A new etymology for PIE *mēms- 'meat, flesh'

Vol.63,No.1(2015)

Paul S. Cohen

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/133865

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Abstract
PIE *mēms- 'meat, flesh' has no generally-accepted underlying etymological source. After a detailed analysis of earlier etymological attempts and suggestions, I propose and support an etymology as a reduplication of an s-extended form of the root *meh1- '(ab)messen' — that is, meat being conceived of as something measured out or divided up. The derivation, as I will show, is another example of the process I propounded in a previous paper, viz. a generalization of so-called e-reduplication in nouns. This etymology supplies solutions for all the well-known morphological problems associated with *mēms-, including the absence of medial m in some Old Indian reflexes.

Keywords:
*mēms-; reduplication; root structure; root extension

Pages:
57–70
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