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From: ran@ho95b.UUCP (RANeinast)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Whiskey
Message-ID: <301@ho95b.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Feb-85 16:14:08 EST
Article-I.D.: ho95b.301
Posted: Fri Feb  1 16:14:08 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Feb-85 14:14:08 EST
Organization: AT&T-Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Lines: 34



Something that I've found interesting:

An example of the ubiquity of Indo-European
in western languages and in western thought
can be found in the origin (should this be
in net.origins? :-)) of the word "whiskey".
This comes from the Gaelic "uisge beatha",
which means, literally, the water of life
(no fools, they).  Translate the same expression
into Latin and, ta-da, "aqua vitae", which
also means strong liquor.  It is easy to see
the similarities between uisge and aqua (cognates),
and beatha and vitae.  Indo-European for water
is akwa- (also similar), and IE for life
is gwei- (not so obvious a similarity to me).
It's the suffixed form gwi-wo-ta (for vitae),
and gwi-wo-tut (for beatha) that produced the
above forms.

By the way, gwei- is also the root of the word
"quick", as in "the quick and the dead"
(that is, the living and the dead--and here
you thought it meant if you weren't fast, you
were dead), or "cut to the quick" (cut to the
living part of your skin).


-- 

". . . and shun the frumious Bandersnatch."
Robert Neinast (ihnp4!ho95c!ran)
AT&T-Bell Labs