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From: alderson@netcom.com (Richard M. Alderson III)
Subject: Re: etymology of "geas"
In-Reply-To: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu's message of Sat, 21 Jan 1995 03:00:38 GMT
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References: <By27hLz.bwelden@delphi.com> <1995Jan20.043447.18579@midway.uchicago.edu>
	<1995Jan21.030038.4582@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 17:43:44 GMT
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In article <1995Jan21.030038.4582@midway.uchicago.edu> deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu
(Daniel von Brighoff) writes:

>In article <1995Jan20.043447.18579@midway.uchicago.edu>
deb5@midway.uchicago.edu writes:

>Fortunately, there's more than one at the research library where I work.
>McBain's (Scots-Gaelic/English) derives it from earlier *gesso <- *ged-to,
>ultimately from PIE (Proto-Indo-European) *ghed- meaning "ask" (which also
>gives Irish 'guidh' "pray").  Listed cognates include Greek 'thessasthai'
>'pray for' and English 'bid', German 'bitten', both "ask for."
			 ^^^	       ^^^^^^

Not possible.  Not even for a minute.

*ghed- would yield English "git" or "get," not "bid".  Under no circumstances
does a Germanic *b arise from a PIE *gh, nor could a PIE *d yield a Gmc. *d.
-- 
Rich Alderson   You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
                of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
                logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
                know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
                as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
                what not.
                                                --J. R. R. Tolkien,
alderson@netcom.com                               _The Notion Club Papers_
