Dictionary

---

Franco Rendich

Comparative etymological

Dictionary of classical Indo-European languages

Indo-European Sanskrit - Greek - Latin

5th revised and expanded edition

All rights reserved under the law and international agreements. The name of the author will be cited in the event that a part of the text is rendered public in any form.

The letters that appear on the cover belong to the Sanskrit Devanāgarī writing system.

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Franco Rendich

Comparative etymological Dictionary of classical Indo-European languages

Indo-European - Sanskrit - Greek - Latin

Translated by Gordon Davis

All rights reserved.

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4

INDEX

Preface

p. 7

Introduction

p. 21

Short history of some Indo-European’s ancient words, or etymological notes on the origins of Western religious thought p. 39 The Sanskrit roots of the vocabulary of Greek philosophy

p. 75

COMPARATIVE ETYMOLGICAL DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

p.101

Introductory notes p. 103 Phonetic symbols and semantic values of the earliest Indo-European alphabet Genesis, structure and development of the first Indo-European language

p.104

Comparison of Indo-European roots and reconstructive methods p.108 Sanskrit alphabet

p. 110

Greek alphabet

p. 112

Latin alphabet

p. 113

Vocal physiology and possible causes of sound changes in the Sanskrit, Greek and Latin alphabets with respect to the phonetic alphabet of the Indo-European mother tongue p. 114 K

ak

→

khyā

p. 117

G

ag

→

ghrā

p. 171

5

C

ac

→

chid

p. 191

J

aj

→

jyud

p. 203

T

at

→

tsṛ

p. 223

D

ad

→

dhvṛ

p. 251

N

an

→

nṛt

p. 315

P

ap

→

(s)phar

p. 341

B

abh

→

bhrātṛ

p. 383

M

am

→

mṛd

p. 411

Y

yakṛt

→

yudh

p. 447

R

ṛ/ar/ra

→

ruh

p. 461

L

lakṣ

→

lū

p. 503

V

av

→

vraj

p. 519

Ś, S

aś

→

svṛ

p. 563

H

aṉh

hvṛ

p. 651

→

Bibliography

p. 675

* The Indo-European language has been reconstructed according to the phonetic values and rules that I have set forth in this book. ** Some terms, for various reasons, do not follow the order that they do in their respective alphabets. *** None of the Sanskrit, Greek and Latin terms in this dictionary are of Mesopotamian or, in any case, Semitic origin. They all come from ProtoSanskrit, the “public” and “common” language of the Indo-European tribes that, thousands of years before Christ, were forced to leave their Arctic homeland and migrate southward (cf. B. G. Tilak and F. Rendich, op. cit., pp. 89-121).

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PREFACE

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The compilation of this comparative etymological dictionary of classical Indo-European languages has been an arduous task. Moreover, although I am fully convinced that I have been successful in my endeavors, I must now summon up the courage to present the reader with a reconstruction of the earliest verbal roots of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin employing an interpretive method which is brand new compared to those that have been used thus far by linguists dealing with the subject1. In my view, the meanings of words do not originate, as has always been believed, in an abstract and arbitrary manner, but do so rather by joining two or more basic ideas represented by the sounds2 of consonants and vowels. Such sounds, each of which has a particular semantic value, were governed, as we shall see, by precise associative rules. In this Dictionary, I take issue with the old school of thought that the cultural and civic life we Westerners enjoy originated in the works of Greek and Roman philosophers. Instead, the mind and the soul that inspired our words sprang from neither Greece nor Rome, but from an Indo-European homeland located much further north3. In truth, according to my studies, the history of we Westerners does not begin with the Greeks. We were invented, along with the Greeks, by Vedic poet-seers through their mother tongue, Sanskrit, which evolved into Greek and Latin, which are simple phonetic variants of it. Indeed, according to my etymological research since the verbal roots of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin go back to Proto-Sanskrit4, a language that 1

Among the most eminent who may be cited are Alois Walde and Julius Pokorny. 2 Given the importance of the role that sounds play, this dictionary is also a “Treatise on Comparative Phonetics in Classical Indo-European Languages”. 3 Situated in the Arctic Circle (cf. B. G. Tilak, The Arctic Home in the Vedas and F. Rendich, The Origin of Indo-European Languages, pp. 89-121). 4 It was the language that, in my judgment, for a certain period marked the transition between Indo-European and the classical languages derived from it. It may therefore be considered a koinḕ diálektos, the common language that all the Indo-European dialects of that time melded into around the fifth millennium B.C. (cf. V. Pisani, Le lingue indoeuropee (Indo-European Languages), p. 115 and note 47).

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originated in a distant era long before the second millennium B.C. when Nordic tribes made up of nomadic shepherds and farmers5, led by the priest and warrior castes, settled in Greece. This was long before some groups of marauding Nordic military invaders (with little female companionship in tow), who were also of Indo-European origin, settled in Latium around the first millennium B.C. Though destined to build over the course of the centuries Greco-Roman civilization's greatness, these new arrivals upon the Mediterranean's shores were unaware of the origin of the language they spoke, nor did they recall the true meaning of their verb roots and, therefore, of the words they uttered. In order to explain the above and the fact that Greek and Latin are neoProto-Sanskrit languages, we will now examine the degree of knowledge and the state of studies in the etymological field in ancient times in India, Greece and Rome. In India, around 600 B.C. (shortly before Buddha’s birth), the grammarian Yāska wrote a treatise entitled Nighaṇṭu samanvitaṃ niruktam, that is, “A Collection of Words and Interpretation of Their Meanings”, which can be regarded as the first etymological dictionary of the Sanskrit language and, therefore, as the first Indo-European dictionary. It contains lists of Vedic Sanskrit words, with their synonyms, which Yāska maintained could be traced back to the meanings of the verb roots that they derived from. The challenges that Yāska faced in this endeavor (and for which answers were not always found) stemmed from the fact that not all the nouns he cited in his etymological research corresponded to the verbal roots he was aware of. In fact, he was forced to seek out the meanings of many of these nouns by comparing them with synonyms, or by making reference to similar roots in form or roots which had as few as one letter or syllable in common. In any case, Yāska’s crowning achievement, beyond the positive results he yielded, lay, above all, in the fact that he had understood that the vast majority of Sanskrit nouns derived from verb

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Dolichocephalic blonds with fair skin and sky-blue eyes (cf. Keith, The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads).

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roots and not the other way around. The investigative method I have followed in this dictionary also makes reference to verb roots, but is based on the presupposition that the elements they are comprised of (consonants and vowels) each have their own semantic value. Thus, associating these singular elements will lead to the precise meanings of the roots and nouns they derive from. However, once Yāska had arrived at the earliest Sanskrit verb roots (the Vedic roots of “sacred knowledge”), the moment in which he could take on the mystery of their origins, he had to stop. His analysis could not go on because, according to his religion, these verb roots were of divine origin. Being the “word and voice of God” within us, that is, truth revealed, they were inaccessible to the human mind. Not even Pāṇini, the preeminent Indian grammarian (living shortly after Buddha’s time, circa 400 B.C.), could do any better in his analysis of the original meanings of Sanskrit noun roots in the 4,000 or so rules contained in his Sanskrit grammar guide, the Aṣṭādhyāyī, “Meditations Collected in Eight Books”. To illustrate this point, below are examples of some of his etymological entries. In Rule 3.77 in Chapter VI, he analyzes the word naga [na + ga] (“tree”/ “mountain”) and states that na is the negative particle na, meaning “not”. Therefore, na + ga, in his view, means “does not move”. Referring to a tree or mountain, this interpretation of the prefix na appears to be on the mark. Excellent. Now I would ask Pāṇini: in the Sanskrit word nāga (“sea snake”), how would he interpret the particle na? Is na also a privative particle, reconstructing the word this way with na (“does not”) + aga (“move windingly”)? I believe so, given that, according to Rule 3.75 in Chapter 6, in citing the terms nakṣatra (“constellation”), nāsatya (“the constellation Gemini”) and nakra (“alligator”), he still considered na to be the privative particle “not”. So, his translation of these terms would end up being: nakṣatra “without [na] government [kṣatra]”; nāsatya “not [na] false [asatya]”; and nakra “does not [na] take steps [kra is a form of the verb kram, meaning ‘to walk’]”. This seems absurd since it is illogical to think nāga means “does not [na] move windingly [ag]”, given that winding

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movement [in Sanskrit, ag] is what really distinguishes the sea snake. Actually, in all these compound words, na is not a negative prefix, but rather it means “water”. So, it all becomes clear: nakṣatra means “that which rules [kṣatra] the cosmic waters [na]”; nāsatya means “the truth [satya] of the cosmic waters [nā]” (these are the Aśvinā - a noun that derives from aśva (“horse”) - the two horsemen who, at dawn and dusk, symbolize the meeting in the heavens between the ocean containing water bright with the day’s sunshine and the ocean of water [nā] which is dark as night, thus evoking the true [satya] dual image light and dark - of the cosmic [nāsatya] waters [nā]). Therefore, finally, even the words nakra and nāga take on their real meanings: “takes its steps [kra] in water [na]” or “alligator” and “moves windingly [aga] in water [na]” or “sea snake”. However, neither Yāska nor Pāṇini ever demonstrated an awareness that their language, Sanskrit, had not been created in India, where they were born, but in a land much further north in the Arctic Circle. This hypothesis was based not only on convincing astronomic investigations (see Tilak, op. cit.), but also on the fact that in the ṚgVeda, the oldest holy text in India, among all the animals cited, neither the vyāghra (“tiger”) nor the phaṇaka (“cobra”) appears, both of which have long been the most representative of Indian wildlife. Instead, there is the ṛkṣa (“polar bear”) (cf. F. Rendich, op. cit., p. 124). In Greece, the study of the history of words was pursued as well. These sciences were called etymología and sēmainómenon, and have remained largely obscure. Interestingly, Greek grammarians, in constructing the compound word etymología, did not know eteós (“true”) and étymos (“truly”), were old transcriptions of the word satya (“truth”) (cf. p. 568) from sat (“that which is” or “being”), the present participle of the verb as (“to be”) (since the word “true” in IndoEuropean takes on the meaning “that which is”). Moreover, they were not even aware that the terms sē̃ma and semeĩon (“sign” and “signal”), from which sēmainómenon (“semantics”) comes, derive from IndoEuropean and Proto-Sanskrit verb roots saj [s+aj], which originally

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meant “that which binds s to what moves straight forward [aj]”, “to be attached to”, “to stick to” or “to follow”, from which also comes the Latin verb sequor (“to follow”) as well as the word signum (“sign” or signal”), which the word “significance” comes from (cf. p. 600). In the time of the ancient Greeks, the question of language origin was a highly controversial subject. Their most celebrated philosophers, particularly Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Democritus, Heraclitus, Parmenides and Protagoras, dealt with this topic at length. “Language is the daughter of Chance [týkhē]”, said one. “It is a creation of Nature [phýsei]”, answered another. “Man articulates the sounds of words as inspired by divine destiny [theía moĩra]”, replied a third. “No. Language is born out of human convention. It is a conscious invention of man, it is not a “divine gift”, opined a fourth. “Sounds are signs of certain movements of the soul […], if words were tightly linked to sound, then all men would speak the same language”, retorted a fifth. “Since it is not certain that a relationship exists between words and sounds”, stated a sixth, “it is not even certain that one can get to know the essence of things through words”. In his Dialogues, Plato took on the question of etymology in a way that can be summed up as follows: “over the course of time, the names of things, for euphonic reasons, have been so twisted and misrepresented, with the adding or dropping of letters, that it is no longer possible to reconstruct the original meanings of words”. As has been seen, in the name of their dialectic, the Greeks pondered the origins of language and the meanings of words for centuries, but their reasoning never managed to reveal the secrets behind the names of things. So, their doubts were left unresolved. Even the Roman Marcus Terentius Varro, in the fifth book of his treatise De lingua latina, voiced many doubts on the origins of words. Among the causes that he viewed as making word origins obscuriora (“more obscure”), he posits, first and foremost, their vetustas, that is, their “antiquity”. After opening his argument with “Quae ideo sunt obscuriora, quod…”, he lists all of the causes of such obscuritas but, in the end, as he himself concludes, it will never be entirely cleared

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up. To confirm the extent of the obscuritas which the Romans experienced in regard to the meanings of words, it would be a great help to the modern reader to peruse Sextus Pompeius Festus’ De significatione verborum (a Latin dictionary which includes approximately 4,000 entries and is equipped with a rich glossary), as edited by Paul the Deacon. From this work it seems obvious, in my judgment, the serious error committed by Festus in overlooking the importance of Latin verb roots, a mistake that does not allow him to discover the origins of his own language because it is in the sounds of those roots, as we shall see, that the earliest meanings of Latin words lay. In an effort to underscore the aforementioned points and, at the same time, to clarify the method I have employed in the course of my etymological studies, I will now examine the Latin entries cited in the text that are linked to ak and aṅk, two of the oldest Indo-European and Sanskrit verb roots. I would like to begin by stating that Latin uses the hard c instead of k, and thus transcribes such roots with ac- and anc-. Furthermore, it is understood that Greek does not phonetically accept the pronunciation of the consonant group ṅk, which is the reason why the nasal guttural ṅ is replaced by the guttural g, and thus uses the verb forms ak- and agk-. The first of these entries is acus (“needle”) (p. 8). It approximates the meaning of the Latin verb sarcire (sarcio,-ire) (“to darn” or “to repair”) (originally, the meaning must have been “to sew up” given the fact that sarcimen is “sewing” and that sartor,-oris “he who sews” or “tailor”, derives from the participle sartus), and this also links it to akésasthai (akeĩsthai?), an ancient Greek term that must have referred to a “remedy” used to treat wounds. In addition to acus, Festus cites (p. 23) a series of terms with the root ac, for example: acies (“point” or “razor edge”); acumen (“point” or “acumen”); acuere (acuo, -ere) (“to hone” or “to sharpen”) and this connects them to the Greek akónē “whetstone”. I feel I must now reproach Festus for failing to explain that the Romans, like the Greeks, made a distinction between two different types of needles, the one used to sew shoes and mend fabrics

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and pelts, and the other used to suture wounds. (In fact, in his book De Medicina, Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a famous Roman physician, described a type of surgical needle used to close wounds by joining the edges of a wound with thin linen thread, or else with women’s hair). In this regard, Festus’ carelessness in his lexical analysis is borne out by the following comparison of Greek terms closely tied to the ak/ac root of acus: akḗ “a point”, “edge” akís “a point”

akonáō akéstra akestḗs akéstria

akḗ “healing” ákos “a cure”, “relief” ákesis “a healing”, “cure, “remedy” “to sharpen”, “to whet” akéō “to heal” akéomai “to cure” “a darning-needle” ákesma “a remedy” “a mender” akésimos “healing disease” “a woman who sews”, akestós “curable” “a seamstress”

