--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com,
"dgkilday57" <dgkilday57@...> wrote:
>
> An IE root *merk^- is
found in the zero-grade in Sanskrit <mr.s'áti> 'he touches, grasps,
handles' and in Greek <brakeîn> 'to come together, meet, assemble',
<bráketon> 'crowd', <bráttein> (*brákyein) 'to fill, load heavily'
and <dusbrákanos> 'hard to handle'.
The Sanskrit word comes
from IE *mºlk^- 'to touch lightly', a
root also found in Latin
mulceo: 'to stroke, touch lightly, fondle'. See Mallory &
Adams (2006), p. 335.
> It is plausible that the normal grade of the same
root occurs in Italic with Latin <merx> 'merchandise, wares',
<merce:s> 'price, reward', <merca:ri:> 'to conduct trade',
<Mercurius> 'god of trade', Faliscan <Mercus> 'god of trade', and
Oscan <amiricatud> 'without remuneration'. The basic sense of *merk^- is
likely 'to handle'. The development in Italic is then parallel to German
<handeln> 'to trade', <Handel> 'traffic, trade'. A similar
development in Greek would explain <bráketon> originally as
'market-place', like Latin <merca:tus>, then 'crowd at the market-place,
crowded assembly, mass of people, full load', etc. But <dusbrákanos>
preserves the original force of the root.
>
If Latin merx
is indeed related to Greek brakeîn, an IE etymology is
most unlikely. According to several authors, the
Latin word is most
likely an Etruscan loanword, so we must look in that
direction.
The Greek word has a doublet parptó:
'to catch, seize, lay, hold off, overtake'. Beekes then devises a Pre-Greek
root *mr(a)kW- > brap-, brak- with different
outputs of the labiovelar cluster. Long-range relatives of this root might
be:
- Sino-Tibetan *mre:(H)
'to buy, debt' ~ IE *per- 'to exchange' (in particular Baltic
*pi~rk-
(*pe~rk-a-) 'to
buy')
- Uralic *mOrV 'hollow hand, palm of
hand' (in particular Hungarian márok, marék 'hollow hand;
handful; fist, palm')