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Etymological Miscellany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

George S. Lane
George S. Lane*
Affiliation:
Catholic University of America
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Extract

Etymologies heretofore proposed for Grk. ταχύ𝗌 ‘swift’, τάχo𝗌 ‘swiftness’, have met little favor. The notion of ‘swiftness’ is frequently a by-product of ‘tension’: e.g., cf. ON snarr literally ‘tightly twisted’ of a string (: snara ‘turn, twist, wring'), but chiefly ‘swift'; and more especially Lat. contendo frequently ‘hasten', or NE speed, OE spēd, OHG spuot ‘speed, success’, ChSl. spěšiti ‘hasten’, all probably from the root ∗spē(i)- in Grk. σπéω ‘draw’. With this in mind one is tempted to derive Grk. ταχύ𝗌 < ∗thgh- from the root in Av. θang-‘pull, draw’, θanvan-, θanvar- ‘bow’, ChSl. tęgnąti ‘draw’, etc. According to Osthoff the comparative σσωv, ττωv represents ∗éωv with the gradation to be noted in Skt. bahú- ‘much’ and the comparative bánhīya- ‘very stout’, hence the root must be ∗thangh-/∗thṇgh-. In this case all the Slavic forms in tęg- (ChSl. tęgnąti, etc.) represent the weak grade of the root and Slavic ∗tog- in Russ. tugój ‘tight, solid, stretched (of the bow)', Pol. lęgi ‘hard, solid, strong', etc., represents a Pre-Slavic ∗tang-, The representation of IE th by Grk. ∂ though often denied seems clear in several other cases.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 11 , Issue 3-Part1 , September 1935 , pp. 191 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © 1935 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Survey by Boisacq, Dict. étym. 946.

2 Falk-Torp, Etym. Wtb. 1090.

3 Walde-Pokorny, Vgl. Wtb. 2. 657.

4 Bartholomae, Altiran. Wtb. 784 f.

5 Walde-Pokorny, 1. 726 f.

6 Morph. Unters. 6. 49.

7 Therefore not ∗tengh- (Indo-Iran. ∗thengh-) with further analysis as ∗len-ghas Walde-Pokorny 1. c.

8 Not Balto-Sl. ∗teng- as Trautmann, B.-S1. Wtb. 318.

9 Cf. Meillet, MSL 10. 276 f.; Meillet-Vendryes, Traité de gram. comp. 54 f

10 Cf. Brugmann, Grdr. 12.522; Brugmann-Thumb, Gr. Gram. 130; Hirt, Handbuch 200.

11 Meyer-Lübke, Rom. etym. Wtb. 2674a with refs.

12 Sommer, Hdb. d. lat. Laut,- und Formenl.2 220, Krit. Erlaut. SOf., Walde-Pokorny, 2. 53, 293.

13 Hdb. 45, Krit. Erlaut. 13.

14 Walde-Pokorny 2. 55.

15 Cf. Ernout-Meillet, Dict. étym. 690. Otherwise, Walde, Lat. etym. Wtb. 556, pālārī as from ∗pand-sl- : pandere ‘spread out, open’, but not in Walde-Pokorny 2. 18 nor elsewhere.

16 Mühlenbach-Endzelin, Lett.-D. Wtb. 1. 662.

17 BB 28. 295.

18 Meillet, MSL 10. 281; Walde-Pokorny 1. 319.

19 Op. cit. 1. 646.

20 Op. cit. 1. 650.

21 Op. cit. 1. 605 f.

22 Lidén, Arm. Stud. 30; Mühlenbach-Endzelin, Lett.-D. Wtb. 2. 151. Endzelin has apparently abandoned his earlier view (BB 27. 191) that the words were to be connected with OHG hemidi ‘shirt’, etc.

23 Walde-Pokorny 1. 349 f.

24 Op. cit. 2. 573; Falk-Torp, Etym. Wtb. 926.

25 Boisacq, Dict. étym. 157; Walde-Pokorny 1. 571 (but rejected 1. 556).

26 Mühlenbach-Endzelin, Lett.-D. Wtb. 4. 276. The origin of such a stem ∗tū-seems extremely doubtful, cf. op. cit. 4. 280.

27 Walde-Pokorny 1. 706 ff.

28 Op. cit. 1. 679.

29 Gebauer, Historicka Mluvnice Jazyka Českého 1. 274.

30 Walde-Pokorny 2. 351 ff.

31 Op. cit. 2. 353 f. Ernout-Meillet, Dict. étym. 838 f., prefers to separate the roots on semantic grounds.

32 Walde-Pokorny 2. 509 f. : ‘abg. sětiti sę “sich erinnern, gedenken” weiss ich in der Bed. nicht zu vermitteln’.

33 Miklosich, Sl. etym. Wtb. 295.

34 Cf. Denneen, Ir.-Engl. Dict, new ed. s.v.

35 Walde-Pokorny 2. 472.

36 Op. cit. 2. 470.

37 Op. cit. 2. 378 f.

38 Op. cit. 2. 439.

39 Berneker, Sl. etym. Wtb. 1. 618; Mühlenbach-Endzelin, Lett.-D. Wtb. 2. 271.

40 Bartholomae, Altiran. Wtb. 1649; Horn, Neupers. Etym. No. 728.

41 Skt. Wtb. 7. 1409.

42 Walde-Pokorny 2.702 f.

43 Op. cit. 2. 442.

44 Cf. Reichelt, Aw. Elementarbuch 52; Brugmann, Grdr. 12.738.