In all of these cases, the root ak refers to a sharp object or to its curative use. In other words, in Greek, and Festus does not say this, according to Indo-European etymology, the root ak meant “to have a point” or “to be pointed”, and in medicine it meant “to suture a wound with a needle”, from which came the verbs “to cure” and “to heal”. Thus, ákos, originally meant “pointed tool that heals wounds”. A second reproach which I wish to lay at Festus’ feet regards his analysis of some Latin terms with the root anc-, compared to the corresponding Greek terms with the root agk-, an analysis that, alas, he does not explore in depth. To clarify the meanings of the Greek terms discussed by Festus, I have extended their semantic range in the chart below:

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Latin

Greek

anculus,-i “he who goes around (anc-) the house”, “he who helps all around”, “servant” from which: ancilla,-ae “female slave” ancora “an anchor”

agkálē

ancus “hooked arm which cannot be extended” uncus “a hook”

agkýlos “crooked”, “curved” ágkistron “a fish hook” agkṓn “the bent arm”, “the elbow”

“the bent arm”, “curvature of the arm”, “the elbow” ágkos “a bend”, “hollow” agkýlē “the bend of the arm”, “a loop” ágkyra

“an anchor”

In his comparative analysis, Festus accepts the k/g alternation, and also includes the word angulus (p. 23 and 66) in his text, having it derive from the Greek agkýlon. In conclusion, what is the reason for the reproaches I wish to level at his analyses? It can be summed up briefly. He does not manage to deduce, as would have seemed logical to do upon observing the above-mentioned correlations, that in an ancient mother tongue the consonant k must have meant “to stay on top”, “to be pointed” or “curvature”. Furthermore, he does not understand that, when the k is part of the formation of an action verb, it expresses a kind of movement “which extends toward a point”, “which warps” or “which winds”. A type of movement “which goes around something”, similar, I would say, to that of heavenly bodies in space (cf. p. 117 and ff). Consequently, once this hypothesis on the consonant k had been shown to be well-grounded, Festus could have extended the idea that all of the other sounds in the alphabet could be the bearers of a specific semantic value. Then, he could have sought out their original meanings. However, he did not do this. Around 630 A.D., centuries after Festus’ work, St. Isidore of Seville, an erudite Spanish-Roman belonging to a noble episcopal family,

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published a 20-volume encyclopedia entitled Etymologiae sive origines, or “Etymology or Origins”. In his religious community, and in the cultural society of his time, the most illustrious intellectuals were convinced that etymological studies were extraordinarily important taken as a whole. To begin to understand the level of originality there, let us compare Festus’ analysis of the origin of some Latin words as shown on p. XV, which have the root anc- to the etymological ideas advanced by Isidore in relation to the same words or their cognates: Festus ancillae Noun constructed from anculus, from anculo,-are, which means “to serve”, “to deal with”, in the same way as ministro,-are. (For which ancilla is “servant girl” or “female slave”, p. 18)

Isidore ancillae Term that goes back to the Latin ancon (“elbow” or “arm”), in Greek agkṓn, with reference to the support offered by it, (IX, 4, 44 p. 761, Vol. 1)

The Indo-European root of anculus, and thus of ancilla, is ak- (in the nasalized variant, aṅk-), whose meaning is to “bend around” or “to curve”. In fact, the Latin term ancon (“elbow”) cited by Isidore, was so named because the arm “curved,” hinging on the elbow. It is in reference to this “bending”, or to a “curvature”, that “elbow” in Latin is also called cubitus, and that Greek, transforming for phonetic reasons the root aṅk into agk, constructs the words agkṓn (“elbow” or “arm”) and agkýlos (“bowed” or “bent”). In other words, anculo, -are derive from the root anc-, the Latin transcription of aṅk-, which is why the original meaning of the Latin verb is “to move around something” or “to move in a circle”. However, this etymological analysis could not have been executed by Festus and Isidore since they did not know that, in Proto-IndoEuropean, the consonant k meant “curvilinear movement” or “enveloping”, with reference to the movement of the vault of heavens

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(p. 117 and ff). The same observation may also be made with respect to the analyses carried out by Festus and Isidore on the origins of the Latin nouns ancus and ancora: Festus

Isidore

ancus He who has a hooked arm which cannot be extended (op. cit., p. 10)

ancora As can be inferred from the Greek etymon ágkyra, it is an iron tooth that “grasps” rocks or sand almost like a hand does. In fact, in Greek, one says kýra (XIX, 2, 15; p. 540, Vol. 2)

In fact, I believe that the etymological interpretations above are inadequate. To correctly interpret the origin of the Latin terms ancus and ancora, it is necessary to go back to the Indo-European root aṅk and understand that the secret of this root, as seen, is concealed within the sound of the consonant k, whose meaning was, to wit, “to curve” or “to turn”. The Latin noun ancora (“anchor”), (still from aṅk) in Greek ágkyra, is actually aṅk-uśa in Indo-European and Sanskrit. Isidore’s reference to kýra, which he maintains is “hand” in Greek, is mistaken for two reasons. The first is that the k of ágkyra makes up part of the root agk, the Greek version of aṅk, and, therefore, is not the beginning of a hypothetical second element of a (hypothetical) compound noun ágkyra. In Greek, moreover, “hand” is called kheír, beginning with kh (chi) and not k (kappa) because the noun comes from the IndoEuropean hṛ [kh = h; eir = ṛ], which means “to take” or “to grab”, and indicates the function performed by the hand (cf. p. 668). And yet another example:

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Festus angulus Comes from the Greek ἀgkýlos (“having a curved shape” or “hunched”, p. 23 or 66)

Isidore angulus That which joins two interior walls (XV, 8, 4; p. 281, Vol. 2) anguilla It took its name from its resemblance to anguis, that is, “snake” (XII, 6, 41; pag. 71, vol 2)

The term angulus, with the Latin root ang-, also derives from the IndoEuropean root aṅk-. The k/g alternation should not be surprising. The terms anguilla and anguis derive, instead, from the Indo-European (and Sanskrit) root ag- (in the nasal-infix variant, aṅg) which means “to move in a winding manner” (cf. p. 171). In the same semantic area as the Greek root agk, accepting the Indo-European alternation h/k/g, Festus cites the Latin terms angor (“physical or moral torment”) and angina (“illness which oppresses the body”) as coming from the root ang of the verb ango,-ere (“to tighten” or “to suffocate”). Yet, Festus does not manage to trace back the original Indo-European root aṉh (see p. 652), which is why his etymological research ends up being vague and incomplete. In conclusion, here is an etymological gem from Isidore on the origin of the Latin word ignarus: “Ignaro, non gnarus, id est sine naribus. Olfecisse enim veteres scisse dicebant.” The translation is as follows: Non gnarus, that is, “he who does not know”, comes from sine naribus (“without nostrils”) insofar as the ancients used the verb “to sniff” in the sense of “to know”. Every comment would be impietous and superfluous (cf. the root jñā, which the word gnarus originated from, p. 219).

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On the other hand, the gross negligence demonstrated by both Celsus and Isidore in regard to the analysis of the sounds contained in verb roots, insofar as they are the bearers of semantic values, would afterwards go on to be shared by all etymology scholars up to the present day, given that even Max Müller (1823-1900), distinguished professor of Indo-European languages, went so far as to opine that “a sound etymology has nothing to do with sound”. The task that I have taken up with this dictionary, in which Müller’s statement is radically refuted, is just that of finding the original IndoEuropean meanings of the sounds of the mother tongue of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin. I also seek to offer readers, even though still incomplete, the results of my research. This work, given the vastness of the subject, cannot but be free of defects. Admission of such shortcomings, however, need not drive me to beg the reader’s forgiveness, but rather it sets before me the worthy goal of striving to rectify these defects in the future

The Author

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INTRODUCTION

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1. A comparative analysis of selected Sanskrit, Greek and Latin verb roots, belonging to the same semantic area, shows us how to trace back their common Indo-European roots: Sanskrit ś r u

Greek k l y

Latin c l u

The original meaning of these roots is “to listen” or “to hear”. This meaning remained in the Sanskrit verb śru and in the Greek klýō. In Greek, with the meaning of “having listened to” and of “that which is heard named and boasted about”, the root verb developed into kléō (“to celebrate” or “to glorify”), which corresponds to the Latin verb clueo, -ere (“to hear spoken about” or “to be celebrated”) (after Seneca, clueo is also brought back in the form cluo, cf. p. 588). As a common Indo-European root of śru, kly and clu, Alois Walde and Julius Pokorny suggest kleu, with a k and not an initial ś. Now, let us consider that l, the intermediate consonant in kly and clu, is, in Sanskrit, a late variant of r (it is, in fact, present only during the period of classical Sanskrit, as in the root kland, and not in the older Vedic Sanskrit, in which the form is krand (cf. p. 151), and the Greek ypsilon, originally üpsilon, is the Indo-European u. It can be deduced that all three roots ended in ru. Regarding the initial consonant of the Indo-European roots to be reconstructed, Walde and Pokorny’s theory, kleu, assumes that the

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Sanskrit palatal sibilant ś is the transformation of the guttural IndoEuropean k. In my judgment, however, things could not have evolved this way. For example, if we compare the words “ten” and “hundred” in those languages, we observe:

Skt. daśa = Gk. déka = Lat. decem Skt. śata = Gk. e-katón = Lat. centum It is worth noting that the words daśa and śata had already existed in the Ṛg-Veda, a text which preceded Homeric literature by a few millennia: RV X, 97, 7 daśa kakṣya (“ten circles”) RV I, 48, 7 śataṃ rathebhiḥ (“with one hundred carts”) Bear in mind that when the Aryans invaded India around the middle of the second millennium B.C., a great many of the Ṛg-Veda’s hymns had already been composed. Which era did these hymns come from? In his essay “The Arctic Home in the Vedas” Tilak asserts (p. 325), based on his astronomy studies, that they were composed during the Orion period between 5000 and 3000 B.C., when the vernal equinox fell in this constellation. In contrast, when Antoine Meillet wrote in Aperçu d’une histoire de la langue grecque (Outline of a History of the Greek Language) (p. 12), “[…] when considering the history of Indo-European languages between the 15th and 16th centuries B.C. [...]”, it is to Greek and Latin

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that he is referring and certainly not to Sanskrit, which is a much older language and in which the palatal ś already existed in an autonomous form. Furthermore, it is worth noting the phonetic idiosyncrasy of Greek and, to a lesser extent, Latin compared to the Indo-European (and Sanskrit) palatals c, j, ś. The point must therefore be made that the palatal sibilant ś was to be transformed into the Greek k and the Latin c, and not the other way around. So, one can reasonably assert that the original root of śru, of kly and clu was śru and not kleu, as hypothesized by Walde and Pokorny. The Indo-European root śru was made up of ś+ru, which originally meant “to stay near [ś] a noise [ru]”, then “to listen”. The presence of an initial k, as in kleu, would misrepresent completely the meaning of the verb and it is, moreover, to be emphasized that the vowel e was not used in Indo-European (and Sanskrit) verb roots insofar as it would only appear much later in nominal derivates in its intensifying capacity as a dipthong (see note 5 on p. 303). In Latin, during the archaic and classical period, the pronunciation of c was velar in every position (or rather it was hard like that of k, cf. M. Bonioli, op. cit., pp. 68 ff.). 2. The aforementioned historical and etymological explanations regarding the transformation of the Indo-European and Sanskrit palatal sibilant ś into the Greek k and Latin c, are now also valid in demonstrating that it was the Indo-European and Sanskrit palatal consonant j which gave rise to the guttural Greek and Latin g, and not vice versa. The following correlation can be observed:

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Sanskrit j a n

Greek g e n

Latin g e n

The original meaning of these roots, which converge to form the verbs jan, janati, gennáō and geno in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, respectively, is “to generate.” Walde and Pokorny trace them back to the Indo-European root gen. Based on the reasons that follow, I posit, alternatively, that the original root was jan. Note the presence of the root jan in the Ṛg-Veda: RV, IV, 5, 5 […] ajanatā […] “they have generated” RV, X, 123, 7 […] janata […] “it is generated” (Ā) This evidence, given the antiquity of the Ṛg-Veda, shows us that, in Greek and Latin, the guttural g, which came into being many millennia after the Indo-European (and Sanskrit) j, was undoubtedly a transcription of the latter. Moreover, since, in the oldest Sanskrit verb roots, all being strictly of Indo-European origin, the vowel e (used only in verb derivatives) never appears, but always and only the vowel a, it is, therefore, easy for us to deduce that the e of gen is a late GreekLatin transcription of the Indo-European a. These assertions have been confirmed by my studies on the origins of Indo-European roots, according to the following evolution of the mother tongue:

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First phase Second phase j = “straightforward movement” j = “movement in which goes a = “beginning or something forward” accomplishment of an action an = “animating breath of the n = “water” waters”

Finally, in third phase of the evolution of the language, the root jan meant: “the propagation [j] of the vital breath of the waters [an]”, in the sense of “creating life”, “giving birth” or “ generating”. 3. When Indo-European grammarians prepared themselves to express, using special phonetic symbols, religious thoughts as to the beliefs of their ancestors regarding the two most important powers of the cosmic waters—the divine [āpo devīr], that is, “bearers of the seeds of life [āpo mātaraḥ]”, and “knowledge of everything existing in the universe [viśvaya sthātur jagato janitrīḥ]”, they joined the consonants j and n, which, together, could better express their ideas: j denoted “straightforward movement” and n/nā indicated “the cosmic waters”. Through the use of j and n, with the help of the vowel a, “accomplishment” or “effect of the action”, they were able to construct the following two roots with the meanings, respectively, of “to generate” and “to know”: 1.

j a n

2.

j n ā

The latter, due to the palatalization of the n [ñ], became jñā. Since, as seen in Point 2, these grammarians had used the root jan to create the meaning of “to generate” or “to cause to be born”, they then

27

used jñā to express the notion of “knowing”. Now we shall see the form assumed by the group j + n in classical Indo-European languages: Sanskrit j ñ ā

Greek g n ō

Latin g* n o * it will later be dropped

The close semantic relationship between the roots jan and jñā, which gave rise to the Sanskrit verb jñā, jānāti, the Greek gígnōskō and the Latin gnosco, led Latin to also form the root gna, thence gnascor “to be born” (which will later go on to drop the g). Consequently, the Latin verbs geno and gnascor both came from the Indo-European root jan and are differentiated only by the metathesis of the n. Walde and Pokorny’s hypothesis according to which the Indo-European root of “to know” was gno (or gen) seems untenable to me since in the ancient Indo-European root vocalization, as is evinced from Sanskrit, the e and the o were not used in the formation of verb roots, but only in the formation of their primary derivatives. 4. The close etymological correlation between the Indo-European roots ad “to eat” and sad “to sit” has never been taken under consideration by linguists and thus remains unexplored. I will now seek to fill this void by extending the analysis to the corresponding Sanskrit, Greek and Latin roots, and by making a series of observations:

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Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

a d

e d

e d

With these roots in the above languages the verbs ad, édō and edo, are respectively formed, all meaning “to eat”. Now let us add to these roots the initial consonant s, which, in IndoEuropean had the meaning of “staying near to”, or “to have contact with”, and we will have the following compounds, whose meaning will be “to get near [s] food [ad]”: Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

s a d

s (rough breathing) e d

s e d

In their respective languages, the verbs sad, sidati; ézomai [from (s)ed] and sedeo “to sit” derived from these roots. First observation: As we have already seen regarding the roots jan-gen, here, the vowel e in Greek and in Latin is the transcription of the Indo-European vowel a as well. Second observation: The combination ad/ed, present in the roots sad/sed, is the verb “to eat”. Third observation: The combination ad was formed because the Indo-European d had the semantic value of “light”, meaning at the moment of awakening, at daybreak, people consumed their first meal.

