Latin merx

From: Octavià Alexandre
Message: 66179
Date: 2010-06-03

--- 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')