axe

[Theo Vennemann]

manaster at umich.edu asks RE Gk. pe'lekus, Skt. paras'u'-
(root family p-l-K- 'to split, to divide', which is pretty
close to what you do with a battle-axe):

>But (a) this is not PIE and (b) is it really Semitic?
>Is not a foreign word in Semitic itself?

Semitologists will have to answer that question. My
impression is that if it is a loanword in Semitic, it would
most likely be a Semitic loanword, and thus again a
wanderwort.

The root family is well established in Semitic, and the
(two-consonant) root itself in Afro-Asiatic.

Theo Vennemann,
9 February 1999.