus a similar semantic spread for
both words (they might even be related by initial cluster simplification *dran,W- > *dan,W- vel sim.; not Baltic Finnic though, which would do *dr- > *r-, cf. Estonian rong "train"): "rope team"/"pull" /"barge dragger". Therefore it is tempting to implicate that word in the "thousand" root too, thus: *tuG-s-ont- "flock-wise" etc.
No swelling here, it seems.
Torsten
"Swollen Ten" is often bandied about, though. Where are they getting it from? I've seen something relating it to "thumb" --I want to say Watkins, but if not him, someone of his ilk
Online Etymological Dictionary has the following:
O.E. þusend, from P.Gmc. *thusundi (cf. O.Fris. thusend, Du. duizend, O.H.G. dusunt, Ger. tausend, O.N. þusund, Goth. þusundi); related to words in Balto-Slavic (cf. Lith. tukstantis, O.C.S. tysashta, Pol. tysiac, Czech tisic), and probably ultimately a compound with indefinite meaning "several hundred" or "a great multitude" (with first element perhaps related to Skt. tawas "strong, force"). Used to translate Gk. khilias, L. mille, hence the refinement into the precise modern meaning. There was no general IE word for "thousand." Slang shortening thou first recorded 1867. Thousand island dressing (1916) is presumably named for the region of New York on the St. Lawrence River.