15
votes
Does mentula ("penis") derive from the same root as mens ("mind"), and if so why?
Well, this may obviously be outdated, but G.M. Messing banged out a 3-page treatment of "The Etymology of Lat. Mentula" for the Oct. 1956 Classical Philology (Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 247–249).
His ...
- 776
13
votes
Origin of the Latin Language?
In the beginning, there was…well, we're not really sure. The origins of language are lost to time. But at some point, there was Proto-Indo-European, the hypothetical reconstructed ancestor of all the ...
- 64.4k
12
votes
How do the verbs do and δίδωμι come from *deh₃-?
*h3 is called the "o-colouring laryngeal," which means that it "colours" (i.e., changes) a neighbouring e into *o or *ō: the former from *h3o and the latter from *oh3. See *h3ewis > ovis and *deh3[r/n]...
- 1,206
12
votes
Accepted
How are εὔχομαι and voveo cognates?
The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European form listed is *h₁wegʷʰ- "to promise, vow, praise".
h₁ is a "laryngeal consonant", so-called because we don't know what else to call it. The most common theory ...
- 64.4k
12
votes
Accepted
How can I translate the names of the Proto-Indo-European gods and goddesses into Latin?
Latin words/names from the roots *dyḗws and *dʰéǵʰōm
The usual form of the sky god's name in Latin was Iuppiter, or its variant Iūpiter, which pretty obviously goes back to *dyḗws ph₂tḗr. Specifically,...
- 26.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Why does “inferus” have /f/ rather than /d/?
Weiss (Hist. Comp. Gramm. Lat. 75, note 26) says that "the first syllable of īnferus was identified with in- and the medial *dʰ was therefore given a pseudo-initial treatment".
De Vaan (s.v.) agrees, ...
- 30.6k
10
votes
Accepted
How did PIE *h₂énti-h₃kʷós get lengthened to Proto-Italic *antīkʷos?
A laryngeal following a vowel disappears (after colouring that vowel if it's *e), lengthening that vowel. This process is most prominent within roots, since ablaut means *e ends up next a laryngeal ...
- 8,514
9
votes
Accepted
How can you tell whether prefixed ‘in-’ is the preposition ‘in’ or Indo-European ‘in-’?
The negative prefix in- typically attaches to an adjective, while the prepositional prefix in- typically attaches to a verb. The main complication to this distribution is the existence of adjectives ...
- 26.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Are there other Latin words from the same PIE root as oculus?
NIL mentions the following:
atrox, cf. de Vaan "Probably a derivative of the adj. āter 'black' and the PIE root *h3ekw- 'to look', thus 'having a black aspect'."
ferox, cf. de Vaan "The adj. fer-ōx ...
- 11.6k
9
votes
What's the cool killer app of Latin?
I get the sense you are most interested in unusual linguistic features of Latin, which I'm not qualified to talk about.
It's also worth noting that 'why study Latin' is a well-addressed question in ...
- 1,251
8
votes
Accepted
Was there ever dual conjugation in Latin?
PIE appears to have had dual verb forms, as can be seen from e.g. Greek ἐστόν "you two are", Sanskrit ithás "you two go", Gothic baírats "you two carry". (Anatolian, though, lacks dual forms, which ...
- 30.6k
8
votes
Accepted
Are λαλέω and λέγω related?
The resemblance is accidental. For one thing, there's no way to relate PIE *leǵ- and *leh₂- (if the latter is really the root of λαλέω, which is doubtful). Second, the similarity in sense is secondary....
- 30.6k
7
votes
Accepted
What underlying semantic notions connect the stem '-festus' to the PIE root *gu̯hedh- ('to ask, beg, wish for')?
This etymology is based on the assumption that infestus “hostile” comes from Indo-European *n-gwhedh-to- “implacable”. There are serious semantic and phonetic problems with this theory (which are ...
- 17.4k
7
votes
Accepted
How do the verbs do and δίδωμι come from *deh₃-?
δίδωμι “I give” and δίδομεν “we give” can be explained either by “classic” (non-laryngeal) or “modern” (laryngeal) theory. The former derives the singular from full-grade *dō- and the plural from zero-...
- 17.4k
7
votes
How can you tell whether prefixed ‘in-’ is the preposition ‘in’ or Indo-European ‘in-’?
