Wednesday, 22 February 2017

Ποδόσφαιρο, Football

Ποδόσφαιρο in Greek is rather easy as it is a compound word of ancient Greek words πους and σφαίρα, meaning foot and ball.

Πους related to Latin ped Old English fot and English foot.
Alternate Greek forms: πῶς (pos), Doric πός (pos), Laconic πόρ (por), Ionic κῶς (kos).
The ionic form is most interesting, I wonder if it evolved somewhat different, giving other words in the future. The island Kos (attested since the Iliad) was part of the Doric Hexapolis, it must not be related.

Σφαίρα not related, but I can't get to an etymology either.

Football in english is comprised of the same two compounds, foot and ball.
Foot (n.)
"terminal part of the leg of a vertebrate animal," Old English fot "foot," from Proto-Germanic *fot (source also of Old Frisian fot, Old Saxon fot, Old Norse fotr, Danish fod, Swedish fot, Dutch voet, Old High German fuoz, German Fuß, Gothic fotus "foot"), from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (source also of Avestan pad-; Sanskrit pad-, accusative padam "foot;" Greek pos, Attic pous, genitive podos; Latin pes, genitive pedis "foot;" Lithuanian padas "sole," peda "footstep").
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=foot

Now concerning ball there is a little confusion because the English linguists only go as so far as the Germanic languages are concerned, but do go to the trouble to tie it from PIE *bhel- (2) "to blow, inflate, swell" and give a bunch of derivatives: (source also of Greek phyllon "leaf," phallos "swollen penis;" Latin flos "flower," florere "to blossom, flourish," folium "leaf;" Old Prussian balsinis "cushion;" Old Norse belgr "bag, bellows;" Old English bolla "pot, cup, bowl;" Old Irish bolgaim "I swell," blath "blossom, flower," bolach "pimple," bolg "bag;" Breton bolc'h "flax pod;" Serbian buljiti "to stare, be bug-eyed;" Serbo-Croatian blazina "pillow").
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ball
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bole

But another PIE root for to blow, inflate, swell exists and it is *bew- which gives words in Germanic languages only, which mean "Tree trunk".
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/b%C5%ABl%C5%8D

They avoid the Italian and Latin influence, let alone the Greek one.  The word the Italians use is Balla, and a word in use modern Greek too μπάλα (loan from Italian). Now looking at the italian etymology, I found something very interesting, the tie to one of the Godess Athena epithets. The italian etimology stated it either originates with Germanic, or with greek βάλειν and/or πάλλας
http://www.etimo.it/?term=balla

Βάλλω is derived by linguists by a different PIE root *gʷl̥-ne-h₁- < *gʷelH-
and which in consensus does give the Latin ballō and from there the Italian ballo, meaning "a dance" or "ball"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ballo#Latin

Someone is obviously wrong, and I suspect someone oversimplified the changes words underwent, or simply was driven by a kind of wishfull thinking scientists often fall in, by predetermining the outcome of their own research, as there is no linguist who is not himself a speaker of some language, and thus himself immersed in a cultural sub-context.
I don't have the knowledge to pass judgement on who is right, I am not a linguist myself, I have only studied Communication and Philosophy, but will make a note of this and continue searching.

As for Πάλλας, this gives πάλλω (throb), but also Παλλάδα (probably meaning virgin, but may also mean pure, shinning, protector etc.), παλλάδιο (palladium), παλληκάρι (stalwart), παλλακίδα (concubine)
https://el.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%A0%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%AC%CE%B4%CE%B1

I want to thank Chrissa Marasli for pointing out there's something going on with the etymology of the word "ball".

Saturday, 18 February 2017

Life, Ζωή.

Στα Αγγλικά:
Η λέξη life ετυμολογείται από το ΠρωτοΙνδοΕυρωπαϊκό *leyp-, μία ρίζα που στα Ελληνικά δίνει τη λέξη "λίπος".