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Fourth observation: Given that, in the root śru, the consonant ś/s was a prefix which indicated “proximity”, the root sad, based on the same constructive pattern, came to be composed of s + ad and meant “to stay near [s] food [ad]”, from which came the meaning “to sit”. Final observation: The roots which expressed, in Indo-European, the actions of “eating” and “sitting”, in my opinion, were therefore not ed and sed (see Walde and Pokorny), but ad and sad. 5. With respect to the numerous accepted variations of the IndoEuropean root vid in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, whose original meaning, according to my studies, was “to stand out [vi] in the light [d]”, I feel my comparative analysis below demonstrates that such a meaning, across the wide spectrum of the verbs and nouns I have listed, brings together all its derivatives: Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

v i d

Ϝ (falls) i d

v i d

With this root the Sanskrit verb vid, vidati was formed, from which came the noun veda “holy knowledge”, the Greek verb eídomai “to appear” or “to seem”, taken from the noun eĩdos “aspect” or “form” (already present in Homer), and the Latin video “to see”, from which came visum “appearance” and visus “view”. From vid came the Greek oĩda “to know”, which is connected to ideῖn “to see” from which came ístōr “he who knows for having seen”, which in the second-person

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singular is oĩstha “you have seen,”, therefore, “you know”, therefore, “you tell”. This semantic area gave rise to the Greek word istoría “the story of he who knows because he has seen” or “history”. Within the context of the action carried out by these verbs, the concrete or abstract presence of light, and of clearness, is understood. Such a presence is even more evident (!) in the root that follows. 6. Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

d i ś

d ei/i k

d i c

The final consonants of these roots: ś, k e c, confirm the correlation that I hinted at in Point 2. If we consider that their original meaning was “to get near [ś] the light [d]”, in the sense of “to show”, “to indicate” or “to highlight”, it seems clear that it was ś and not k which was the final consonant of the original Indo-European root. It had to have been diś and not deik, as Walde and Pokorny theorized. In the Greek term díkē (connected to deíknymi “to show”), the meaning was, therefore, “what shows the law”, that is, “justice”, which is also referred to in the Latin iudico, -are “to show the law” or “to judge”, hence iudex is “he who shows the law”. In Latin, the verb dico, -ere is “to show with words” or “to say”, while indico,-are is “to show with the hands”, from which comes index “that which indicates”, the “index” finger, digitus index. 7. In this dictionary, I have forcefully put forth the idea that the first notions the Indo-Europeans had regarding “death” were put into words

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according to the sight of the deceased’s family members who accompanied the coffin in order to reach [ṛ] the burial site, which was located on the edge [m] of the forest. The original root of the verb “to die” was, therefore, mṛ and not mer as Walde and Pokorny have claimed. They did not realize that the er of mer is a late prosthetic form of the Indo-European root [ṛ] as is also the case with or (also see the Latin or, -ior “to rise,” once again from the root ṛ). Consequently, the following roots can be observed: Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

m ṛ

m er/or

m or

Greek preserved the idea of the ancient link between the root mṛ and “death” in the terms mortós and brotós “mortal.” In forming other terms with the roots mer/mor/moir (all derived from mṛ) the Greeks were not thinking directly about death, but rather to the “share” of destiny that awaits all mortals, especially at the moment of their demise (cf. pp. 441). In Latin the root mṛ gave rise to the words mori “to die”, mors “death”, mortuus “dead”, and mortalis “mortal”, terms quite close to the corresponding Sanskrit words mṛ “to die”, mṛta “death,” mṛti and mṛtyu “dead” and marta “mortal”, etc. 8. In Indo-European, the phonemes n/na/nā signified “water”. See the following comparison:

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Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

(s)+n ā

n a/e/ē

n o

With the root nā, the symbol of water, Indo-European created the compound snā [s+nā], meaning “to stay near [s] the water [nā]”, that is, “to come in contact [s], to plunge into water [nā]”, which in Sanskrit became the verb “to take a bath”, “to go for a swim” or “to bathe”. Latin converted the vowel ā to o and formed the verb no, nare “to swim”. With these symbols of water, Greek formed the verbs néō and nḗkhō “to swim” and náō “to flow” or “to stream”. 9. In Indo-European, the consonant h signified “movement” and was thus used to form the root hṛ “to move [ç] shifting towards oneself [h]”. This became the verb “to take” and the root b + hṛ “to move [ṛ] shifting [h] with force [b]”, which had the sense of “to carry” or “to bear”. With respect to the latter root, the following comparison can be observed: Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

b h ṛ

p h er

b* h er *bh will become f

In Greek the labial p replaced the labial b. For euphonic reasons, a helping vowel was added to the root ṛ, which is why it became er (the

33

strengthening of ṛ/r through use of a vowel prothesis is common in Greek). So, while Sanskrit keeps the Indo-European root bhṛ, the verb “to carry”, Greek and Latin added the suffix ō/o to their roots forming, respectively, phérō and fero, ferre “to carry” (note that in Latin the phoneme bh became f). Since er, as previously stated, is a late prosthetic form of ṛ, the original Indo-European root had to have been bhṛ and not bher (cf. Walde and Pokorny).

10. The irrefutable proof of the fact that Walde and Pokorny did not know how to recognize the constructive logic followed by ancient grammarians in the formation of Indo-European verb roots is evident in their suggestion that stā be considered as the root of the verb “to stay”. Walde and Pokorny did not realize, in my view, that such a root was originally a compound formed by the consonant s and the verb dhā “to place”. This is easily recognizable in the Sanskrit sthā in which it is not hard to understand that the dental t was chosen to replace the dental d of dhā, given that, in Proto-Indo-European phonology, the initial sound of the sd combination had not been accepted (indeed, it is true that in neither Sanskrit nor Greek nor Latin do words exist that start with sd). “To be near [s] to what has been placed [dhā]” was the real Indo-European meaning of the verb “to stay”, whose original form was therefore sdhā/sthā and not stā. Even in the Indo-European reconstruction of the verb roots dhā “to place”, “to set up” (dhē according to Walde and Pokorny), and dhe “to suckle (from the mother’s breast)”, “to feed” or “to nurse” (dhēi according to Walde and Pokorny) Walde and Pokorny show little intuition. The roots dhā and dhe were both formed with the Indo-European consonant d, which meant “light” (and in a figurative sense, “fire”, “heat” or “energy”), and with the consonant h, which signified “movement” (and in a

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figurative sense, “movement toward oneself”, that is, “to take” and “movement onto oneself”, that is, “to carry”, “to emit” or “to transmit”). The compound dhā consequently meant “to carry fire”, that is, “to establish” divine law on earth through the positioning of a holy fire. Here is the Indo-European comparison: Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

d h ā

t h ē

d* h a * dh will later become f

In the Greek verb títhēmi “to place” the ti- is a doubling of the root. The Latin verb is facio, “to make” (in Latin, the relationship between facio and “fire” is confirmed by the ending fax, facis “torch”). The close Indo-European connection between “to place”, “holy fire” and “divine law” seems obvious in this comparison: Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

dhā, dadhāti “to títhēmi “to place” place” themís “order dhāman “place of established by the holy fire” divine law” or or “law” “law”

facio “to do” fax, facis “torch” fas “divine law”

The derivation of fas from the root dhā has a valid etymological justification because, for the Indo-Europeans, “to place” [dhā] a “holy fire” [dhāman] was the act of “foundation” [dhā] on Earth of the laws

35

set forth by Mitra-Varuṇa, the two celestial oceans. However, also attempting to derive fas from the root bhās “to shine” strikes me as an etymological choice which is just as correct, given the Indo-European connection between “light” and “word as divine law” and given the presence bhās in the final s of fas (it is worth recalling here that “light” and “divine word” represent the same mystic event according to the Jewish Qabbalah). Corresponding to the Indo-European root dhi (also dhā/dhē in Sanskrit), which means “to take [hi] energy [d]” in the sense of “to suck”, is the Greek root of thē di tithḗneō “to nurse” or “to feed”, thēlḗ “breast” and thē̃lys “female”. In Latin it became fe [dh = f], which is the basic root of the verb felo, -are “to suck”. Note the following correlation: Sanskrit d h e

Greek t h ē

Latin d* h e * dh will later become f

From the root dhi, which the Sanskrit dhi, dhinoti comes from, meaning “to offer the maternal breast”, “to feed” or “to nurse,” weak form of the root dhe, came the Latin terms filius “son” and filia “daughter”, as well as the Greek term phílos “dear” or “beloved”, according to the following: Sanskrit

Greek

Latin

d h i

p h i

d* h i

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* dh will later become f

These roots reveal the Indo-European connection between feeding and maternal love. In the points set forth above, I have offered ten examples of the constructive method followed by Indo-European grammarians in forming the vocabulary of our mother tongue. Indeed, they created words following a precise logical thread, so as to link them to the things or actions they were named after. Each word was born as the fruit of reasoning, which is why, taken as a whole, they were certain to summon up the wide range of human experiences. Through their sounds, each one of them bearing a precise meaning, Indo-European verb roots, as we shall see, managed to accurately describe every kind of action. In this way, Indo-European’s vocabulary represented, as it evolved, a compendium of thinking and life in our ancient society and expressed its hitherto unsurpassed high level of civilization and culture. It was Friedrich Schlegel,6 one of the founding fathers of IndoEuropean studies, who first cited the “wonderful” and “mysterious” significant syllables of Indo-European and Proto-Sanskrit origin, which would give rise to the verb roots of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin: Wie der Mensch also zu jener Besonnenheit kam, das ist eine andere Frage; mit derselben aber, mit dem tiefen Gefühl und der Geistesklarheit, die war darunter verstehen, ist auch die Sprache gegeben; und zwar eine so schöne, kunstreiche Sprache als die, von der hier die Rede ist. Mit dem hellen Blick für die natürliche Bedeutung der Dinge, mit dem Feinen Gefühl für den ursprünglichen In his essay entitled Über die Sprache und Weisheit der Indier, “On the Language and Wisdom of India”, 1808, Book I, Charter V, pp. 64-65. 6

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Ausdruck aller Laute, welche der Mensch vermöge der Sprachwerkzeuge hervorbringen kann, war ja auch der feine bildende Sinn gegeben, der Buchstaben trennte und einte, die bedeuten Sylben, den eigentlich geheimnisvollen und wunderbaren Theil der Sprache, erfand und auffand, bestimmter und biegend veränderte, zu einem lebendigen Gewebe, das nun durch innere Kraft weiter fortwuchs und sich bildete. “The manner in which mankind attained such lofty perfection of reason and intelligence is a question of a different kind; but the same spirit, the same deep feeling and intelligence undoubtedly communicated itself to their language and it would be difficult to find any so skillfully and exquisitely framed as that of which we have been speaking.7 It combines the clear perception of the natural signification of things, - a delicate discrimination of the original sense and power of all those sounds which may be made the medium of communicating our ideas, - a fine imitative faculty for assorting and combining8 letters and significant syllables,9 those mysterious10 elements of language, and a power to invent, discover, determine, and, by the use of varied declension, transform the language into a living organization, ever advancing, and developing itself by its own internal strength and energy11”.

7

This refers to Sanskrit. Regarding the formation of the Sanskrit language, which came into being long before the invention of writing, I believe it wiser to speak of the union of “sounds” rather than the union of “letters”. In Sanskrit, the notion of “letters”, “alphabet” and “writing” is expressed with the term lipi, in which the initial consonant l is a relatively recent phonetic variant of the consonant r. 9 It was from the “significant syllables” of Indo-European and Proto-Sanskrit origin that the root verbs of Sanskrit, Greek and Latin arose. 10 It is the “mystery” that this dictionary seeks to unveil. 11 English translation by Ellen J. Millington, 1849. 8

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This dictionary tackles the question of the origin of the “wonderful significant syllables” cited by Schlegel, of recognizing their presence in Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, as well as unveiling the “mystery” hidden in their sounds. It is, furthermore, the aim of this work to demonstrate that the sounds of the Indo-European alphabet were not abstract conventions but, instead, regarded concrete things—real facts that happened every day on earth and in the starry sky. I expect to receive observations and criticisms and, of course, attempts at refutation from my readers, especially those who are Sanskrit, Greek and Latin scholars. This cannot but enrich the debate on the subject of Indo-European studies, which, to this day, deserves a more rigorous, lively and in-depth debate-a debate that my dictionary will hopefully foster. The Author I wish to extend my most heartfelt thanks to Miss Paola Pezzei for the invaluable help she has lent me in reorganizing and arranging this text.

