From: Bhrihskwobhloukstroy
Message: 71667
Date: 2013-12-27
>*Bhr.: about this etymology cf. also Stefan Schaffner, "Finnische
>
>
>
> ---In cybalist@{{emailDomain}}, <josimo70@...> wrote:
>
> Is there any IE cognate of Yule out of Germanic?
>
>
>
> DGK: The PIE root of the 'Yule' words is *jekW- (cf. Seebold, KZ 81:117).
> A possible Greek cognate is _hepsía:_ 'a game played with pebbles;
> amusement, pastime' if the correct derivation is *jekW-ti-éh2 after Froehde,
> BB 10:297 (cf. Walde-Hofmann, LEW s.v. _iocus_). Along with this go Greek
> _homépsios_ 'playmate', _eph-_, _kathepsiáomai_ 'I scoff at, ridicule,
> deride', _prosepsiá_ 'a greeting or meeting' (Hes.), and possibly Laconic
> _apsíai_ 'festivals' (Hes.) if the anlaut was miscopied or falsely
> associated (perhaps with _aps_ 'back, again', since participants go back
> again every year).
>
> If this connection is right, perhaps the sense of *jekW- was 'meet, gather,
> assemble' vel sim., with deverbal nouns meaning 'annual assembly, festival'
> retained as such in Germanic and Laconic, but in other Greek dialects coming
> to mean 'festival game', then 'game, pastime, trivial pursuit worthy of
> ridicule'. Of course, since we have no independent information on the
> original meaning of 'Yule', this is merely speculative.
>