Στα Ελληνικά:
ζωή <; αρχαία ελληνική ζάω-ζῶ ή, κατ' άλλους, το ζάω είναι εφεύρεση των γραμματικών και το πρωταρχικό ρήμα ήταν ζήω.
Προσωπικά το βλέπω σαν δύο διαφορετικούς τύπους της ίδιας λέξης, πχ το ένα μπορεί να είναι Ιωνικό, και το άλλο Δωρικό. Ενισχύω την άποψή μου αυτή από το γεγονός ότι, είτε έτσι, είτε αλλιώς, και των δύο ο αρχικός τύπος είναι διάω και ἄω (αναπνέω).

ἄω < ίδια ρίζα με τις λέξεις ἀήρ, αὔρα, ἀτμός, ἀήτης, ἂημι, ἀάω, ίσως ηχομιμητικό από τον ήχο της ανάσας

Free will and the self, *wel- (2), Ελεύθερος

The people who have English as 1st language often confuse "free" with "self", but if one transcends space and time, even with the key of language itself, she / he may find some unsuspected results.

You see the verb "free" only acquired the sense "to make free" rather late at it's evolution, as all cognate words within  the Germanic languages have the meaning of "to love" or "to court", and ultimately stems from the Proto-IndoEuropean root *priy-(a)- "dear, beloved". A similar word (from the same root) is "Friend".

Isn't that a whole new perspective?

In Greek I have seen many etynologies of Ελευθερος (Eleftheros) the Greek word for "free", but they basically end up with of the three for Elefth- and then the -eros either being merely an ending or the word "eros" (love). I like the second because it is ........ with the "love" etymology of "free".
a) ελεύθερος < αρχ. ἐλεύθερος < ΙΕ leudh- "ανυψώνω" (to elevate)
If these root is accepted "eleftheros" means "to grow", or "to love growth"
 b) ἐλεύθερος < *h₁lewdʰ-. Cognate to (Latin) liber, (Sanskrit) रोधति (rodhati) κ.ά. Similar to ἐλεύσομαι, future tense of ἔρχομαι (I am arriving)
If these root is accepted "eleftheros" means "to go about", or "to go about as one pleases"
c) ἐλεύθερος < *h₁lewdʰ- ‎(people). Cognates include Ancient Greek ἐλεύθερος ‎(eleútheros), Sanskrit रोधति ‎(rodhati), Dutch lieden, German Leute, Russian люди ‎(ljudi, “people”).
If these root is accepted "eleftheros" means "to belong to (be part of) the people", or "to love people"

Isn't this third sense absolutely wonderfull, "free" meaning to love others, not the self. 

Self is also not what we'd think, in PIE it is the pronoun of the third person, even if it is often reflexive, from root *s(w)e-, in Greek it gives hos "he, she, it;" It's reflexivity can be seen in other cognates like Latin suescere "to accustom, get accustomed," sodalis "companion;" Old Church Slavonic svoji "his, her, its," svojaku "relative, kinsman;"

So we see in older times the "self" had a strong sense of belonging.

Now as for will, before the etymology I want to point out that the phrase as it stands in Engllish "free will" is parallel with the second notion of Eleftheros I mentioned before, "to go (and do) as one pleases", so by itself it does strengthen (a little) the possibility of that meaning.

will (v.1) (from etymonline.com)
Old English *willan, wyllan "to wish, desire; be willing; be used to; be about to" (past tense wolde), from Proto-Germanic *willjan (source also of Old Saxon willian, Old Norse vilja, Old Frisian willa, Dutch willen, Old High German wellan, German wollen, Gothic wiljan "to will, wish, desire," Gothic waljan "to choose").

The Germanic words are from PIE root *wel- (2) "to wish, will" (source also of Sanskrit vrnoti "chooses, prefers," varyah "to be chosen, eligible, excellent," varanam "choosing;" Avestan verenav- "to wish, will, choose;" Greek elpis "hope;" Latin volo, velle "to wish, will, desire;" Old Church Slavonic voljo, voliti "to will," veljo, veleti "to command;" Lithuanian velyti "to wish, favor," pa-velmi "I will," viliuos "I hope;" Welsh gwell "better").