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F.R

K cosmic, curvilinear and enveloping motion The consonant k was the symbol of the apparent curvilinear motion of celestial bodies in space and was viewed as being the motion of the creative energy of the universe made up of waters [ka] and light [ka]. It was an energy that also reflected and radiated from the heart of man, to love, kam, and to be happy, kaj. This developed into the Sanskrit roots kan, kal, kav, kāś, kṛ and kha. The root verb kal meant “to reach [al] with curvilinear movement [k]”, hence, observing the regularity of movements of stars in the sky (ancient Latin, kaelum: “to come toward with curvilinear movement”), Indo-European priests “calculated” (from the root kal: “to count celestial bodies and study their movements”) the months, days and years, both solar and lunar, in order to put together their religious calendar (kalendae, in Latin, was the first day of the lunar month), which served as a model for civil purposes as well. At the start of every lunar month, according to an ancient Roman tradition, the pontifex called out the new time. Afterward, the Rex, during a later assembly, made the people aware of the civil calendar in which the days were defined as being either fasti or nefasti. Other Latin words were created that were based on extraterrestrial phenomena and, so, came from the root kal. Thus were born words such as caligo, which referred to the “darkness” of the night sky; calor, which had to do with “solar rays”; clarus, which related to the “clarity” of sounds; color, as connected to the “colors of the rainbow”; celo, -are (originally kelare?) in relation to what is “immersed in darkness” (cf. kāla). Beyond the k, as we shall see, the other Indo-European consonants make reference to celestial phenomena or to an element that

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characterizes nature. The formation of the first Indo-European language was, in fact, entrusted to priest-astronomers who were given the task of translating their observations of stars and other extraterrestrial phenomena into sounds and words. On the other hand, proof that the Vedic priests’ cults arose from the observation of celestial phenomena has been given to us by Abel Bergaigne (op. cit. pp. IX ff) in his essay La religion védique d’après les hymnes du ṚgVeda (Vedic Religion before the Ṛg-Veda Hymns), in which he states: “The rites (these are the Aryan-Vedic rites performed by our IndoEuropean ancestors) are the true reproduction on earth of what transpires in the heavens”; “[…] the cult is an imitation of celestial phenomena”; “The cult elements are not pure symbols of the elements of celestial phenomena: they are identical to them in nature and, like them, draw their origin from the heavens”; “Not only is sacrifice an imitation of celestial phenomena, but the phenomena themselves are also considered akin to a sacrifice12”. In her essay Psychological Myth in Ancient India, Maryla Falk expresses an analogous concept, which can be summed up as follows: “in the performance of sacred rites, man’s mind retraces and reconstructs cosmic processes on earth. Vedic prophets search within their innermost selves for the origins of the universe that they sing of in their hymns.13 In other words, the life 12On

this theme it is interesting to quote the following passages from José Fernández Quintano’s preface to Giuseppe Sermonti’s book “L’alphabet scende dalle stelle” (The Alphabet Comes Down from the Stars): “[…] For centuries the heavens have been an open book, and man expected nothing more than to be able to comprehend the meaning of its signs (p. I)”; “[…] There was a concrete period of time, during which relations between man and the heavens were strong (p. I)”; “[…] For two thousand years man has lived by linking his fate, his hopes, his desperation to the movement of celestial bodies (p. III)”; “[…] A writing system which, let us not forget, had just been created, and the first thing that gets put into writing is no less than the interdependence of man and the cosmos, such as had been experienced in those times”. What this dictionary intends to demonstrate, beyond the semantic value of its sounds, is that the first alphabet, which came down from the stars, was the phonetic one thought up by Indo-European priests who were around several millennia prior to the invention of writing by the Phoenicians. 13The hymns of the Ṛg-Veda were largely composed in a region located far to the north of India, in the Arctic Circle, cf. Rendich op. cit. pp. 89 ff.

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of the cosmos is psychologically experienced by the Vedic sacrificer as the model that he self-identifies with. The waters of the luminous ocean, which flow above the vault of heaven, are the same as those of the waters of the inner ocean of the kāma (Love), which ripple in man’s heart: the waters of desire, the ardent waters of the psyche”. “Concealed within the heart of man,” writes Falk, “there is a grain smaller than a grain of barley. It can suddenly expand to a boundless extent, it can invade space, covering and enveloping it: this is the ātman14”. It is the offspring of this metaphysical thinking on the theme of the relationship between man and the universe, of thought tending toward “becoming everything by sensing everything15”, Vāc, “the Word”, whose original meaning was “spreads [v] all around [ac]”, and became the personification of the heavenly Word. Having inspired priests in the composition of their sacred hymns, it was venerated as the “mother of the Vedas”. According to these priest-grammarians, light took on the sound of the consonant d, water the sound n and, eventually, the other consonants became the symbols of the manifold manifestations of cosmic life, and of being in perfect harmony with it. Thereafter, the nature and the spirit of the universe found their expression in man’s voice. So it goes even today, as the universe recounts its life and history16 with Indo-European sounds. To transform the symbol k of “curvilinear motion” into a verb, the consonant is preceded by the vowel a, which indicated the start of curvilinear action and thus was born the verb ak.

is the initial moment of the journey [āt] of the ātman toward the brāhman so as to be absorbed and to become one with it. See M. Falk, op. cit., pp. 30 ff and p. LI of this dictionary. 15See M. Falk, op. cit., p. 13. For which the priest feels that he has become the universe: aham eva idaṃ sarvo’smi “I, in truth, am everything”. 16 Just as by their observation of the sky, Indo-European priest-astrologers were given the inspiration for the creation of their phonetic alphabet, so were Egyptian, Babylonian and Phoenician priest-astrologers for the invention of the signs or letters of their systems of writing a few thousand years later. Indeed, in 1533, Enrico Cornelio Agrippa, in his De Occulta Philosophia, wrote that the symbols of the alphabet “[…] were not the result of chance or man’s whim, but rather of divine intervention: they were agreed upon with the heavenly bodies […]” (cf. G. Sermonti, op. cit., p. 37). 14It

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Indo-European¹

“start [a] of a curvilinear, enveloping motion [k]”, “to round a point”, “to be pointed”, “to be sharp”, “to be on top” or “to sharpen”

ak

With the transposition of the k, such a root is also present in the form ka, in Greek ke. Sanskrit

a=a k=k

“to move tortuously” or “to move around a corner”

Greek

a = a/o² k = k /ks

Latin

a=a k=c

ak, akati

akonáō “to sharpen”, “to whet” akontízō “to throw a javelin”

acuo,-ere “to sharpen”, “to appoint” or “to whet”

akta “driven”

akḗ³ “a point”, “edge” akís “a point”, “barb”, “a pointed instrument” akmḗ “point”, “edge”, “the highest point of anything” ákmōn “anvil” akónē “whetstone” or “bone” ákra “the highest point”, “the top of the hull” or “peat” ákron “the height of a thing” ákros“at the end of the top”

acies “keenness”, “edge” aculeus “sting”, “point” acumen “the sharp point of anything” acus “needle” or “bodkin” acutus “sharpened”

aktu “ray” or “light” Compare ak with aṅk and añc.

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acinus “the rounded seed of the grape and the rounded pit of the cherry and peach”

áktī́ s “ray”, “bean”, “brightness” or “splendor” ákos “pointed tool that heals wounds”, “remedy” or “cure” panákeia “that which cures [ak da ákos] everything [pan]” or “panacea” aktḗ⁴ “point of land”, “beach” or “seashore” akoúō “to prick up [ak] one’s ears [oúō] ”, “to hear”, “to give ear to” or “to listen” akoḗ “cure”, “relief” or “remedy” aktaínō “to put in motion” akroáomai “to cock one’s ear” or “to listen carefully” oksýnō⁵ “to make sharp aceo,-ere “to be acid” or pointed” or “to sharpen” oksýs “sharp”, “keen”, acer, acris “sharp”, “cutting”, “pointed” “penetrating” oksýtēs “piercing”, or “keen” “sharpness”, “pointedness”, “pungency”

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oksytḗr “sharpener” oksýa “spear” okras “rugged”, “jagged”

óksynos⁶“bitter” or “pungent” óksos “vinegar” ὀksērós “of or for vinegar” ákantha “thorn”,

Sanskrit

k=k a=a

acetum “vinegar” acerbus “bitter” acidus “sharp” or “sour in taste” acanthus⁷ “thorny evergreen” or “Egyptian tree” ascia,-ae “axe”

“prickle”,“spine” akóntion “dart” or “javelin” ákōn “javelin” , “dart” ákaina “goad” aksínē “axe” or “battle-axe” Greek k=k a=e

The following Sanskrit and Greek terms confirm the transposition ak→ ka/ke: kaṇta “a thorn” kaṇtaka “anything pointed” kaṇtakin “thorny”

kentéō “to prick with a needle” kéntēma⁸ “a point” kéntron “point”, “prickle”, “spike” or “the center of a circle” kestós⁹ “embroidered” or “girdle”

¹ If we compare the words of Proto-Germanic and Germanic languages, which flourished during the first millennium AD, with the verb roots of Vedic Sanskrit, which is the oldest maternal branch of the Indo-European

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genealogical tree, born around 5000 BC, we will notice that not even a drop of its blood flows in their veins. This is not so much because of the time and space that separates their origin as it is due to Indo-European words, as we shall see, recounting natural events through the particular meanings of sounds and communicating men's thoughts and feelings, whereas Germanic words were random and arbitrary unions of letters. With the spread in northern Europe of Christianity, and with it of Greek and Latin, which are late dialect versions of Proto-Sanskrit, phenomena of borrowings, hybridizations and contaminations between Indo-European and Germanic words often took place. However, they did not occur to the extent of erasing the latter's Gothic or German dimension. Indo-European being called Indo-Germanic by German scholars thus appears to be historically groundless, or better stated, an outright improper appropriation. ² P. Chantraine (op. cit., p. 43), in confirmation of the original meaning of the Indo-European root ak writes that in Greek, and in many of its derivatives, it represents the idea of “tip” or "point".

³ As seen in the preface, the Greek verbs akéō and akéomai “to cure”, “to medicate” or “to heal”, as well as the terms ákesis “cure” and ákos “remedy”, had their origin in akḗ “point” and refer to the use of sharp surgical needles to close wounds. ⁴ On the seaside. ⁵ Oksýs + morós (fool) mean “sharp and stupid”, that is, “oxymoron”. ⁶ From the meaning of “rounded point” or “pointed” came the notion of “pungent” and “penetrating” flavor. ⁷ Layout used in Corinthian capitals. ⁸ The abstract notions of “point” and “center” arose from the concrete one of “point” (cf. ak, ka and ke). ⁹ Before the dental, the stem kent- becomes kes-.

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Indo-European

akṣ

“to set in motion [a-] a curvilinear movement [kṣ] ”, “to connect [sa] a curvilinear motion in space [ak] ”, “to move all around”, “to move in a circle” or “to move in every direction”

It is a secondary form of aś, aśnoti, as also with nakṣ, nakṣati, “to reach” or “to obtain” (in a concrete or moral sense). Sanskrit

a=a k=k ṣ=ṣ

akṣ, akṣati “to obtain”, “to reach”, “to persuade” or “to embrace” akṣa “axle”, “axis” or “wheel”

Greek

a = a/o k = k/p/ph¹ ṣ = s/t/th

áksōn “axle”, “wheel”, “the axis of the heavens” or “pole” aktī́ s “ray of light”

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Latin

a = a/o kṣ = x/c

axis “axle” The meaning was “to set in motion a curvilinear movement”.

akṣi “the eye” Comparing akṣa to akṣi, their nexus with ṣaṣ ‘six’ (formerly ṣakṣ) becomes clear. In Sanskrit, akṣi, thus refers to a look cast in the six directions (north, south, east, west, zenith and nadir). The root is, moreover, connected to īkṣ, īkṣate “to see” and cakṣ, caṣṭe, “to appear”, “to see” or “to observe”

oktallós “the eye” ophthalmós¹ “the eye” (p + th = phth) optikḗ “the art of seeing” optikós “the art of what is visible” optḗr “one who looks after” or “spy” optílos “the eye” kátoptron² “mirror” optasía “view” or “vision” optós “visible”

sakṣin [sa + akṣin]³ “one who has seen with one’s own eyes”, “an eyewitness”, “witness” or “the Ego” sakṣitva “testimony” or “attestation”

oculus “the eye” In Greek and Latin, the transformation of the Indo-European vowel a into o is not rare. optice “the art of visible things” or “optics”

opḗ “vision”, “from which we see”, “hole” ōpḗ⁴ “sight”, “appearance” optós “visibile”, "seen" opōpḗ “sight”, “view”, “power of seeing” or “sight” ṓps “the eye” ópsis “face”, “appearance”, “sight” pratīkṣa [prati + īkṣ] prósōpon⁵ “he who is persona, ae⁶ “mask”, “looking [īkṣa] forward in front of [pros] he “character” to [prati]”, who is looking or “person” “consideration” or [ōpon]” or “mask” “respect” pratīka “appearance” or “face”

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aksía “value”, “worth” áksios “of like value”, “worth” or “worthily” aksióō “to think worthily” or “to esteem” axioma “axiom” aksíōma “esteem”, “reputation” or “rank” ¹ In Greek, in an early phase of its development, the pronunciation of the guttural k shifted to the pronunciation of the labial p (cf. A. Meillet, op. cit. p. 59). ² From kathoráō “to watch” or “to see”. ³ The “witness” is whoever, in relation to a fact, can say he has seen it “with his own eyes” or “remembers it”, to be aware. Sanskrit, with sākṣin, uses the first accepted meaning, while Greek employs the second one, given that mártys derives from the root smṛ “to remember” (cf. p. 641). The Romans thought of a “witness” as a “third party” who was aware of a fact. The Latin term testis indeed derives from the ancient Latin forms tri-stis and ter-stis, that is, “he who acts as a third party”. It is worth noting that the witness par excellence in Indo-European was a god. In the Vedas, the god was Agni, who was ever present at meetings between two people to guarantee the keeping of any word given. ⁴ Kalliópē (kállos+opḗ) “from the beautiful look”, “beautiful to behold”. ⁵Note that métōpon “space between the eyes” is the forehead in Greek. ⁶While the Greek term prósopōn referred to the actor that, wearing a mask, appeared before [pros] the theatergoers’ eyes [ōpon, from ṓps and ópōpa “to see”], the Latin compound persona, in which the first element, per, is intensive of the second element, sona, instead referred to the fact that the actor was compelled to raise his voice [sono,-are] in order to be heard by audience members in the most distant reaches of the theater.

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Indo-European

aṅk

“to move turning [k]” or “to turn”

The root is connected to añc, añcati (“to move around”): the ṅ is a nasalization. Sanskrit

a=a ṅ=ṅ k=k aṅk, aṅkate “to move in a curve”, “to move around a corner” or “to turn” an-aṅk "does not [an] curve [aṅk]" aṅkas “curve” or “bend” aṅka “a hook”, “a crooked instrument” or “the curve in the human figure above the hip” aṅkin “possessing a hook” aṅkuśa “a hook”

Greek

a=a Latin ṅ = g¹ k=k agkylóō “to crooked” agkázomai “to lift up in the arms” anagkázō “to embrace tightly” or “to constrain”

a = a/u ṅ=n k=c

ágkos “bend²”, “a hollow”, “dell” or “valley”

uncus “hook,” “bent like a hook” or “hooked” agkálē “the bent arm” ancon “elbow” agkṓn “a bend or ancus ³ “curved” hollow of the arm”, mancus (m+ancus) “elbow” or “any bend, “with curved hand”, as an angle” "lacking” or “crippled” ágkistron “fish hook” (thence, the Italian ágkyra “anchor” “manco” (uneven), agkýlos “crooked”, “manchevole” “curved” or “hooked” (lacking), and anágkē⁴ “constriction”, “mancino” (lefthanded) “necessity”, “force majeure” or “destiny” aduncus “left-handed” or “hooked” ancora “anchor”

¹ The g is the nasal gamma of the Ionic and Attic alphabets and here it replaces the nasal Indo-European ṅ from the Sanskrit root aṅk, which confirms that Greek and Sanskrit were dialects belonging to the same linguistic community. ² Especially of the arm.

