indoeuropean/hand

[Eduard Selleslagh]

[ moderator re-formatted ]

-----Original Message-----
From: Steven A. Gustafson <stevegus at aye.net>
Date: Friday, July 16, 1999 6:07 AM

[Snip]

>There are a fair number of Latin -u stems that are feminine, especially
>considering how few -u stems there are to begin with: acus, domus,
>cornus, idus, and tribus (as well as manus) are the ones that come to
>mind.

>Steven A. Gustafson

[Ed]

Actually it's 'cornu' in the nominative.

All tree names, also those with -u stems like 'quercus' (oak) (and -o stems
like po:pulus) are feminine.  Could there be some relationship here?  I mean
'extremities, branches...'.  That would also account for manus, acus, cornu and
tribus being feminine, but not for domus nor idus.  'Foot, pes...' are probably
not viewed as extremities, but as 'base' to stand on.

Ed.