This is a second etymological root *wel- (2), different from the one we discussed in the previous post about hell < *wel- (1) ‎(“to turn, wind, round”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐλύω ‎(elúō, “to roll around”), εἰλύω ‎(eilúō, “to enfold”), εἴλω ‎(eílō, “to roll up, pack close”), ἑλίσσω ‎(helíssō, “to turn round, to roll”), ἕλιξ ‎(héliks), Old Armenian գելում ‎(gelum), Old English wielwan, wealwian ‎(“to roll”).

Friday, 17 February 2017

Revolution (*wel-), hell

Revolution from revolve from Middle English revolven ‎(“to change direction”), a borrowing from Old French revolver ‎(“to reflect upon”), from Latin revolvere, present active infinitive of revolvō ‎(“turn over, roll back, reflect upon”), from re- ‎(“back”) + volvō ‎(“roll”), from Proto-Indo-European *welw-, *wel- ‎(“to turn, wind, round”). Cognate with Ancient Greek ἐλύω ‎(elúō, “to roll around”), εἰλύω ‎(eilúō, “to enfold”), εἴλω ‎(eílō, “to roll up, pack close”), ἑλίσσω ‎(helíssō, “to turn round, to roll”), ἕλιξ ‎(héliks), Old Armenian գելում ‎(gelum), Old English wielwan, wealwian ‎(“to roll”).

Etymology of "hell" is uncertain to say the least. Linguists tie the word to PIE root *ḱel- ‎(“to cover, conceal, save”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälle ‎(“hell”), German Low German Hell ‎(“hell”), Dutch hel ‎(“hell”), German Hölle ‎(“hell”), Swedish helvete ‎(“hell”), Icelandic hel ‎(“the abode of the dead, death”). Also related to the Hel of Germanic mythology.

in Ancient Greek the PIE root *kel- gives καλύπτω ‎(kalúptō), Καλυψώ ‎(Kalupsṓ) and in Greek: καλύπτω ‎(kalýpto), κέλυφος ‎(kélyfos)

I propose that the tie with PIE *kel- (of hell) is replaced with *wel- (as above) and direct semiological connection being made with helix.

It makes sense phonetically too, allthough I can't in any way rule out the kel>sel>hel or kel>wel>hel change. Unfortunately for the intermediate steps to occur there must be sound reason to accept these. Since etymology of hell proves so ambiguous I propose the simplest connection which is with *wel-.

It's meaning of "turning over", "switch", and "move on" fit in better with the notion that was widespread accross Ancient Europe of life switching places and it's movement from the "upper world" to the "under world" than merely "covering one's body" which was not always the case. Many cultures burned their dead. In Greece each city state had it's own customs, other burning, while other burying their dead.

(Είδωλα των νεκρών) Charon in his ferry and souls of the deceased flying about (Photo Source: Great Greek Encyclopedia, Volume X., page 520)
In Xenophon (hellinica 1.3.15) we meet the name Ἕλιξος which is correctly translated as Helixus (the Megarian) into English.

In Sanskrit we encounter मण्डल (máṇḍala) which one of it's notions is the wheel of life, from birth to death, which further strengthens the turning notion. It is also of interest that the PIE root *wel- in Sanskrit gives उल्ब (ulba, "womb", membrane surrounding the embryo)

Thursday, 16 February 2017

Μπούλο

Μεγάλο μυστήριο η παραπάνω λέξη.

