[Lexicog] semantic extension

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 20 May 2004, Fritz Goerling wrote:
> Similar development in the following languages:
>
> French: bourse (wallet; small bag for money) >> bourse (stock market)
> Dutch: beurs (wallet: old word) >> beurs (stock market)
> Contemporary German:  Borse (stock market)

I suppose these (and the English and no doubt other cases) are less
parallel development than European communal or areal development, perhaps
driven by French usage and borrowing from French.  Or since it's a matter
of fiscal practice, perhaps it's Italian that's the source.  Returning to
the Cheyenne case, it would be interesting to know if it is similarly part
of an areal pattern.  I could check some of the Siouan forms.  I know that
in some cases there is at least a traditional term for "a woman's work
bag."  I don't know if this is adapted to purse.  In Omaha-Ponca the word
for workbag is uzhiha or 'in-put-skin'.  No connection with the next word,
which was not tabooed as in English in the early days, though it is now.

> But "you can't make a purse out of a sow's ear" (English proverb). ;-)

In which I've heard it said that 'ear' is a plausible substitution by way
of a euphemism, as I think you imply.  In English it's "a *silk* purse out
of a sow's ear," implying to me that a perfectly reasonable purse or bag
could and might well have been so made by the thrifty hog butcher, if not
an elegant one.



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