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³ See p. 10, P. Festo, op. cit. ⁴ Going back to the compound an + agk + ē, its derivation is clear from the IndoEuropean root aṅk. In Greek, the link of the term is with agkálē “arm” and agkýlos “hooked”. The original meaning of anágkē was thus “that which embraces by impeding movements" or “that which hooks”. Therefore, the original meaning of anágkē was “embrace that impedes movement” or “that which hooks”.

Indo-European

īṅkh

Sanskrit

“motion [k] with continuous [ī] shifts in movement [h] ”, “to swing” or “to move back and forth”

ī=ī ṅ=ṅ k=k h=h

īṅkh, īṅkhati “to go”, “to move”, “to move backward and forward”, “to move up and down” or “to swing” (the ṅ is a nasal)

Indo-European

ukṣ

Sanskrit

“to move around [kṣ] with strength [u] ”, “to strengthen”, “to grow” or “to be strong” (cf. vakṣ)

u=u kṣ = kṣ

Greek

u=y kṣ = g

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Latin

u=u kṣ = g (drops)

ukṣ, ukṣati “to sprinkle or scatter in small drops” ukṣan “ox” or “bull”

hygraínō “to wet”, “to moisten” or “to water hygrós “wet”, “moist” or “liquid” hygrēdṓn “humidity”

uvesco, -ere¹ “to become moist” or “to be wet” uvens, -entis “moist” uvidus “moist” or “wet”

¹ From the ancient uveo “to be wet.” Originally, ugveo. Indo-European

ka¹

Sanskrit

“that achieves [-a] a curvilinear motion [k] ”, “water” or “light”

k=k a=a ka² “water”, “light”, “happiness” or “joy” Ka³ name given to Hiraṇyagarbha in a hymn of the Ṛg-Veda.

Greek

k = k/kh a=a kándaros⁴ “brilliant”

Latin

k = c/qu a=a candeo,-ere “to be of a shining white”, “to shine” or “to glitter” (a)qua “water” candidus “shining”, “white” or “glitter white” candor “white color”

¹ The ancient Indo-Europeans believed that the substance that revolved above the Earth’s atmosphere was a thin material essentially made up of water and light. Water and light originally took their names from their curvilinear movement in space, k. As a result, the Sanskrit word ud-aka “water” first meant “what circles [aka] on high [ud]” and the verb kāś “to sparkle” or “to shine” expressed the relationship [aś] between cosmic movements of light [ka].” From this came the term ākāśa, “luminous space”, “ether” or, rather, “light [kāśa] for every place [ā]”. In Indo-European (and in Sanskrit), the waters are called ka because it was from the primordial ocean, as seen earlier, that the light [ka] of Eka came out [i/e] - Eka the Absolute Spirit, the One. Furthermore, they are called n/na/nā because it was by their moving forward [j] through space that they “came to know [jnā]” all things existing

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in the universe and “created life [jan]”. Lastly, they are called ap (pl. āpas), since they are āpo mātaraḥ, “maternal”, and since they came down to earth to purify [pū] and protect [pā, pṛ] the body and soul of living beings. ² The phoneme ka reveals in Sanskrit the primordial Indo-European emotive man-sky interaction, see kan “to rejoice”, kā “to desire”, kam “to love”, kāś “to be visible” or “to shine”, eka “the rising [e] of the light [ka] (in the cosmic waters) ”, udaka “that circles [aka] high above [ud] ”, “water”, etc. ³Is the name given to the “luminous waters”, origin of Eka, the One, and the byname of Hiraṇyagarbha “the seed [garba] borne [hira] by the waters [n] where it resides [ya]”, also called Prajāpati “the Lord of the Creatures”. ⁴Si noti il legame con il verbo sanscrito cand, candati "il cerchio [ca] di acque [n] luminose [d]", "splendere", da cui venne la parola candra "luna".

Indo-European

kac [k + ac]

“motion that envelops [k] all around [ac]” or “to bind”

The root is present in the nasalized form kañc. Sanskrit

k=k a=a c=c

kac, kacate “to bind” kaca “the hair”

kañc, kañcate “to bind” kañcuka “corselet” or “armor” kāñcī “a girdle” (with small bells and ornaments)

Latin

k=c a = i¹ ñ=n c=g cingo,-ere “to fasten round”, “to envelop”, “to surround”, “to encircle” cinctus “girdle” cingulum “belt” or “girdle”

¹ As already seen with ignis, the alternation a/i is not unusual in Latin.

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Indo-European

“the advance [j] of joy [ka]” or “to be happy”

kaj [ka + j]

Sanskrit

k=k a=a j=j

kaj, kajati

“to be happy”

Indo-European

kan [k + an]¹

“to breathe [an] with an enveloping motion [k] ”, “to play music”, “to sing” or “to rejoice”

It is connected to the root kā, which is found in Vedic Sanskrit. Sanskrit

k=k a=a n=n

Greek

k = k/kh a = a/ai n=n

kaṇ, kaṇati “to sound” khaínō “to open the or “to cry” mouth” kháskō “to open the mouth” kainízō “to do something new”

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Latin

k=c a = a/e n=n

cano,-ere “to sing” canto,-are² “singing”

kaṇṭha³ “throat”, khandón “with mouth canor,-oris “melody”, “neck” or wide open” “song”, “sound” “voice” khános “mouth” canticum “canticle” kaṇṭhaka “an ēikanós “singing cantor,-oris “a singer”, ornament [kanós] before dawn “poet”, “musician” for the [éōs]”, “cock” cantus⁴ “song”, neck” “melody”, “poetry” kaṇṭhya⁴ “pronounced carmen,-inis “song”, from the “tune”, “poem”, throat” or “erotic verse” or “guttural” “magic formula” kan, kanati “to be kaínos “new” recens,-entis (re+cens) pleased” “newly arrived”, kanā “young” or “fresh” or “recent” “youthful” kanīna “young” kanyā “girl” or “virgin” ¹ The meaning was “to breathe deeply”, thence “to sing”, “to play music” and “to be happy”. ² Iterative-intensive of canere. ³They are all terms correlated to “breath” and “sound”. ⁴ The link between “to breathe”, “to sing” and “to make a noise” is very close.

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Indo-European

kam [ka+m] “the union between divine light [ka] and the finite reality [m]¹ of man”, “the measure [m] of the relationship with divine light [ka]”, “encounter between the infinite [ka] and the finite [m]”or “to love” Sanskrit

k=k k=k a=a ā=a m=m kam² “to wish”, “to desire” or “to long for” kā ³ “to seek”, “to desire”

Latin

k = (k) a=a m=m (k)amo,-are “to love passionately or fondly”

kāma⁴ “wish”, “desire” or “love” amor, -oris “love” Kāma “love or desire personified” amans, antis “loving”, “fond”, “affectionate” or kāmasūtra “aphorisms on sexual “lover” love” kam “well” (akam “ill”) kamra “loving” or “being in love” kānta “desired” or “loved” kānti “loveliness” or “female beauty” kāmya “desirable” or “lovely” kāmana “sensual” or “lustful” ¹ Note that finite and mortal reality is created by mātṛ́, “mother,” a term that derives from the root mā, “to measure” or “to delimit”. ² In Indo-European linguistics, love is the meeting between the holy spirit of the cosmic luminous waters [ka], in which was born Eka, the One, and the carnal limit [m] of the human soul, or rather it is the dovetailing of the eternal [ka] in the temporal [m]. Note that at the’beginning of the Vedic Creation, before Eka's birth, the cosmic waters were dark and the Indo-European symbol attributed to them was na (cf. F. Rendich, op. cit., p. 28). ³ Kā “envelops [k] completely [ā] ”, “desire” or “pleasure”. The verb kā had the same meaning as kan and kam, both of which were originally the same root (cf. W. D. Whitney, op. cit. 1885, p. 17). ⁴ Kāma, in other words, is the “human measure [m] of divine light [ka]”.

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Indo-European

kal [k + al]

“arrives [ṛ/al] with curvilinear motion [k]”, “to make a noise all around”, or “to call”

It can also be found in the forms kla and kra. Sanskrit k=k k=k a=a l=l l=l a=a kal, kalate “to sound”

Greek k=k k=k a=a l/r = l/al//el/r l=l a = a/e/i/o kalḗō “to call”, “to invite” or “to call by name”

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Latin k=c a = a/e/ae/o l=l

k=c l=l a=a

calo, -are “to call”, “to convene” concilium [con+cal+ium]³ “convocation”, “meeting” or “assembly”

kland, klandati “to call” The Sanskrit roots krand and kruś are also seen. They always mean “to reach [r/l] around, with an enveloping motion [k]”. The root kal, also in the variant initials kr and kl, refers most of all to the “reaching” and “spreading” of a voice that “calls”, to the lament of “weeping”, to the noise of a “shout,” a veil that “covers” or a “rounded” form.

keleúō “to exhort” keladéō “to murmur”, “a loud shouting,” “to cry” or “to sing” ekklēsía¹ “assembly” or “church” kélados “noise” klḗsis “calling” or “invitation” krízō “to creak”, “to screech” or “to squeak” krotéō “to clash”, “to strike” or “to clap the hands” krótos “sound of striking” or “noise” kroúō “to knock”, “to strike” or “to clap” klázō “to make a sound” klaggḗ “any sharp, quick sound”

clamo,-are “to call”, “to shout”, “to cry aloud” or “to acclaim” clamor, oris “loud shouting” “clear” or “loud” classis[cla+ssis] "call [kal/cla] to arms", "a division", "class" clarus²

classicus "relating to the classes", "of the highest class"

clango,-ere “to shout”

¹ An assembly of citizens summoned by the crier. ² Note that in Latin the term “clarus” referred to the “sound of the voice”, hence the original meaning of declaro, -are was “to make a noise with the voice”. ³ For euphonic reasons, Latin often transforms the Indo-European a into i, see ignis from agni, etc.

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Indo-European

kal [k + al] “the arrival [ṛ/ar/al]

of cosmic motion [k]” “to announce the time”, “to enunciate numbers” or “to count”

Sanskrit

k=k a=a l=l kal, kālayati¹ “to announce the time” or “to count” kāla² “a space of time” or “time” kalā “a division of time” sakala [sa + kalā] “divisible”, “complete”, “entire”, “whole” or “everything” kali³ “the last of four Yugas” kalikā “the sixteenth part of the moon” Kālī the name of the śakti of Śiva, the goddess symbolizing eternal time, who could grant or take life.

Greco

k=k a/ā = ai l=r kairós “right time”, “favorable time to seize an occasion”, “time”, “good season” kaírios “in an opportune time” kairikós “of time”, “of the season”

Latino k = k/c a=a l=l kalendae,-arum “to announce the time” or “calendar” calculo, -are “calculate”

¹ In Latin the noun kalendae (thence kalendarius), which indicated the first day of the month, originated from the root kal “to count”. When the pontifex “called” the day of the nonae, starting from which nine days would be “co unted” to establish the day of the ides, Idus, which would fall on the 13th or 15th of the month. With the “call” of the fifth day of the month, the ides would fall on the 13th, whereas with the “call” of the seventh day they would fall on the 15th (as in March, May, July and October).

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²It is the measure of a segment of the apparent rotation of the celestial sphere. ³ According to the earliest Hindu method of time calculation, Kali-yuga is the present age, having begun on February 18, 3102 BC and made up of 1,200 god years and 432,000 human years. This is the last of the four ages in which the period of cosmic manifestation takes place (manvantara, the period of Manu): Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kālī. Indo-European

kal [k + al]¹

Sanskrit

“to reach [ṛ/ar/al] with curvilinear motion [k]”, “to go in a circle”, “what forms a curve or rounds off”, “to turn”, “what envelops or covers”, “cup”, “veil”, “color”, etc.

k=k a=a l=l kalaśa² “weather-pot”, “pitcher,” “jar” or “round pinnacle”

Greek k = k/kh k = p Latin k=c a = a/y/o a = e/o a = a/o l=l l=l l=l kályks “the cup or calix “goblet” or calyx of a flower” “drinking kýliks “cup” or vessel” “drinking-cup”

kalama “a reed for kálamos “reed”, writing with” “cane” or kāla “black” or “writing-reed” “dark blue” kalīá “bird’s nest” kalýbē “hut” or “cabin” It is the color of the sky kálymma “covering”, that has not been “veil” or illuminated by the sun. “grove” kolōnós “hill” or “heap of stones”

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calamus “reed”, “writing reed” or “pen” caleo,-are “to be warm” calidus “warm” or “hot” caligo “fog”, “mist” or “vapor” calor “warmth” or “heat” calvus “bald” collis “hill” collum “the neck”

¹ The form al is a variant of ar, strengthening of the root ṛ, “to move toward” and “and to move toward the top.” This is why the Greek kolōnós expresses a curvilinear motion [k] toward the top [ṛ/al]. With the transposition of r/l, the root develops into the forms kla and kra (kle, kry, khr in Greek). ² In the Hitôpadeśa, “beneficial verses”, an ancient Indian collection of fables, the breasts of a woman are compared, I believe for the first time, to chalices. kalýptō “to cover”, celo, -are “to hide”, “to conceal” or “to conceal” “to put over as or “to keep secret” a covering” clepo,-ere “to steal” or apokálypsis “to conceal “away [apo] what is oneself” hidden [kalýptō]” or clepta, ae “thief” “revelation” kléptō “to steal”, “to deceive” or “to keep secret” kléptēs “thief” klopós “thief” klopḗ “theft” Greek k = k Latin k=c r = r/l al = la a = e/ē/y (by krýptō “to hide”, metathesis) “to cover” or “to conceal” kryptós “hidden” or “secret” kryptḗ “a covered place”, “vault”, “crypt” kryptikós “apt to hide” krýpsis “hiding” or “concealment”

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“to shut”, “to shut up” or “to close” klḗzō “to shut” kleís “key” kleíō

claudo,-ere “to shut” or “to close” clausola,-ae “end” or “conclusion” claustrum “a means of closing or shutting in” clavis “key” clavus “that closes”, “nail”

khrṓzō “to tinge” or “to taint” khrṓs “the skin”, “the color of the skin” or “complexion” khrō̃ma “fleshcolored” khroiá “the skin”, “the color of the skin” or “color” There is a great deal of evidence to suppose that in the semantic area of this root and its variants kla and kra, the Greek kalýptō “to cover” (from kal) reappears as well as kléptō “to steal” or “to hide” and krýptō “to hide” (from kra). And the Latin celo, -are “to hide” or “to conceal”, which the word color “color” is connected to in its original meaning of “added” quality, located, that is, “above the object” (which thus remains “covered”, as in the case of the Sanskrit term vaṛna, which means “color” but also “covering”, from the root vṛ “to cover”). Also belonging to this semantic area are the Greek verb khrṓzō “to color” or “to dye” and the nouns khrō̃ma and khrṓs “color of the skin”, “complexion” or “skin”. The reference to the “skin” and, at the same time, to its “color” would make one think that it was considered a colored surface that covered the epidermis. pélomai “to be in motion”, “to go or come”, “to exist” or “to become” poléō “to go about” or “to turn up” pólos “axis on which something

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turns”, “the axis of the globe”, “pole” or “the vault of heaven”

Indo-European

kal [k + al]

Sanskrit

“to reach [ṛ/ar/al] while moving [k]”, “to push”, “to incite”, “to shake up” or “to provoke”

k=k a=a l=l kal, kalayati “to impel” or “to incite” kal, kālayati “push forward”, “ward off”, “persecute” kalita “impelled”

kaluṣin “evil”, “wicked”

Greek

k=k a = e/ē l=l kēléō “to enchant”, “to captivate”, “to corrupt” keleúō “to urge on”, “to exhort” or “to order” kélomai¹ “to urge on”, “to exhort” or “to cheer on” kéllō “to drive on” or “to push ashore” kélēs “courser”, “racehorse” or “fast sailing vessel” théskelos “set in motion [kelos] by a god [theós] ”, “godlike” or “marvelous” kēlētḗs “cheat”

¹ Poetic form of the verb keleúō . ² From calumnus, past participle of calvor.

