An etymology

[Nicholas Ostler]

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At 6:54 am -0700 19/4/01, Peter Claus wrote:
>
>For Nicholas Ostler:
>
>I remember reading an article or section of a book (the same?) in grad.
>school years ago advancing the "image in the eye" explanation. What is
>the reference, again? I forgot.

Sorry.  This was just classroom gossip, as I heard it.  We never
asked our teacher for a reference.

It is, however, confirmed in the entry for "pupil" (2),  in C.T.
Onions, The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966).

>The application of the L. words to the pupil of the eye is based on,
>or parallel to, that of Gr. kore: maiden, girl, doll, pupil (the
>allusion being to the tiny images of persons and things that may be
>seen therein).




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