Olives/was: Lactose Intolerance/Renfrew

[Stanley Friesen]

At 06:58 AM 5/1/01 +0000, Douglas G Kilday wrote:
Returning to the Greek forms, we have a chicken-and-egg problem: was oil
>(elaion) named after the olive (elaia:) or vice versa? In the Arabic words,
>it's clear that 'oil' is the primary notion, and 'olive' is derived. This is
>retained in Spanish; one of the first words I learned was "aceite" in the
>sense of "motor-oil", not the Filippo Berio stuff. Hence it's plausible that
>the original meaning of *elaiw- was 'oil', applied later to an oily edible
>fruit and the tree which produces it.

This is especially likely as one of the most important classical uses of
the olive was to make olive oil.  Thus calling the tree the "oil tree",
that is "the tree from which we make oil", is a very good possibility.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net