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#120925 01/23/04 03:16 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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Now there's a dandy word I haven't heard for a while. I had no luck trying to find etymology. Share and share alike.
Remember using logarithms, and having to find reciprocals?


#120926 01/23/04 03:26 PM
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#120927 01/23/04 03:39 PM
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veteran
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I had no luck trying to find etymology.

That's because its is a troubled one. From Latin reciproco 'to move backwards, or back and forth'. The re- prefix is familar, but the rest of the word is murky. Cf. Latin procer 'chief, noble'. But where did the -ci- come from? Some kind of strange reduplication? Anyway, re for 'back' and pro for 'forth' is about it.


#120928 01/23/04 03:55 PM
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wwh Offline OP
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You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.


#120929 01/23/04 10:27 PM
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Are we talking about symbiosis again?


#120930 01/24/04 02:37 AM
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But where did the -ci- come from?

How about from "cis" meaning "on this side" - e.g. "cis Taurum", "cis Alpes"? Which is apparently related to a Sanskrit stem "ki".

On the subject of "ki" - here's more Nostraticist fodder: ki means "who" in Hungarian and French. Coincidence? Probably.



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