etymology of оде яло

[Hugh Olmsted]

Briefly.
Yes, it is related to DON (as in donning one's hat): don and doff are nothing but old fusions of 'do + on' and 'do + off' .
The base 'do' is itself a descendent in Germanic (cf. Germn 'tun', Dutch 'doen', etc.) of the same Indo-European root *dheH- 'do, make, put' which is reflected in our Slavic deti 'do' (with various root extensions – in *dej [as here in -dejati and odejalo; and delo / delati; and *dedj- as in nadezhda, odezhda, etc.).
Reflexes of the Indo-European root are widely met throughout indo-European descendents, frequently also with root extensions –– as in Lat. facere (leading to such Romance descendents as Fr. faire, Sp. hacer, etc.) and thence English borrowings in -fact- or -faction (satisfaction, benefaction, stupifaction, artifact, etc. etc.) or -fy (satisfy, unify, etc.); and the Greek verb tithemi (from reduplicated *dhi-dhemi or the like) and all the derivative English borrowings such as thesis, -thesis (anti-, syn-, meta-, paren-, epen-, hypo-, etc.), theme, -theca, etc.  The root also shows up in Sanscrit, Iranian, Hittite, Armenian, Baltic, Celtic, and other places.  
Lots of company and a worthy pedigree.  We don't need to stretch for guesswork.

Odejat' and odejalo are NOT from the Greek.  Odnako.

Breathlessly,
Hugh Olmsted


On Jan 21, 2011, at 1:29 PM, Hugh McLean wrote:

> Odejalo, according to Vasmer, comes from the iterative odejat', from odet', 'to clothe, put on [clothes], DON [is that related?]. the root det', deti, is more complicated, but it is clearly pure Slavic.
>> Hi,
>> 
>> In a recent list email someone was talking about their blanket (одеяло). I
>> knit for a living, so I often use this vocabulary of knitting too. Does
>> anyone know how this word came to be associated with "blanket"? In terms of
>> foreign English words appropriated into Russian (i.e. журналист/ка) you can
>> see the resemblance between the mother tongue and Russian in the way the
>> words sound.Not in this case, though.
>> 
>> I'm wondering what language, if any, одеяло came from; if it is purely
>> Russian, what does the root mean? (Russian roots often come from Greek
>> rather than Latin, I was told).
>> 
>> Спасибо!
>> 
>> Stephanie
>> 
>> PS: Does anyone else own the *Barron's book of Russian Slang*? I find it an
>> entertaining read, if a little biased in terms of vocabulary that
>> foreigners, esp Americans, are assumed to want to learn. Everyone always
>> wanted to know, when I spoke Russian, if I knew any insulting words or curse
>> words. Why this fascination with the obscene?
>> 
>> *****************************
>> ~Stephanie D. (Sures) Briggs
>> http://sdsures.blogspot.com/
>> 
>> Come have a look at my handmade knitted afghans and scarves!
>> THIRD SALE: 06/08/10!
>> http://warmochfuzzy.etsy.com/
>> http://warm-och-fuzzy.blogspot.com/
>> 
>> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sdsures
>> Facebook:  <http://warmochfuzzy.etsy.com/>
>> http://www.facebook.com/stephanie.briggs3
>> 
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