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Latin

k=c a = a/e l=l celer, eris “swift”, “quick” or “rapid” celero,-are “to make quick” or “to hasten” celox “swift vessel”

calvor, eris, calvi [calu+or] “to deceive” calumnia² “false accusation”, “slander”

Indo-European

kal [k + al]

Sanskrit

kalyāṇa

“to reach [ṛ/ar/al] by the motion of the stars [k]” or “beauty”

k=k a=a l=l “beautiful”, “happy”, “lucky” or “heaven”

Greek k = k a=a l=l kalós “beautiful” or “fair” kállos “beauty” kallýnō “to beautify” or “to adorn”

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Indo-European

kav [k + av]

Sanskrit

“movement [k] that offers up hymns to [av]”, “to offer up hymns [av] all around [k]”, “to sing the praises of”, “to offer up hymns to the gods”, “to write poetry”, “to watch over”

k=k a=a v=v kav, kavate “to praise”, “to describe (as a poet)” or “to compose (as a poet)” kavi “poet”, “singer”, “prophet” kavya “wise man”, “sacrificial priest” or “priest who praises the gods by offering up hymns”

Greek k = k/p a = o/oi v = ϝ (drops) koéō² “to perceive”, “to understand” or “to sense”

k = c/f¹ a=a v=v caveo,-ere “to guard against” or “to be on guard” faveo,-ere “to favor” epikouréō “to come cautus “who is on aid” guard”, “prudent” or epíkouros “helping” “cautious” or “ally” incautus “who dose Epíkouros “Epicurus” not pay attention”, epikoúreios“epicurean” “incautious” poiéō³ “to make”, favor, oris “favor”, “to produce” “good will” poiētós “made” or or “support” “worked” poíēma “work” or poema, atis “poem” “poetical work” poesis “poetry” poíēsis “the art of poeta, -ae “maker” or poetry”, “poem” “poet” poiētḗs “maker” or “poet” poeticus "poetic" poiētikós “poetic” poetica " the art of poiētik “the art of poetry ", "poetry" poetry” ¹ The connection between the Indo-European gutturals k and kh, g and gh with the Latin f is plausible both phonetically speaking as well as semantically (cf. note 3 on p. 188). ² This denominative rests on –koϝ-…. Mycenaean offers some nominal forms in – koωo-, such as epíkoωoi “caretakers” (cf. Meillet, op. cit. p. 551). ³ In the final stage of its development Greek has a tendency of labial pronunciation, thus k tends to shift to p (cf. A. Meillet, op. cit., § 83).

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Latin

Indo-European

kā

“effect [a] of light [ka]”, “desire” or “love”

kāṉs

“similar [s] to light [ka]”, “to gleam” or “to shine”

Sanskrit

kā¹ kāṉs, kāṉsate¹

k=k ā=ā

k=k ā=ā ś=ś

“to desire” or “to love” “to gleam” or “to shine”

¹ The Indo-European link between light, desire and love is readily apparent. See the relationship between kan, eka and kāma. The ṉ is a nasal. Indo-European

kāś [ka + aś] 1. “what offers [aś] light [ka]”, “to shine”, “to appear” or “to manifest” 2.“link [ś] to luminous space [ka]¹”, “luminous space” or “universe”

Sanskrit

k=k ā=ā ś=ś kāś, kāśate “to shine”, “to be visible” or “to appear” kāśa “the act of becoming visible” or “appearance” kāśi “shining” or “the sun” kāśin “that shines” or “that appears” kāśiṣṃ “that shines” or “that gleams” kāśī “the shining”, “the city of Vārāṇasī”, “Benares” kāca “what shines”, “glass” or “crystal” ākāśa¹ “open space”, “sky” or “ether”

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kāṃsya

“that which shines”, “amalgam of zinc and copper” or “brass”

¹ The initial ā can mean “until” or “from”, or it can be samantāt and means “completely” or “all around”.

Indo-European

ku

“persistence [u] of a contorted movement [k]”, “bad” or “contorted”

Sanskrit

k=k u=u

Greek

k=k u=a ku “bad” kakón “evil” In the sense of “contorted” or “not kakós “bed”, “ill” or “evil” straight”. It is used as a prefix. kakía "badness" kakóō “to treat badly” kukara “having a crooked hand” kakýnō “to damage” or kucara “a wicked man” “to behave badly” kutanu “deformed” kakótēs “badness” or “wickedness” kudhī “foolish” or “a fool” kákōsis “ill treatment”, Kubera “the leader of the devils or “distress” or spirits of darkness” “damage” kumāra “when death [māra] is bad [ku]” or “a child” kurūpa “deformed” or “ugly”

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Indo-European

kuc, kuñc [ku + c]

Sanskrit

k=k u=u c=c kuc, kocati “to bend” or “to make curved” kuca “what curves” or “female breast” kuñc, kuñcati “to curl” or “to curve” kuñcikā “a key” kuñcita “crooked”, “curved” or “bent”

“what moves [k] all over [c]”, “to curl” or “to curve”

Greek

k=g u=y c=r gỹros “round”, “ring” or “circle”

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Latin

curvus

k=c u=u c=r “bent”

Indo-European

kup

“to move in a contorted way”, “to be excited”, “to crave”, “to grab”, “to take” or “to seize”

The p is an enlargement. Sanskrit

k=k u = u/a p=p

kup, kupyati,-te “to be excited” or “to be agitated”

Greek

k=k u=o p=p

“to strike,” “to smite” or “to cut” koláptō "martellare", "intagliare" kólaphos "colpo" kóptō

kupaya “swelling with kopḗ “a striking” or emotion” “a cutting in kapaṭī “the capacity pieces” of the hollows kopís “chopper”, of the two hands “cleaver” or joined” “bill-hook” kópos “a striking”, “trouble” or “pain” kóptos “beaten” kómma “struck or cut”, “short clause” or “coin” diakoptikós “apt to cut” kṓpē “any handle”, “the handle of a sword” or “oar”

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Latin

k=c u = a/u p=p

cupio,-ere “to desire”, “to long for” or “to wish for” capio, -ere¹“to take” or “to seize” incipio,-ere “to undertake” or “to begin” cupiditas “eager desire” or “passionate longing” cupidus “desirous”, “eager” or “keen” Cupido² “longing”, “desire” or “the god of love” principium³ “a beginning origin”, “in the beginning” or “at first” colaphus “colpo di pugno” colpus “colpo”

¹ The verb capio is employed in numerous acceptations that are more or less all found in the Greek semantic correspondent lambánō, from the root labh (see A. Meillet, op. cit., p. 95). To explain the a of capio, see the Sanskrit kapaṭī, which has the meaning of “to contain in both hands”. ²Cupido me cepit “Cupid has seized control of me”. ³ From primus + capere. Indo-European

kṛ [k + ṛ/ar/ra] 1. “to carry out [ṛ/ar/ra] a movement in space [k]”, “to do”, “to accomplish”, “to make a sacrifice”, “to act” or “to create” 2. to produce a sound”, “to pronounce”

Sanskrit

k=k Greek k = k ṛ = ṛ/ar/ra/ri ṛ = ar/ēr/ra

kṛ, kṛṇoti¹ “to do”, “to make”, “to perform” or “to sacrifice” kara “doer”, “maker”, “hand” or “the act of doing” karaṇa “action” or “instrument” kāraṇa “cause”, “reason” or “means” vyākaraṇa“distinction”, “grammar” 1. kāru “a maker” or “artisan” 2. kāru “singer”, “poet”

Latin

k=c ṛ = r/aer

creo,-are “to make” “to or accomplish”, “to create” “to fulfill”, creator “the creator” “to execute” or caerimonia “holiness”, “to result in” “sacredness” kratéō “to be strong or “sacred and mighty”, ceremony” “to rule”, “to be lord of” or “to conquer” kratýnō “to strengthen”, “to become strong”, “to rule” or “to conquer” kē̃ryks “herald”, “messenger” kḗrygma “announce”, “message” kraínō

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kratu “plan”, “design”, “intention”, “will”, “intelligence”, “inspiration” or “power” karman (Karma)² “act”, “action”, “religious act,” “rite” or “the object”

krátos “strength”, “might” or “force” kártos “strength”, “vigor” or “courage” karterós “strong”, “brave” or “valiant” kraterós “strong”, “might”, “valiant” or “solid” káryon “the nut”

kartṛ́ “doer”, “creator”, kratýs “strong” or “maker”, “agent”, “mighty” “author” or “subject” akrasía³ karmakara “workman” “intemperance” or karmakāra “blacksmith” “immoderacy” karmāra “artisan” or “mechanic” antara-kratu "that has enkráteia “dominion of interior oneself” [antara] force [kratu]" kriyā “act” or “action” Kriyā “religious rite”, “sacrificial act” karmadhāraya “bearing [dhāraya] a development [karma]”, “adverb” kṛta “done”, “made” or “performed” kṛti “the act of doing” or “action” kṛtya “to be done” or “duty” sukara“easy to be done” duṣkara “hard to be

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done” vikṛ “to make different” or “to cause to change” vyākṛ “to separate from” or “to explain” svīkṛ “to make one’s own” or “to choose” ¹ In the sense of “to make a sacrifice”, Casabona likens kṛ to the Homeric Greek érdō (cf. op. cit., p. 301). The compound samskṛ “to make together” or “to compose” lies at the origin of the word saṃskrita “Sanskrit”. ² In Buddhism, the term karman (or karma) indicates the strength of man’s actions that, according to their good-bad quality, accumulate those merits, or demerits, which lead him down the road to one of the six kinds of future beings: 1. gods (are those of Hinduism, therefore neither omnipotent nor immortal); 2. men; 3. demons; 4. animals; 5. specters; 6. denizens of the nether regions, prey to their torments. The first two ways are good, while the last four are bad. The same Buddha, before “freeing himself of his corporeal life”, jīvan-mukta, and before “gaining control over Himself”, upādāna, transmigrated 24 times into the bodies of as many previous Buddhas, thus attaining, only by these means, his ultimate nirvanic extinction (cf. M.M.Williams, Buddhism, op. cit., pp. 108 ff.). ³ Krasía is the moral strength that exercises control over the body.

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Indo-European

kṝ [k +ṝ] “to move [k] toward the outside [ṝ]”, 1. “to pour out”; 2. “to display one’s states of mind”, “to have pity”, “to feel compassion” or “to identify oneself with”

Sanskrit

k=k ṝ = ṝ/ar

Greek k=k ṝ = er

1. kṝ, kirati(-te) “to pour out”, “to scatter”, “to throw” or “to throw off from oneself”

kernō̃ “pour to drink”

2. kṝ, kirate “to feel compassion” or “to identify oneself with” karuṇa¹ “pity” or “compassion” apakaruṇa “without pity” or “cruel” karuṇa puṇḍarīka “the white lotus of compassion” or “name of a Buddhist work”

¹ There is a close relationship between the Sanskrit karuṇa and the Greek verb keránnymi (note that the Greek root ker corresponds to kṝ) in the sense of an action aimed at “mitigating” and “tempering” human suffering. See p. 586.

