This is to alert you to major changes in our front-page dictionary, the Quick Lookup (now with an integrated thesaurus) and to elicit comments.  In addition to the integration of the 3rd edition of Roget’s II, we now have the capacity to make wild card searches with "?" for one letter or "*" for any number of letters.

THE ETYMOLOGY LINKS ARE LIVE!  At long last you can see what Professor Calvert Watkins of Harvard has made of Pokorny’s etymologies of several hundred roots in the AHD4 dictionary.  PIE and Semitic.  You guys, especially, should be happy at this news.

"DL"

That is wonderful news, doctor!

Many thanks to you and your staff!

Sitran

That is indeed wonderful,  how do I access them?

Katy
eager to etymologize

Not every word has deep etymology but type in "mechanic" and at the bottom of the entry it says "See *magh- in Indo-European roots."  Just click *magh- and behold what unveils before your eyes!  Try "algebra," too.

Let’s say you want to find "cockaigne" but are not sure if it is spelled this way or "coccaigne," "cocaigne," or "coccaign."  Type in "co*aign?" and see what happens.

--RB

Try "algebra," too.  

I just did, and now I know why I still have some bones to pick with my junior high algebra teacher.

Perry

Marvellous!

Pokorny sells at USD 595 (when available...), and I know nothing even remotely resembling it for Semitic.

At Leiden University, there is a project:

The aim of the project is twofold: 1) to create an Indo-European etymological data-base which, in due time, will be available to the scholarly community on the Internet; and 2) to compile a new Indo-European etymological dictionary, which will replace Julius Pokorny’s Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959). Pokorny’s masterpiece is an indispensable tool used by Indo-Europeanists for all kinds of research, but is completely outdated. A new dictionary is a long-felt desideratum.

These links may work for accessing the present state of it:

http://us.share.geocities.com/iliria1/etymology1.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/agimzeneli/etymology2.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/altingjoka/etymology3.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/kadrizhulali/etymology4.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/alijecipuri/etymology5.html
http://www.geocities.com/andi2000pl/etymology6.html

Pokorny costs considerably less at http://www.amazon.de

--DL

Thank you! I normally look at amazon.uk

Your work is marvellous, doctor.

I would recommend to you all the etymology of "wife."  With a rare reference `Not in Pokorny’ (that is, a development from Julius Pokorny at long last) it unfolds before you a curious history of this word.

I have a facsimile copy of IE and Semitic glossary taken from American Heritage English Dic.tio.na.ry dated 2000.  But there is a later AHD edition dated 2003, if I remember correctly.  Does the newer one have an revised glossary?

nunc bibendum est, dum stultitia regit.
Time is now to drink, while stupidity reigns.

-

Marvellous!

Pokorny sells at USD 595 (when available...), and I know nothing even remotely resembling it for Semitic.

At Leiden University, there is a project:

The aim of the project is twofold: 1) to create an Indo-European etymological data-base which, in due time, will be available to the scholarly community on the Internet; and 2) to compile a new Indo-European etymological dictionary, which will replace Julius Pokorny’s Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959). Pokorny’s masterpiece is an indispensable tool used by Indo-Europeanists for all kinds of research, but is completely outdated. A new dictionary is a long-felt desideratum.

These links may work for accessing the present state of it:

http://us.share.geocities.com/iliria1/etymology1.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/agimzeneli/etymology2.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/altingjoka/etymology3.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/kadrizhulali/etymology4.html
http://us.share.geocities.com/alijecipuri/etymology5.html
http://www.geocities.com/andi2000pl/etymology6.html

:(
The link : http://www.geocities.com/andi2000pl/etymology6.html did not work but I found another link instead:
http://www.geocities.com/iliria6/

Does anybody know an equivalent project on Semitic roots?

http://www.languagehat.com has two posts (with comments) lamenting over the lack of Semitic etymological dictionaries. Got to his archive for June 2004, and scroll to June 29 and June 25.

I have come across some of the items mentioned in the posts and really got disappointed for their unscientific attitudes.

This does not, however, mean that there is no reliable Semitic etymological work.  As I mentioned in a past post in this thread, the Appendix II of American Heritage Dictionary ed. 4 (by John Huehnergard) is a fascinating piece.  Although Dr. H does not list any reference for this section of AHD, I am sure that there must be some preceeding literature, however irregular.

The langyagehat June 29 post I referred to:

ARABIC ETYMOLOGY II.
An earlier entry lamented the fact that there is no Arabic etymological dictionary; a Russian LJ site picked up on this and a commenter provided the following list of alleged counterexamples:

Murad Faraj
Multaqay al-lughatayn al-`Ivriyah wa-`al-`Arabiyah [The unity of the two Semitic languages Hebrew and Arabic, an etymological comparative dictionary].
Cairo: Al-Matba`ah al-Rahmaniyah, 1930-1937. 3 v.

Abd Allah Bustani
al-Bustan, oahoa mujamoun lugaouioun [The garden: an etymological dictionary].
Beirut: El matbaa el amrikia, 1927-1930. 2 v., 2784 p.

Jubran Mas`ud
al-Ra’id,
mu`jam lughawi `asri rutibat mufradatuh wafqan li-hurufiha al-ulá
Beirut: Dar al-`Ilm lil-Mallayin, 1965. 1637 p.

Avraham Shtal; Avraham Robinzon
Milon du-leshoni etimologi le-`Arvit meduberet ule-`Ivrit [Bilingual etymological dictionary of spoken Israeli Arabic and Hebrew].
Tel-Aviv: Devir, 1995. 2 v., 711 p.

I wrote Professor Alan Kaye (who’s done etymological work on Arabic) asking "if any or all of these are genuine scholarly works," and he responded "None of these are scientific etymological dictionaries as exist for other languages, such as English, which give the Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European etyma." So the problem still stands: there are no reliable/scientific etymological dictionaries for Arabic.