Origin of *h2arh3-trom 'plough' (was: Dates of IE and A-A)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Tavi" <oalexandre@...> wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Etherman23" <etherman23@> wrote:

>>> Since *h2arh3-trom has clear IE deverbative structure, it is
>>> hardly
>>> likely to be a Wanderwort from outside IE.

>> The Hittite form (which lacks the *-trom suffix) means
>> "to rip open". <snip> All
>> this suggests that while the root was inherited the semantics were
>> changed after the Anatolian split.

> As farming wasn't inventing by IE-speaking people, this can't be
> inherited but it must be a loanword from the language of Neolithic
> farmers, possibly Semitic *X\VruT-
> <http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/s\
> emham/semet&text_number=1661&root=config> 'to till, to plough' <
> Afrasian *X\VrVts^- 'to till land' (Militarev). A bit joking, Alinei
> compares the diffusion of the word 'plough' to the one of 'car' in
> modern times.

A unitary loan-translation for the verb root still makes sense. The Semitic verb is part of a family of roots meaning 'to cut' (3 or 4 variants in the third radical in Hebrew alone), so the words may even be cognate! As to the analogy with the spread of the word for 'car', I note that Thai and Lao simply use the chariot word (from Skt _raTHa_) with the specialised (and commonest) meaning 'car'.

The IE words for the noun reconstructed as *h2arh3trom have been remade from the verb from time to time.

Richard.