ran@ho95b.UUCP (RANeinast) (02/02/85)
Something that I've found interesting: An example of the ubiquity of Indo-European in western languages and in western thought can be found in the origin (should this be in net.origins? :-)) of the word "whiskey". This comes from the Gaelic "uisge beatha", which means, literally, the water of life (no fools, they). Translate the same expression into Latin and, ta-da, "aqua vitae", which also means strong liquor. It is easy to see the similarities between uisge and aqua (cognates), and beatha and vitae. Indo-European for water is akwa- (also similar), and IE for life is gwei- (not so obvious a similarity to me). It's the suffixed form gwi-wo-ta (for vitae), and gwi-wo-tut (for beatha) that produced the above forms. By the way, gwei- is also the root of the word "quick", as in "the quick and the dead" (that is, the living and the dead--and here you thought it meant if you weren't fast, you were dead), or "cut to the quick" (cut to the living part of your skin). -- ". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch." Robert Neinast (ihnp4!ho95c!ran) AT&T-Bell Labs