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Indo-European

kṛt [kṛ + t] Sanskrit

“to act [kṛ] between two points [t]”, “to cut”, “to divide” or “to gather”

k=k ṛ=ṛ t=t

Greek k = k/p ṛ = ar/eir/or/er/el/la/lē t = -/p kṛt, kṛntati “to cut” or keírō “to clip”, “to divide” “to cut short” or kṛ, kṛṇatti “to twist” “to cut out” or “to weave” kṛtā “a cut in a kláō¹ “to break off” mountain” or klḗros “branch broken “abyss” off for the drawing of karta “hole”, straws”, “fate” or “cavity” or “inheritance” “separation” klērikós² “concerning inheritance” karpāsa “cotton” kárpasos “a fine flax” karpóō “to bear fruit” 1. karpós³ “fruit” 2. karpós “the joint of the arm and hand” or “the wrist” karṇa “separate from kourá “a clipping or the head” or clipping of “the ear” the hair or beard” karṇaka “separate koureýs “hair-cutter” from”, “earring” or or “barber” “handle” kourízō “to prune” or kartana “the act of “to lop” cutting off” kartari “scissors”, “knife” or “any instrument for cutting”

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Latin

k=c ṛ = ar/or/ur/ul t = t/p

curto,-are “to pluck” or “to shorten” carpo,-ere “to pluck” clades “breaking” cratis “wattle” curtus “shortened” or “mutilated” clericus “heir to the ecclesiastical tradition” or “clergyman” carbasus “fine Spanish flax (linen or cotton)”

cortex,-icis “that gets cut”, “bark” or “rind”

culter “knife”

carman “hide”, “skin” pélma⁴ “soled shoes” caro, carnis “flesh” carmakāra corium⁵ “skin” or “shoemaker” “leather” kṛtti “what one cuts cutis⁶ “the skin of a away from an man” or “leather” animal” or “skin” ¹ Especially a branch of a tree. ² It is interesting to observe the etymological path that, starting from klḗros, “branch”, led to klērikós. Branches were used to draw lots to decide on the possession of goods and land. From this came the concept of “inheritance” of such goods and the subsequent notion of clericus as “heir” to a religious tradition. ³ “Fruit or flowers what gets cut off of a tree”. ⁴ K=p; ṛ = el; ma is a nominal suffix. See the Latin pellis “skin,” thence pelliceus “made of skin” or “pelt”. ⁵In the sense of “what is cut off” or “what is detached”. Indo-European

1. kṛp [kṛ + p]

“to give form [kṛ] to what is pure [p]” or “to make sacred rites resplendent”

Sanskrit

k= k Latin k=c ṛ=ṛ ṛ = or p=p p=p kṛp² “beautiful”, “appearance”, corpus “body” or “matter as “beauty”, “splendor” or perceived by the senses” “the splendid appearance of sacred rites” kṛpanīḷa “nest of compassion” or “an epithet of Agni” ¹ It was, above all, the role carried out by the god Agni, “resplendent author of sacred rites”. ² Kṛp in Sanskrit also means “beautiful form” in the sense of “pure [p] creation [kṛ]”. One can also presume that the Latin word corpus comes from this, in the original sense of “form” (cf. A. Ernout and A. Meillet, op. cit., p. 144). ³ Agni, as seen, was the god of fire, the priest who, in performing sacred rites, covered his merciful acts in splendor (nīḷa = nīḍa, see RV, X, 20, 3).

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Indo-European

2. kṛp [kṛ + p]¹

“to accomplish [kṛ] a purifying act [p]”, “to cry”, “to have compassion”, “to pray”

or “to implore”

Sanskrit

k=k ṛ=ṛ p=p

Latin

k=c ṛ = re p=p

kṛp, kṛpate “to mourn”, “to lament” crepo, -are “to creak”, “to rattle” or or “to implore” “to crackle” kṛpaṇa “inclined to grieve”, “miserable” or “poor” kṛpā “pity” or “compassion” kṛpāya “to have pity” kṛpākara “a mine of compassion” kṛpādvaita “unrivalled in compassion” or “name given to Buddha” kṛpāsāgara “an ocean of compassion”

crepitus or

“rattling”, “crackling” “clattering”

¹ In the Indo-European cultural tradition, acts of purification, in tandem with sacrificial rites, were the most suitable means of connecting oneself to the luminosity of the Absolute Spirit—the source of well-being and hope of immortality. During these rites the worshipper prays, repenting his sins and, with the lament of his weeping, implores the divinity to make him pure. He will, in turn, have pity and compassion for those who have yet to be purified. “Pity” and “compassion”, in a later era, will become the cardinal virtues of Buddhism.

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Indo-European

klṛp [klṛ + p]¹

Sanskrit

“to prepare [klṛ / kṛ] the purification [p] ceremony” or “to help someone accomplish something”

k=k l = l /al

ṛ=ṛ p=p klṛp, kalpate “to be well ordered or regulated” or “to be adapted to” klṛpta “arranged” or “prepared” klṛpti “preparation” or “accomplishment” kalpa “practicable”, “a sacred precept”, “law”, “rule”, “first duty”, “the most complete of the six Vedāṅgas²”, “the art of preparing medicine” or “a day of Brahmā (or one thousand Yugas, a period of 4,320,000,000 mortal years)”

¹ It is a variant of the root kṛp and refers to “adaptation”, “adjustment” and “preparation” of sacred rites. In this sense it is an “aid” in the performance of these rites. This explains its having given rise to some Germanic forms such as the English to help and the German helfen, in which: k = h lṛ = el p = p/ph/f ² The Vedāṅgas are the Sanskrit texts (of the period called sūtra) that set forth the rules for performing sacrificial ceremonies and lay out the connected rituals

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Indo-European

kṛṣ [kṛ + ṣ]¹

“to act [kṛ] in connection with [ṣ]”, “to drag (oxen)”, “to draw (a plow)”, “to plow”, “to farm” or “to have a contact with”

The root refers to the relationship of man to the cultivation of the earth and to the harvest. Sanskrit kṛṣ, karṣati kṛṣa kṛṣi kṛṣaka kṛṣṭa kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa

k=k ṛ=ṛ ṣ=ṣ “to draw”, “to drag” or “to draw oneself” “a ploughshare” “plowing”, “cultivation of the soil” or “agriculture” “a ploughman” or “farmer” “drawn”, “ploughed” or “cultivated ground” “black” or “dark” “the eighth avatāra or incarnation of Viṣṇu” (Avatāra, that is, “descent”, from ava-tṝ, “to cross (the sky)

going toward the bottom”) “man”, “races of man”, “cultivated ground”, “learned man” or “teacher” karṣū “furrow” or “trench” ¹ The sense of “to meet” or “to get near” may lie at the origin of the Greek verb khraýō. ² Even if the semantic nexus between kṛṣ and the ancient Greek root khris, which khrĩsis “unction” comes from (by way of khríō “to anoint”), is not evident, it does, however, appear that there is a phonetic and morphological correspondence between the following words derived from those roots: k = kh ṛ = ri ṣ=s ṭ=t (i) = (os) of which the Sanskrit word means “teacher” and the Greek word “anointed” (therefore, from the meaning of “the Lord’s Anointed,” comes the Latin kṛṣṭi²

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Christus “Christ”. The above-stated etymological hypothesis is confirmed by the fact that the Indian chronicles cite the presence of a foreign preacher named Īṣa “Lord”, who actually lived in India during the years in which Jesus had vanished from Palestine. Indo-European

knū [k + nū]

Sanskrit

“the curvilinear motion [k] of the waters [nū]”, “to dampen” or “to wet”

k=k n=n ū = ūy

knūy, knūyatē

“to be wet” or “to make wet”

Indo-European

krand [k + rand]

Sanskrit

“what resounds [ran] while bending [k]”, “to shout” or “to complain”

k = k¹ r=r a=a n=n d=d

krand, krandati krandana

“to neigh”, “to roar”, “to sound”, “to make a noise” or “to lament” “crier” or “cat”

¹ RV, X, 95, 13.

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Indo-European

kram [kṛ/kar/kra + m]

Sanskrit

“to move toward [ṛ/ar/ra] with a measured [m] movement [k]”, “to take a step”, “to progress step by step” or “to walk”

k =k r=r a=a m=m

kram, krāmati “to step”, “to walk” or “to go” krama “to step” kramaṇa “stepping” or “walking”

Latin

k =g r=r a = a/e m = m/d

gradus “step”, “to make a step”, “degree” or “stage” gradior, -gradi “to step” or “to walk”

Note that Sanskrit constructs the compound vi-krama “to go beyond in taking a step” in the sense of gramen,-inis “grass”, “turf” or manifesting “strength” and “any plant or herb” “courage”, whereas Latin constructs the compound trans-gredior in the sense of “to go beyond a norm” or gramineus¹ “of grass” or “to transgress”. “grassy”

¹ The original meaning must have been “what grows step by step” or “what grows quickly”. In Greek the corresponding term is grástis “grass” or “forage”.

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Indo-European

krī [k + rī] “to move around [k] freely [rī]”, “to discern”, “to decide”, “to estimate” or “to buy”

Sanskrit

k=k r = r/ra ī=ī

krī, krīṇāti “to buy”, “to purchase”, "to discern", "to discriminate" apa-krīta “bought at a good price” or “bargain”

Greek

k = k/p¹ r = r/er ī=i

krínō² “to separate”, “to divide” or “to choose” krínein“the deciding of” kerdaínō “to prefer”, “to gain”, “to make profit” or “to make merchandise” príamai¹ “to buy”

Latin

k=c rī = er/ri

cerno,-ere² “to decide”, “to separate” or “to distinguish” certo,-are “to settle by contest” or “to dispute” discerno,-ere “to separate”, “to discern” secerno,-ere “to part” or “to separate” discrimono,-are “to separate” krīta “bought”, kritós “chosen” certus “settled”, “purchased” or kérdos “gain”, “profit” “certain” or "discerned" or “sure” “advantage” kraya “buying” or krĩma “judgment” or certamen “competitio”, “purchase” “charge” “debate” krayin “buyer” krísis “a separating”, crimen, -inis krīta pati “the husband “choosing” or “accusation”, of a wife “decision” “charge”, “guilt” or acquired by kritḗrion “a means for “crime” purchase” judging” or cribrum “sieve” kretṛ “buyer” or “tribunal”

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“purchaser”

“judge” or “arbiter” kritikós “able to discern” or “critical” apokríno “to part”, “to separate” or “to distinguish” apokrínomai “to play a part” or “to act” hypokritḗs “he who plays a part”, “actor” or “hypocrite” kritḗs

secretus “sidelined”, “secret” discretus “that can discern”, “discreet” crinis³ “the hair”

¹ In Greek, the substitution of the consonant k with p is not rare. Cf. akṣi “eye” and opteúō “to see” (a = o; k = p; ṣ = t) and A. Meillet, op. cit. p. 59. ² With nasal suffix. ³ It originally designated women's hair “separated” in “braids”.

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Indo-European

krīd

“to move freely [rī] around [k]” or “to play”

Sanskrit

k=k r=r ī=ī d=ḍ

krīḍ, krīḍati “to play” or “to do sport” krīḍa

Latin

k=r=r ī=i d=d

rideo, -ere “to laugh” (with the dropping of the k)

“game”, “sport” or “pastime”

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Indo-European

kru

“to reach [ṛ] with a strong [u] enveloping motion [k]”, “to involve [k] with great strength [ru]”, “raw meat”, “blood” and, metaphorically, “cruel”, “furious” or “to harden”

Sanskrit

k=k r=r u = u/o/a

kravis “raw meat” kravya “raw meat” or “carrion” kruḍ, kruḍati “to become hungry” krudh, krudhyati “to become hungry” krūra “cruel” or “bloody” krodha “wrath”, “anger” or “passion”

Greek

k=k r=r u = e/y

kréas “flesh”, “a piece of meat” or “meat” kreopṓlēs “butcher” kréōs “meat” krýos “icy cold”, “chill” or “frost” krýstallos “ice” or “crystal”

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Latin

k=c r=r u=u

crudus “bleeding” or “row” crudelis “cruel” cruentus “bloody” cruor, oris “blood” crusta, ae “crust” or “shell”

Indo-European

kruś [k + ru + ś]“similar [ś] to an enveloping [k] noise [ru]”, “to complain”, “to cry” or “to shout”

Sanskrit

k=k r = r/l u=u ś=ś

kruś, krośati “to cry out”, “to call out”, “to lament” or “to weep”

krośa

Greek

k=k r = l/r u = a/au/ō ś = g/z

“to weep”, “to lament” or “to wail” klauthmós “weeping” or “wailing” klaúmata “weeping” or “trouble” “a cry”, “yell” kraugḗ “crying” or or “shout” “screaming” krázō “to clash” or “to clang”

klośa “calling out to”

klaíō

krṓzō “to croak”

kroṣṭu “crier” or “jackal” kroṣṭṛ¹ “crier” or “jackal”

¹ Used in the strong cases.

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Latin

k=c r=r u=u ś = c/x

crucio,-are “to torture” or “to torment”

cruciatus “torture” or “torment” crux, crucis “cross”

crocio,-ire “to croak like a raven”

Indo-European

kṣa [k + ṣa] kṣi [k + ṣi]

“to bring together [ṣa, ṣi] around oneself [k]”, “to move around [k] connecting to [ṣ]”, “to possess”, “to govern” or “to inhabit”

Sanskrit

k=k ṣ=ṣ a/i = a/i kṣi, kṣayati¹ “to have power”, “to govern” or “to possess” kṣatrapa “governor” kṣatra “power” or “dominion” kṣatriya “a member of the military or reigning order” kṣaya “dominion” kṣiti “dominion” kṣi, kṣeti “to abide” or “to dwell” kṣaya “dwelling” or “house” kṣiti “habitation” or “house” kṣetra “landed property” or “land” kṣetrakarṣaka “he who tills the field”, “farmer” or “peasant”

Greek

k=k ṣ=t a/i = a/i/e/o ktáomai “to get for oneself”, “to gain”, “to be in the course of acquiring” or “to possess” satrápēs “governor”

Latin k = ṣ=s a/i = i

satrape “satrapo”

ktízō “to people a situs “layout”, “sit”, country”, “to found”, “position”, “to plant” or “to build” “a region of the ktē̃ma “anything earth”, “zone” gotten” or or “quarter” “possession” ktē̃nos “property in herds or flocks” or “cattle” ktḗmata “property” or “thing” ktē̃sis “property” or “possession” ktḗtōr “possessor” or “owner” ktísis “founder”, “settling” or “foundation” ktísma “created thing” or “creature” euktímenos “well-built” or “well-made”

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¹ In Sanskrit, kṣa is a variant of the root kṣi (kṣayati), “to govern”, “to have the power to” or “to possess”. In Greek, the transformation of the Indo-European consonant cluster kṣ to kt is also confirmed by the word árktos “bear”, inasmuch: [ṛ = ar; kṣ = kt; a = os]. The word árktos in Greek and ursus in Latin are the transcription of the Indo-European-Sanskrit ṛkṣa “bear”, whose original meaning was “what rises up [ṛ] to show its power [kṣa]”. The morphological and phonetic deformation that ursus presents with respect to ṛkṣa is due to the dropping of the guttural k and to the fact that the root verb ṛ, in the original sense of “to go towards the top”, is strengthened in Latin by shifting to ur or or, as in or-ior “to rise”, or er, as in er-igo “to raise”. Moreover, in ursus the cerebral sibilant ṣ is transformed into s and the nominal suffix –a becomes –us. The words Ṛkṣa, árktos and ursus are, therefore, the same word written with Indo-European alphabets that were altered over time. ² “Protector [pa] of the government [kṣatra]”. Indo-European

kṣan [kṣ + an]

“to remove [kṣ] breath [an]”, “to wound” or “to kill”

It is a variant of han and ghan. Sanskrit

k=k ṣ=ṣ a=a n=n

kṣan, kṣaṇoti “to hurt” or “to wound” kṣana “murder” kṣata “wounded” or “wound” kṣataja “that is born from a wound” or “blood” kṣati “hurt”, “injury” or “damage”