I don't think it's possible to distinguish in meaning "in" from PIE *en and in- meaning "not" from PIE *n̥ from pronunciation alone. It's well known that the /i/ in in- lengthens when followed by ...
- 4,668
7
votes
Origin of the Latin Language?
The question might be better suited for Linguistics.SE. However, the general information on the history of Latin is outlined in the Wikipedia article of the same name:
"It is believed that the ...
- 241
7
votes
Accepted
Is "ex-" (old, past) seen in Latin
This is what the OED has to say on the subject:
[On the analogy of forms of expression like ex exsule consul, ‘(that
has become) a consul from an exile’, the phrases ex consule, ex
magistro ...
- 17.4k
7
votes
What evidence points to a long ō in the first syllable of nōscō's present-tense form?
A note re: evidence from IE comparanda
PIE *nH > Sanskrit ā, Avestan ā, Latin nā, etc. but Greek nē/ā/ō (Beekes 2011: 151).
Some of the relevant IE cognates are Greek γιγνώσκω, OPers. xšnāsāhiy, ...
- 11.6k
7
votes
Does the old English second person verb ending -est (eg thou comest) come from Latin conjugation?
Nope! They're independent of each other. But I can see how easy it is to make that mistake, since they both come from the same source.
Both Old English and Latin are Indo-European languages, and they ...
cmw♦
- 50.5k
6
votes
What evidence points to a long ō in the first syllable of nōscō's present-tense form?
Since posting the question, I was able to consult Peter Schrijver's "The Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European Laryngeals in Latin" (1991) (cited by de Vaan), which, along with Alex B.'s answer, has ...
- 26.5k
6
votes
Accepted
Are vestiges or influence of the instrumental case in any way identifiable in Latin and Greek?
The instrumental -φι suffix in Homeric Greek seems to be derived from the PIE plural instrumental case, which apparently still existed in Mycenaean Greek.
From Smyth's grammar (280):
-φι（ν) is ...
- 1,332
6
votes
Accepted
Does the Latin nosco come from Greek?
Latin nōscō and Greek gignōskō are cognates, but neither is directly derived from the other. They both come from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵneh₃- "to know", plus the inchoative *-sḱ- marking the ...
- 64.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Is ῥύομαι cognate with rescue?
The words are unrelated: there's no way to connect ex-cutere with ῥύομαι. The Latin word is based on quatio "shake", which has a Greek cognate πάττω "sprinkle".
The etymology of ῥύομαι is a bit messy....
- 30.6k
5
votes
Accepted
What underlying semantic notions connect 'luctor' to the PIE root *leug (“bend, twist”)?
De Vaan confirms your etymology. Luctor means "to wrestle". When you're wrestling with someone, you writhe and twist your bodies, so it makes sense that a word for "bend, twist" should have acquired a ...
- 19.8k
5
votes
Accepted
What underlying semantic notions connect 'sī' to the PIE root *se (to Own, Possess)?
The Proto-Indo-European root *se- is generally taken to have been a reflexive pronominal root meaning "self", i.e. indicating that a word refers to the same thing as some other word (De Vaan 2008, ...
- 19.8k
5
votes
What underlying semantic notions connect 'mēnsa' to the PIE *me-?
The entry for this word in the Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic languages (2008), by Michiel de Vaan, may provide some illumination.
De Vaan says that mensa has an Umbrian ...
- 26.5k
5
votes
What's the cool killer app of Latin?
What interests you might not interest me; however, I have studied the languages you mention, among others, and might have some similar tendencies in what I find stimulating in language study.
I ...
- 2,630
4
votes
Are vestiges or influence of the instrumental case in any way identifiable in Latin and Greek?
According to Frisk, the omicron-stem seems to make an omega-ending with a few adverbs, while others in the a-stem will become an eta. The consonant stems can be found in compound words, and, in Frisk ...
- 61
4
votes
What is the relationship between cubō and cumbō?
Ernout-Millet's Dictionnaire supports my (and your) original thinking:
cumbo -is (le perfectum est le même que dans cubo, cf. le cas de sedeo, sido: sedi, et de sto, sisto: steti): type à infixe ...
cmw♦
- 50.5k
3
votes
Accepted
What semantic notions underlie 'paene' to the PIE root 'pē(i)-' (to hurt, scold, shame)?
Because this etymology means that paene would be related to paenitet (as, indeed, the Oxford Latin Dictionary indicates it is), I should think that the connection is something along these lines:
If ...
- 19.2k
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