--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "stlatos" <stlatos@...> wrote:
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@> wrote:
> >
> > It could be just a coincidence, but Skt tadaga-m "pond, lake
> > pool" (origin of word tank), resembles superficially Greek
> > tenagos- "pool, lake". Any chance of a common source?
Anyway, English "tank" does not seem to have been borrowed from a New Indo-Aryan reflex of Skt. taDAga- 'pond, pool' -- see at
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:1739.soas
Rather, the New Indo-Aryan source for this Eng. word appears to be one or the other among Hindi TA~kh- 'underground reservoir of water', Gujarati TA~ku~- 'reservoir', Marathi TA~ke~-, Ta~ke~- 'reservoir, cistern', which would derive from an unattested Old Ino-Aryan lexeme *TaGka- 'artificial pond' according to R.L. Turner -- see at
http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:1556.soas
> Yes, they're both < PIE * d.Hen.wr. d.Hen.wn.+ 'curved/bent /
> curved/hollow/sloping part of body / bow / tree to make bows'
The word taDAga is Late Vedic, and is a good canditate as a Dravidian borrowing. Discussion by T. Burrow in Transactions Philol. Soc. 1945, 103 f.;
"This word taDAga- is also of Dravidian origin, and can be compared with the following words: Tamil taTu 'to hinder, obstruct', taTakku 'obstacle, impediment', taTam 'ridge, dam, causeway; pond', taTavu 'pond; prison', taTai 'to hinder, stop; obstacle, impediment; door; bund, embankment', Malayalam taTa 'resistance', taTayuka 'to be obstructed', taTavu 'what resists, wards off; a prison', taTekka 'to stop, prevent', Kannada taDa 'check, impediment, delay', taDapu 'hindrance, impediment', taDe 'to stop, impede; a check, impediment, obstacle', Tulu taDepini 'to check, hinder, etc.', taDe 'a delay, hindrance', daDe 'an obstacle, hindrance; a screen, blind', Telugu taDa 'hindrance, obstruction, prevention', taDayu 'to delay'. Skt. taDAga- means an artificial tank or lake, and it is so called on account of the bund, dam, or embankment by which the waters are contained. The word would appear also to have this latter sense sometimes, for instance, in the compound taDAgabhedaka- [Skt. bhadaka = 'the act of breaking down'], Mn. IX, 279, where [the commentator] Kulluka uses the term setubheda- in his paraphrase [Skt. setubhedaka = 'the breaking down of an embankment (setu-)']."
Re. Greek ténagos 'shoal, shallow water', I see it has been compared by more than one linguist to Latvian ti^gas (< *tingas-?) 'water bottom', and tentatively also to Latin stagnum 'pool, awamp' (if with s- mobile). Mallory & Adams cautiously suggest a PIE root (WC)*tenH.ag- 'shallow water'.
Rgards,
Francesco