Greek

k = k/kh ṣ = t/a = ei/ai n=n

“to kill”, “to slay” or “to slaughter” któnos “murder” or “slaughter” kaínō “to kill” kteínō

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Indo-European

kṣam [kṣa + m]

“to be limited [m] all around [kṣ]”, “to be limited”, “to be patient”, “to put up with”, “soil” or “land”

Sanskrit

k=k ṣ=ṣ a=a m=m kṣam, kṣamate “to be patient”, “to keep quiet”, “to hear patiently” or “to be indulgent” kṣam, kṣamayati “to ask any one pardon for anything”

Greek

kṣam “the ground” or “earth” kṣā “the earth” kṣmā “the earth”

khthṓn

kṣama “patient” or “patience” kṣamā “indulgence”, “pardon” kṣamita “forgiven” kṣamya “terrestrial”

k = kh ṣ = t/th a = a/o m=m

“the earth” or “ground” khamaí “on the earth” or “on the ground” khthamalós “near the ground” or “on the ground” khthónios “in or under the earth” or “the netherworld” khthónioi “spirits from the depths of the earth”

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Latin

humus

humu

kṣ = h a = u/o m=m

“the earth” or “ground” “the earth”

humilis “close to what is ground”, “to be low” or “humble” humilitas “virtue of whoever feels close to the earth” or “humility” homo,-inis “human being” or “man”

Indo-European

kṣay [kṣ + ay]

“to move beyond [ī/ay] in all directions [kṣ]”, “to travel aimlessly”, “to go adrift”, “to wear out” or “to waste away”

Ay is a variant of the verb i “to go”. The root kṣay is connected to kṣi/kṣī and kṣar. Sanskrit

k=k ṣ=ṣ ay = i

Greek

k = ph ṣ = th ay = ei/i

kṣi,kṣiṇoti “to ruin”, “to destroy”, “to corrupt” or “to waste away”

phtheírō “to corrupt”, “to spoil” or “to go to ruin” diaphtheírō “to spoil”, “to lead astray” or “to corrupt” phthartós “corrupt”

kṣaya

phthíō¹ “to decline”, “to decay”, “to waste away”, “to perish” or “to die” phthitós “wasted”, or “decayed” aphthartós “incorruptible”

kṣita

“loss”, “waste” or “decay”

“wasted” or “corrupt” akṣita “not corrupt”

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Latin

ph = ph th = th i=i (transcription from Greek)

kṣiti

“ruin” or “destruction”

phthísis“consumption”, phtisi “wasting”, “decline” or “decay” “consumption”, phthorá “corruption” “phthisis” phthisicus“emaciated”, “consumptive”, “phthisical”

¹ It is present in the form phthínō. Indo-European

kṣar [kṣ + ar]

Sanskrit

“to cause to flow [ṛ/ar] all around [kṣ]”, “to pour”, “to distill” or “to disperse”

k=k ṣ=ṣ a = a/ī r=r

Greek

k=k ṣ=s a=ē r=r

Latin

kṣ = s a/ē = i

siccus

“dry”

kṣar, kṣarati “to flow,” “to stream” or “to distill” kṣara “melting away” kṣīra¹ “milk” or “thickened milk” kṣīra-ja “coagulated milk” or “cheese” kṣāra “acrid” or “caustic” akṣara “inalterable”

ksērós “dry”

¹ In the sense of “to flow” or “to spill out”.

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Indo-European

kṣā

Sanskrit

“similar [ṣ] to an effect [ā] of the revolving motion of the atmosphere [k]”, “to be burning”, “to catch fire”, “to burn to ashes” or “to make dry”

k=k ṣ=ṣ ā = ā/ai

Greek

k=k ṣ =s ā=ē

kṣai, kṣāyati “to burn” or “to catch fire”

ksēraínō “to become or to be dry” or “to dry up”

kṣāra “caustic”, “corrosive” or “acrid”

ksērós¹ “dry” or “parched”

kṣāti “heat” kṣāma “burning to ashes” or “charring”

ksērótēs “dryness”

Latin

kṣ = s ā=e (r) = (r)

seresco,-ere “to become dry” sicco,-are “to make dry” or “to dry” siccus “dry” serenus² “clear”, “bright” or “serene” serenitas “clear”, “bright” or “fair weather”

¹ Note that the term refers to terra firma, but its semantic link to kṣāra is incontestable. ² Originally, the form of the term was thus seres-no-s and designated the clear and dry state of the sky (cf. A. Meillet, op. cit. p. 617).

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Indo-European

kṣip [kṣ + i + p]

Sanskrit

k=k ṣ=ṣ i = i/e p=p

kṣip, kṣipati (-te) “to move hastily”, “to cast a glance” or “to cast away” kṣip “the movable ones” or “finger” kṣipaṇi “moving speedily” kṣipaṇu “archer” kṣipra “quick” or “speedy” kṣepaṇi “that gets to go quickly” or “oar” kṣepaṇika “boatman” or “navigator”

“to move around [k] linking up [ṣ] with continuity [i]”, “to move in a hurry”, “to launch” or “to throw”

Greek

kṣ = kr i = ai p=p

kraipnós “swift,” “rapid” or “impetuous”

Latin

kṣ = s i = i/u p=p

sipo, -are¹ “to throw” dissipo,-are “to scatter”, “to disperse” or “to spread abroad”

¹ The vowel located between s and p (i or u) has not been well established (cf. A. Meillet, op. cit., p. 668). P. Festo (op. cit., p. 407, lines 9/10) writes supat for “he throws” and also cites, in the same semantic field, the verbs dissipo, obsipo, insipo and inicio (in +iacio).

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Indo-European

kṣu [k + ṣ + u]

Sanskrit

“to move [k] with force [u] into contact [ṣ]”, “to scrape off”, “to sharpen”, “to shave” or “to sneeze”

k=k ṣ=ṣ - = ṇ¹ u=u

Greek

k = k/p ṣ=s u = e/ē/y

kṣṇu, kṣṇauti “to whet” or “to sharpen” kṣu, kṣauti “to sneeze” or “to cough”

ksýō “to scrape”, “to plane”, “to smooth” or “to make smooth”

kṣura²

ksyrón

“razor” or “sharp blade”

kṣṇuta “sharpened” kṣṇotra “whetstone” kṣava “sneeze”

“the polished shaft of a spear” or “razor”

kséō “to scrape” or “to make smooth” psáō “to rub”, “to rub away” or “to trickle away” psḗkhō³ “to rub down” or “to wear away”

¹ The ṇ is a nasal infix. ² From kṣura came kṣaura “shaving” (especially of the head), thence kṣaurika “barber”. ³ From psáō. Thence, psēnós “bald” and psẽgma “dust”, “scraping” or “filing”, In Greek, as seen, the shift from the k to the p took place during the language’s last stage of development (cf. A. Meillet, op. cit., p. 60).

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Indo-European

kha [k + ha]

khan [khā]

“moves [ha] with a curvilinear motion [k]”, “hollow space”, “empty space” or “primigenial nebula” “effect of the action [-a] of forming an empty space [kha]” or “to dig”

The n is an enlargement. Sanskrit

k=k h=h a=a (n) = (n)

kha “empty”, “space” or “empty space” khabha “shining in the air” or “planet” khan, khanati “to dig”, “to dig up” or “to excavate” khani “dug up” khanaka “one who digs” or “miner” khanitra “shovel” khāta “dug”, “dug up” or “excavated” khātaka “digger” khāni “a mine” kheya “that can be dug”

Greek

kh = k/ kh a = a/e/oi/ō (n) = (n)

kháos “space”, “empty” or “infinite space” kósmos "world" khásma “yawning hollow” or “chasm” khṓra “space” khō̃ros “space to hold a thing” kenóō “to empty out” kenós “empty” koĩlos “hollow” or “hollowed” koilía “the hollow of the belly” or “the belly” koilaínō “to make hollow” koilóō “to make hollow” khaínō¹ “to yawn”,

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Latin

kh = ch/c a=a (n) = (n)

chaos “boundless empty”, “space” or “chaos” cavus “hollow” or “concave” excavo,-are² “to hollow out” cavo,-are “to hollow”, “to make hollow” or “to excavate” caverna “a hollow place” or “cavern” canalis “water pipe” or “channel” cuniculus “a dug-out channel” or “underground tunnel”

“to open the mouth” or “to stare about” khandón “with mouth wide open” khános “mouth” skáptō “to dig” skáphē “anything dug”, “basin”, “light boat” skáphos “that which is dug” ¹ In the present and imperfect it becomes kháskō. ² The semantical nexus cannot be missed between the Latin verb excavo and the ancient Greek terms skáphē, skaphía and skáphos that derive from the Greek verb skáptō, in which the initial s corresponds to ex, and kaph corresponds to cav, two roots that go back to the Indo-European-ProtoSanskrit kha, “empty space” or “cavity”. Indo-European

kham [kha + m] “the measure [m] of emptiness [kha]”, “emptiness” or “nothingness” Kha and kham are Indo-European roots but their meaning of “zero”, insofar as meaning “empty space” or “emptiness”, came from Sanskrit. Sanskrit

k=k h=h a=a (m) = (m) kha, kham “the figure that measures [m] emptiness [kha] ”, “the sign that delimits [m] emptiness [kha] ”, “emptiness”, “nothingness” or “zero” In the history of mathematics, the concept of “zero”¹ and the consideration of it as the tenth number of the decimal numeric system appear for the first time in a work by the Indian mathematician and astronomer Brahmagupata², who lived around the seventh century AD. Some decades later, the Syrian bishop

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Severus Sebokht, a distinguished scientific contemporary of his, studied that system and described it in many passages of his commentaries, introducing it in Syria and then spreading it throughout the Islamic world. He wrote as follows “[…] I will not speak now of the Hindus’ knowledge […], of their refined discoveries in the science of astronomy, nor of their special method of calculation to appreciate what words cannot express, that is, their system that employs nine symbols [the numbers from one to nine, author’s note] […]”, “if these things were known”, continues Severus, “people that had thought they were the only ones to dominate the sciences just because they were Greek, or because they spoke Greek, would be convinced that other people (understood to be the Indians) knew just as much, if not more, than them”. Consequently, in the Arab world, the decimal system was called Hindsa “what comes from India”. Such numeration was brought back in the ninth century AD by the Arab mathematician al-Khuwarizmi (who “algorithm” came from). He has left to us the Latin translation of his work on arithmetic entitled Algoritmi de numero indorum. The first appearance of the term aljabr, “restoration³” or “algebra” can be found in his works. The Indian origin of the use of a sign to indicate the zero as well as the employment of a system of numeration from one to nine is further confirmed in the preface of Liber Abbaci by Leonardo Fibonacci da Pisa, an illustrious 13 th-century Italian mathematician, where it is written: “[…] ubi ex mirabilis magisterio in arte per novem figuras indorum introductus […]”. Finally, we will cite, on this subject, the account given by the great mathematician Laplace⁴: “It is India that has given us the ingenious method of expressing all numbers by way of ten symbols […]. In appreciating this achievement let us recall that this eluded even Archimedes and Apollonius, two of antiquity’s greatest mathematical geniuses”. In conclusion, it is incontrovertible that the invention of the zero and the decimal numeric system must be attributed to the Indo-Europeans⁵ and not to the Arabs.

¹Another Sanskrit term that indicates “zero” is śūnya, “apt to grow” from the root śū, weak form of śvi “to grow” (cf. p. 593). It was represented by a dot or small circle. Other than the zero, the numerical symbols from one to nine, based on the decimal system, were invented by the Indians. ² From the title Brahma Sphuṭa Siddhānta, “The Correctly Established Doctrine of Brahma”, (circa 628 AD). It was translated into Arabic with the title Sind Hind, with reference to its Indian origin (Hindi).

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³“Restoration”, which had the sense of “reviewing” a study conducted by others. ⁴ P.S. Laplace, French astronomer and mathematician (1749-1837). ⁵ Indo-European is indeed what links a number to emptiness [kha] or nothingness [śūnya], which is a term that also seems to be the origin of the Arabic sifr, “cipher”, which the word “zero” comes from.

Indo-European

khid [kh + id]

“to drain [kh] of energy [id]”, “to tire”, “to oppress”, “to batter”, “to leave in pieces” or “to disturb”

The root is connected to chid (cf. p. 202). Sanskrit

k=k h=h i = i/e d=d

Greek

k=k i=ē d=d

khid, khindati kḗdō² “to make “to strike”, anxious”, “to press down”, “to trouble” or “to be depressed” “to distress” or “to suffer” kēdemṓn “one that khidra “disease” or takes charge of “sickness” a person” or khidvas “oppressing” “protector” kē̃dos “care”, kheda “depression” or “concern”, “distress” “regard for”, “sorrow”, khedā⁶ “an “affliction” or instrument “distress” for splitting” khedita “afflicted” or “distressed”

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Latin

kh = (k)c¹ i = ae/i d=d

caedo, -ere “to cut” or “to cut down” caesor,-oris³ “cutter” caesura “cut” decido,-ere⁴ “to cut down”, “to cut off” or “to cut short” incido,-ere “to cut into”, “to cut open,” “to engrave” or “to cut through” occido,-ere⁵ “to strike down”, “to beat to the ground”, “to kill” or “to fall down”

occidens “the setting sun” or “the west”

¹ In Latin, the root was originally pronounced with the Indo-European k. Note that Latin likened the kh to k. ² From the mediopassive kḗdomai “to look after”. ³ From caesum “cut”, supine of caedere. ⁴ Compound with de, and caedo. ⁵ Compound with ob, “against” and caedo. ⁶ It was an arm of the god Indra. Indo-European

khyā [kh + yā]¹

“what comes [yā] from space [kha]”, “sound”, “light” or “countless lights from the stars”, “the marvel of the created”

In a figurative sense: “praise to the creator”, “celebration of beauty” or “telling the story of the universe”, “keeping count of the stars” or “to enumerate” Sanskrit

k=k h=h y=y ā=ā

khyā, khyāti

“to proclaim”, “to announce”, “to recount”, “to praise” or “to celebrate” khyāta “celebrated” or “renowned” khyāti “celebrity” or “renown” prakhyā, prakhyāti “to see”, “to announce” or “to proclaim” prakhya “visible”, “clear” or “bright” saṃkhyā, saṃkhyāti “to enumerate” or “to count”

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ākhyā, akhyāti ākhyā

“to tell”, “to announce”, “to call” “appellation”, “name”, “total amount”

¹ It represents the celestial word made up of lights, sounds and countless phenomena in continual evolution, from which Vedic prophets, our progenitors, drew inspiration in the composition of their language and verses of worship offered up to the gods.

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