"Μπούλο" μπορεί να είναι μοντέρνα δωρική παραφθορά του "Πούλο" που λένε στη Νότιο Ελλάδα. Σε αυτή την περίπτωση εξιστορούν για κάποιον πουλόπουλο που την έκανε για να γλιτώσει από τα χρέη του. Από την άλλη, κατά τον Μπαμπινιώτη, αναφέρεται στο πουλί, και κατ' επέκταση στο ανδρικό μόριο. Λέγοντας δηλαδή "πάρε τον πούλο" προτρέπουμε κάποιον να φύγει, αλλιώς θα βρεθεί αντιμέτωπος με πουλιά!

Από την άλλη στην Ήπειρο και την Μακεδονία έχουμε τις Μπούλες, ένα αποκριάτικο χορευτικό δρώμενο με έναν άντρα ντυμένο νύφη, την Μπούλα. "Μπούλα" πιθανόν να είναι Αλβανικό και σημαίνει κάλυμμα, πέπλο.

Το μπουλούκι τώρα είναι τούρκικο < boluk Ετυμολογία: [<τουρκ. boluk "συντροφιά, λόχος"]

Σαν επίθετο "Μπούλος" το βρήκα μόνο στο Σέρβου Γορτυνίας.
http://saouarcadian.blogspot.gr/2014/07/1872_19.html

Ο Χρυσόστομος Τσιρίδης σε δικό του μπλόγκ γράφει για τον Καμπανισμό συμφωνικών συμπλεγμάτων:
"Βέβαια μπορεί κάποιος να πει ότι και ο ΚΑΡΑΪΣΚΑΚΗΣ δεν έλεγε «τον… Πούλο», αλλά «το…. ΜΠούλο» ή κάτι τέτοιο νομίζω….! (Καλά έκανε).."
http://www.chrisblog.gr/

Ίσως τελικά ο Μπούλος να είναι απλά καμπανισμός του Πούλου.

Wednesday, 15 February 2017

Απόλλων

Απόλλων.

Στη Θεσσαλική διάλεκτο (των Αιολικών) Ἄπλουν είναι η λέξη για την Αττική Ἀπόλλων.
Στα Δωρικά και Παμφυλικά είναι Ἀπέλο̄ν.

Στα Αιολικά ἀέλιος είναι η λέξη που στην Αττική είναι ἥλιος στα Κρητικά Αμπέλιος στα Λακωνικά Μπέλα και στα Παμφυλικά Μπαμπέλιος. Οι γλωσσολόγοι δίνουν μια κοινή καταγωγή για όλα αυτά σε μια πρωτο-Ελληνική ρίζα *hāwélios συγγενείς των ἀλέα: θερμότητα και εἵλη: ζεστασιά (από ΠΙΕ ρίζα *sawel)

Είναι μεταγενέστερη η σύνδεση του Απόλλων με τον ήλιο, στα ομηρικά χρόνια δεν υπήρχε. Ο Όμηρος τον περιγράφει με ασημένιες και όχι με χρυσές ακτίνες, και δεν έχει ηλιακά χαρακτηριστικά.

Από την άλλη το Λατινικό ρήμα appello (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=appello&la=la&can=appello0) (στα Αγγλικά δίνει το appeal) σχετίζεται με το Ελληνικό πάλλω και ψάλλω.

Tuesday, 14 February 2017

Mαύρο


Το μαύρο είναι από τις λέξεις που δεν έχουμε ετυμολογία, φτάνει μάλλον η ετυμολογική σκαπάνη μέχρι το αμαυρός. Από τα χρόνια ήδη του Πίνδαρου όμως (Liddell Scott) είναι σε χρήση το "Μαυρόω".
Οι αρχαίοι Έλληνες χρησιμοποιούσαν τη λέξη μέλαν για να χαρακτηρίσουν το μαύρο, που όμως δεν σήμαινε το εντελώς, αλλά το σχεδόν μαύρο. Σε αρχαιότερα ελληνικά και στα ομηρικά έπη έχουμε τα επίθετα Κελαινός, Δνοφερός, Ερεβώδης και Ερέβεννος για την απόδοση του σκότους, του μαύρου ή σκοτεινού χρώματος.