--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "shivkhokra" <shivkhokra@...> wrote:
> From Vedic times udra means both water and otter.
Yet their formations are different:
1) OIA udra- 'water' is directly < PIIr. *ud-r/-n- < PIE *uod-r/-n-;
2) OIA udra- 'otter' (?) is < PIIr. *udra- > PIE *ud-r-o-; the latter was a PIE adjective meaning 'being in the water' and based on *ud-er- 'in the water', a locative of the r/n-stem *uod-r/-n-.
Thus, udra- 'water' and udra- 'otter' (?) are *homophones* in Vedic.
And, of course, nobody would call an otter simply "water". Would one call any bird species, "air"?
Francesco