thy thigh etc.

[Larry Trask]

--On Sunday, May 13, 2001 11:38 am +0300 Robert Whiting
<whiting at cc.helsinki.fi> wrote [in his recent PhD thesis ;-) ]

> But the fact remains that 'ether' is
> monomorphemic and 'either' is not (even if speakers don't realize
> it consciously).

Aw, come on, Bob.  I emphatically deny that 'either' is bimorphemic in
contemporary English, any more than 'feather' is.  It is *historically*
bimorphemic, of course, but that observation is neither here nor there.
Anyway, if we're looking at history, 'ether' is not monomorphemic either:
it's a transparent derivative of the Greek verbal root <aith-> 'burn'.
This root gave rise to a number of derivatives in Greek, including the one
leading to our word 'Ethiopia'.

By what right can you invoke one etymology but not another, when neither is
known to native speakers?

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk

Tel: (01273)-678693 (from UK); +44-1273-678693 (from abroad)
Fax: (01273)-671320 (from UK); +44-1273-671320 (from abroad)