axe

[manaster at umich.edu]

But (a) this is not PIE and (b) is it really Semitic?
Is not a foreign word in Semitic itself? I am not saying
it is, mind.  I am asking because although I once knew
I can't remember.

On Thu, 4 Feb 1999, Theo Vennemann wrote:

> Gk. pe'lekus, Skt. paras'u'- is clearly Semitic (root family p-l-K- 'to
> split, to divide', which is pretty close to what you do with a battle-axe),
> and on account of its meaning is likely to be a wanderwort.  The greater
> problem is:  How did folk 'division (of an army)' and plow "divider of the
> soil" (from the same family of Semitic roots) find their way into Germanic
> (and only Germanic)?  Put more generally: Why do we seem to find more such
> correspondences with Germanic than with other Indo-European languages? (I say
> "seem" because in this part of the world I appear to be the only one looking,
> and I can with a clear professional conscience only look in Germanic.)