indoeuropean/hand

[Stefan Georg]

>Are there any etymologies out there for <manus> & <hand>?
>Also, any ideas why manus is feminine?

/manus/ seems to be able to claim an IE pedigree as well, with as yet
unknown semantic differences between it and *ghes-r-. One can cite Umbrian
/manuv-e/ "in the hand" for the Italic part of this pedigree, and further
Old English /mund/ "palm, protection", Old High German /munt/ "hand,
guardian" (living on in /m"undig, M"undel, Vormund/ etc. with non-concrete
semantics), the Albanian verb /marr/ "to take", Gk. /m'are:/ "hand" and
some other attestations. It looks like an r/d-heteroclitic, I don't dare
here a detailed reconstruction, but the cognacy of the words seems
possible, and maybe even clear. Btw., the Albanian verb might point into
the direction of a semantic scenario similar to the mentioned one in Baltic
and Slavic (*if* the Albanian verb < *mar-ne/o- is not a denominal
formation meaning "to handle" othl.). The other possibility is that the
more abstract meanings (circling around "power, ability to protect athl.")
are older for this etymon, *ghes-r- being the anatomical term from the
beginning.

I have no idea on /handus/ at the moment.

St.G.