Basque <ibili>

[roslyn frank]

At 12:31 PM 1/26/00 +0100, you wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Larry Trask" <larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk>
>Sent: Monday, January 24, 2000 12:51 PM

>> Roz Frank writes:

>>> <gorapil(a)> (*<gora-bil>?)"knot", whose meaning is not always entirely
>>> clear.

>> As explained above, the first two of these are transparent and regular. The
>> third is obscure: very likely it does contain *<bil>, but its first element
>> is opaque.

>[Ed]

>What about *gorda-bil, where the first element could be a Romance loan (<
>corde, cuerda), i.e. coiled up rope?

That would require or at least be more convincing if the word *<gorda> was
attested in Basque while <soka> is, cf. Spanish <soga> 'rope'. Actually
<gorde> does exist in Basque but it is used to mean "to keep, preserve;
save' and would appear to be nothing more than a borrowing based on
<guardar'.

Roz