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Four Indo-Iranian Etymologies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Louis H. Gray
Louis H. Gray*
Affiliation:
Columbia University
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Abstract

[Skt. ‘seer’ from the IE base *rese- ‘howl’; Skt. nāra- ‘water’ from the base ‘swim’; OPera., GAv. spāda-, YAv. ‘army’ from the base ‘swell, be strong’; Av. ‘herd’ from the base ‘strive, desire, gain’.]

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 25 , Issue 4-Part1: October-December , December 1949 , pp. 375 - 378
Copyright
Copyright © 1949 by the Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 For a discussion of the ‘sight’ of the see especially J. Muir, Original Sanskrit Texts 23.95-7 (London, 1874), 32.249, 262 (1868). Cf. in general, Macdonell-Keith, Vedic Index of Names and Subjects, 1.115-7 (London, 1912), and Muir, passim.

2 Böhtlingk-Roth, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch 1.1063 (Petrograd, 1855); J. Hertel, ASAW phil.- hist. K1. 40.2.27, 30,116 note 2 (1929).

3 C. C. Uhlenbeck, Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der altindischen Sprache 35 (Amsterdam, 1898-9), corrected by C. Bartholomae, IF 9.283 (1898). I have been unable to consult the discussion by I. J. S. Taraporewala, As. Mookerjee Volume 3.2, No. 12.

4 H. Grassmann, Wörterbuch zum Rig-Veda 292 (Leipzig, 1873).

5 T. Bloch, WuS 2.4-7 (1910).

6 Cf. J. A. MacCullach, Shamanism, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics 11.441-6 (Edinburgh, 1920).

7 For the theory of the IE base here maintained see the present writer’s study, The Indo-European Base-Type *do-, , AJPh. 62.476-84 (1941).

8 Walde-Pokorny, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen 2.342-3, 349-51 (Berlin and Leipzig, 1927-32), and the various special etymological dictionaries.

9 Otherwise Walde-Pokorny 1.89 (base *alā-).

10 Cf. also Mahābhārata 3.179.2, 272.42; Viṣṇupurāṇa 1.4.4; for other instances see the translation of the latter by Wilson-Hall, 1.57 note (London, 1864).

11 Walde-Pokorny 2.692-4; Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch3 2.172 (Heidelberg, 1939 sqq.). In all these languages except Sanskrit and Umbrian initial sn regularly becomes n, so that they cannot be directly compared with nāra-. In Brythonic, initial mutation of sn to *hn, n has been generalized.

12 Walde-Pokorny 2.315; Walde-Hofmann 2.148-9.

13 Studien zur Lehre von der Wurzelerweiterung und Wurzel variation 142-3 (Upsala, 1891); summarily rejected by E. Boisacq, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque 659 (Paris, 1916).

14 R. Meringer, IF 17.149-53 (1905); favored by Schrader-Nehring, Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde 2.295 (Berlin and Leipzig, 1929); cf. O. Schrader, Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte3 2.182, 300 (Jena, 1907).

15 P. Horn, Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie No. 699 (Strassburg, 1893); F. Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch 511, 306 (Marburg, 1895); K. Lokotsch, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der europäischen … Wörter orientalischen Ursprungs No. 1914 (Heidelberg, 1927); H. Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik 1.22, 239 (Strasbourg, 1927); E. Herzfeld, Paikuli 1.225-6 (Berlin, 1925); A. Christensen, L’Iran sous les Sassanides2 110 (Copenhagen, 1944).

16 For this base in general, Walde-Pokorny 1.365-8; the meaning ‘hollow’ is here ignored as unnecessary for the present purpose; for other bases with the antithetical meanings of convexity and concavity see Persson, Beiträge zur indogermanischen Wortforschung 100 ff., 192-3, 241 ff. (Uppsala, [1912]).

17 For the base in general, Walde-Pokorny 1.258-60; for the Germanic group, Falk-Torp, Norwegisch-dänisches etymologisches Wörterbuch 1392 (Heidelberg, 1910-1); for the Av. word, A. V. W. Jackson, Avesta Reader, First Series 96 (Stuttgart, 1893).

18 Bartholomae, ZDMG 48.156 (1894). Jackson 94, connecting the word with Av. vaf- ‘invoke in song’ (lit. ‘weave’; cf. Gk. ), was misled by K. Geldner, Vedische Studien 2.135, note 2 (Stuttgart, 1892-7).