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etymologies

av fojo, 20 september 2005

Meddelanden: 2

Språk: English

fojo (Visa profilen) 20 september 2005 13:49:42

Saluton!

I just wanted to ask those of you more experienced and/or owning La plena ilustrita vortaro if etymologies are found there, or for that matter elsewhere. As a languages buff I recognize which words from national languages Esperanto words were made up most of the time, but sometimes I am puzzled. For example I wonder about so funny looking words as "edzo" or "viŝi". My interest here is merely using it is a very powerful and obvious mnemonic trick. Again, I was thinking hard how to store "kajero" and then suddenly I realized it should come from French "cahier", somebody should have prevented me from the wasted time. I find that too little attention is payed to this, in courses and everywhere. It is not that I want national languages come back to the fore, just that we are wasting a precious learning  resource. On the other hand, easing the way into natural languages is purportedly one of the valuable side-effects of Esperanto learning. Now, if I am learning a German word without even notice (very nice same-stone bird killed), I´d just rather know it!               Any help, thoughts?     Dankon.

trojo (Visa profilen) 20 september 2005 14:17:39

Well, I don't have the PIV, but I know where edzo (or more precisely edzino) supposedly comes from. It's believed to be back-formed from the Yiddish word rabetzin, which means "rabbi's wife". Viŝi is from German wischen (pronounced "viŝen") which means "to mop or wipe".

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