"It's Proto-Indo-European for "money" "

[Tim May]

On Monday, November 26, 2001, at 05:21 PM, georgemw at speakeasy.net wrote:

> On 23 Nov 2001, at 19:13, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
>
>> Pecunia, the latin word for money, comes from the Etruscian pecu,
>> meaning, cow.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> RAH
>>
>
> And of course the German word for money is Gelt, which means
> Gold.
>

German is but one of _many_ descendants of Proto-Indo-European.

My favorite dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, has extensive
etymologies tracing to PIE. Note that often the words have Greek and
Latin cognates, meaning in most cases an etymology distinct from German.

Lots of English, Norse, Dutch, and German words have the "gl" sound:
glitter, glisten, glimmer,  gleaming, gloaming, gloss, glow, glower,
gold, guild, guilder, gall, cholera, even Sanskrit words.

Left as an exercise: the PIE origins of "mark" (another common word for
a unit of money), "dollar" (ditto), and "crown." For extra credit,
"peso," "peseta," and variants. For extra extra credit, "florin."

Here's the entry:

http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE158.html

ENTRY:	ghel-2
DEFINITION:	To shine; with derivatives referring to colors, bright
materials, gold (probably yellow metal), and bile or gall. Oldest form
*hel-, becoming *ghel- in centum languages.
Derivatives include gold, arsenic, melancholy, Hare Krishna, gleam,
glimpse, and glide.
   I. Words denoting colors. 1. Suffixed form *ghel-wo-. yellow, from
Old English geolu, yellow, from Germanic *gelwaz. 2. Suffixed variant
form *ghl-ro-. chloro-; chlorite1, from Greek khlros, green, greenish
yellow. 3. Suffixed variant form *ghlo-wo-. chloasma, from Greek
khloos (< *khlo-wo-s), greenish color. 4. O-grade form *ghol-. podzol,
from Russian zola, ashes (from their color). 5. Suffixed form *ghel-i-.
Hare Krishna, Harijan, from Sanskrit hari-, tawny yellow. 6. Possibly
suffixed zero-grade form *gh-wo- in Latin fulvus, tawny (with dialectal
f- as in fel, gall): griseofulvin.
   II. Words denoting gold. 1. Suffixed zero-grade form *gh-to-. a.
gold, from Old English gold, gold; b. gild1, from Old English gyldan, to
gild, from Germanic denominative verb *gulthjan; c. guilder, gulden,
from Middle Dutch gulden, golden; d. gowan, from Middle English gollan,
yellow flower, possibly from a source akin to Old Norse gullinn, golden.
ad all from Germanic *gultham, gold. 2. Suffixed o-grade form
*ghol-to-. zloty, from Polish zoto, gold. 3. Suffixed full-grade form
*ghel-no-. arsenic, from Syriac zarnk, orpiment, from Middle Iranian
*zarnik-, from Old Iranian *zarna-, golden.
   III. Words denoting bile. 1. Suffixed o-grade form *ghol-no-. gall1,
from Old English gealla, gall, from Germanic *galln-, bile. 2. Suffixed
o-grade form *ghol--. chole-, choler, cholera; acholia, melancholy, from
Greek khol, bile. 3. Suffixed full-grade form *ghel-n-. felon2, from
Latin fel, bile.
   IV. A range of Germanic words (where no preforms are given, the words
are late creations). 1. gleam, from Old English glm, bright light,
gleam, from Germanic *glaimiz. 2. glimpse, from Middle English glimsen,
to glimpse, from a source akin to Middle High German glimsen, to gleam.
3. glint, from Middle English glent, a glint, and glenten, to shine,
from a source akin to Swedish dialectal glinta, to shine. 4. glimmer,
from Middle English glimeren, to glimmer, from a source akin to Swedish
glimra, glimmer. 5. glitter, from Old Norse glitra, to shine. 6. glitz,
from Old High German glzan, to sparkle. 7. glisten, from Old English
glisnian, to shine. 8. glister, from Middle Dutch glinsteren or Middle
Low German glisteren, to shine. 9. glass, glaze, glazier, from Old
English glfs, glass, from Germanic *glasam, glass. 10. glare1, from
Middle English glaren, to glitter, stare, from a source akin to Middle
Low German glaren, to glisten, from Germanic *glaz-. 11. gloss1, from a
source perhaps akin to Icelandic glossi, a spark. 12. glance2, from Old
High German glanz, bright. 13. gleg, from Old Norse glvggr,
clear-sighted. 14. glad1, from Old English glfd, shining, joyful, from
Germanic *gladaz. 15. glee; gleeman, from Old English glo, sport,
merriment, from Germanic *gleujam. 16a. gleed, from Old English gld,
ember; b. glogg, from Old Norse glodh, ember. Both a and b from Germanic
*gl-di-. 17a. glow, from Old English glwan, to glow; b. glower, from
Middle English gloren, to gleam, stare, probably from a source akin to
Norwegian dialectal glora, to gleam, stare; c. gloat, from a source
perhaps akin to Old Norse glotta, to smile (scornfully). ac all from
Germanic *gl-. 18. gloaming, from Old English glm, twilight, from
Germanic *gl-m-. 19. Possibly distantly related to this root is Germanic
*gldan, to glide. a. glide, from Old English gldan, to slip, glide; b.
glissade, from Old French glier, to glide; c. glitch, from Old High
German gltan, to glide; d. glede, from Old English glida, kite (<
gliding, hovering bird), from derivative Germanic *glidn-. 20. glib,
from a source possibly akin to Middle Low German glibberich, slippery.
(Pokorny 1. hel- 429.)



--Tim May
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only
exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from
the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for
the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with
the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy
always followed by dictatorship." --Alexander Fraser Tyler