Book II: The Vocabulary of Kinship Introduction Abstract If our knowledge of the Indo-European vocabulary of kinship has not been noticeably advanced since the study of Indo-European kinship by Delbrück (1890), ethnological research, for its part, has made great progress, and this is what today provokes the linguist to revise the traditional interpretation of certain […]
Chapter 17. Gratuitousness and Gratefulness Abstract Lat. gratia is a term, originally having religious value, which was applied to a mode of economic behavior: what designated “grace” and an “action of grace” came to express the notion of “gratuitousness” (gratis). Text The terms relating to the various aspects of payment lead on to consideration of […]
Chapter 16. Lending, Borrowing, and Debt Abstract In contrast to Bartholomae, who distinguishes two roots par-, it is shown that the Iranian derivatives (and the Armenian ones) of par-, from which comes Iranian *pr̥tu-, and from it Armenian partkc ‘debt’, can be attached to a single basic meaning “compensate by something levied on oneself, on […]
Chapter 15. Credence and Belief Abstract The exact formal correspondence between Lat. crē–dō and Sanskrit śrad–dhā– is a guarantee of ancient heritage. Studies of the uses of śrad–dhā– in the Rig Veda show that the meaning of the word is “act of confidence (in a god), implying restitution (in the form of a divine favor […]
Chapter 14. Price and Wages Abstract When studied in their most ancient uses and referred to their Indo-European origin, the words for wages—in particular Gr. misthós, Got. laun (German Lohn)—show that before designating the “price for some piece of work,” they signified “reward for a brilliant exploit,” “prize in a competition.” As for Lat. merces, […]
Chapter 13. Hiring and Leasing Abstract Unlike French, Latin opposes conducere ‘to hire, take on lease’ to locare ‘let out on hire, to lease’. The specialized sense of conducere , which basically signifies “lead,” started in the military context of recruiting and becomes specifically “to hire” when a chief (dux) engages men for a given […]
Section 4: Economic Obligations Chapter 12. Accountancy and Valuation Abstract Latin duco and Greek hēgéomai have the same senses; the literal sense “lead, command” and the figurative sense “believe, judge, estimate.” But we must be careful not to deduce from this that there were parallel lines of development in both cases, from the literal to […]
Chapter 11. An Occupation without a Name: Commerce Abstract The comparison of Indo-European languages furnishes no common designation for commerce as a specific activity, as distinguished from buying and selling. The particular terms which appeared in different places are usually recognizable as borrowings (Lat. caupo, Gr. kápēlos), or recent creations (Gr. émporos). The Latin negōtium, […]
Chapter 10. Purchase and Redemption Abstract Indo-European had words for “to be worth” and “value.” But a study of the Homeric usage of alphánō ‘to bring in, yield, fetch’ makes it clear that alphḗ designated originally the exchange value of a man put up for sale. Skt. arhat ‘a man of particular merit’ brings confirmation […]
Section 3: Purchase Chapter 9. Two Ways of Buying Abstract Were the roots *wes– and kwrī-, which have provided the verbs for “to buy,” synonymous in Indo-European? Greek, where these two roots coexist and function in suppletion, enables us to determine the first as the designation of transaction and the second as that of payment. […]