PIE words for sexual organs
petegray
petegray at btinternet.com
Thu Jan 20 20:00:03 UTC 2000
Rick Mc Callister asked:
> How 'bout a form ancestral to English "balls",
Pokorny is interesting here (p121, under the entry bhel-, bhle:, to blow up,
swell up). He refers to 'Hess. bille "penis" middle low German (ars-)bille,
Dutch bil, old high German arsbelli (buttocks); and Anglo-saxon bealluc
(testicles) < *bhol-n.' He includes Greek phallos "penis".
"Bollocks" is interesting - it shows the older diminutive suffix found in
hillock, bullock, buttock.
Peter
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