Tie between the micro- and macrocosmos: on the etymology of Homeric βρότος
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Etimologija; Homeras; Indoeuropiečių kalbos; Isosemantiniai modeliai; Izosemantinės eilės, semantika; Stovintys vandenys Indoeuropiečių prokalbėje; Žmogaus kūno skyčiai; Etymology; Excretions of the human body; Homer; Indo-European languages; Isosemantic models; Isosemantic sequence, semantics; Stagnant waters in Proto-IndoEuropean.
ENAnalysis of the four occurrences of the Homeric formula λούσασθαι (λούσῃ, λούσειαν, νίζοντες) ἄπο βρότον αἱματόεντα in the Iliad (Il. 7, 425; 14, 7; 18, 345; 23, 41) shows that it is used only in passages concerned with death on the battlefield. The word βρότος does not have a strong IE etymology, and the translation of the expression of βρότον αἱματόεντα as ‘clotted blood’ does not render adequately the sense of the noun. The paper argues that βρότος is connected with the PIE root *mer- used to designate slowly flowing or stagnant waters (or fluids). The semantic development from ‘stagnant waters or fluids’ to ‘blood oozing from the wound, gore’ is explained through the metaphoric association between nature and the human body (a similar isosemantic model is to be found in Baltic, Slavic and German languages). It is suggested that the reconstructed root *mer- is a cognate, not a homonym, of the well known PIE root *mer- ‘to die’. [From the publication]
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