Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin].

  • Ragozin, Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna), 1835-1924.
Date:
[1895]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vedic India as embodied principally in the Rig-Veda / [Zénaïde A. Ragozin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ened by modern Russian into mati, very recogniza- ble for once in the Celtic mat hi, even more than in the German mutter, and English mother, from Old Teutonic muotar ; but corrupted in the Spanish and Italian meidre, and the French mere, after exactly the same fashion as the word for “ father,”—evidently with conscious intention to establish a symmetry akin to alliteration—a rhyme—a trick of language by which it pleased a slightly barbaric ear and taste to couple together kindred objects or ideas. The root of this multiform word is MA, “'to make,” and also “to measure.” A combination particularly sugges- tive, since the mother, she who “ has given birth,” is also she who “measures,” “portions out” the pro- visions, the food* and the other necessaries of life to the various members of the household. From the same root we have mas, the moon, the measurer of time, so that the same word means “ moon ” and “ month,” as it still does in its Slavic form, “ mesiats. 19. The other words expressing near relationship are no less generally preserved in the several Aryan languages. To begin with: Sanskrit b hr a tar—svdsar; Avestan, bratar—hvanhar; Greek, frater; (only the word, at the stage of which it comes under our ken, had become diverted from its original meaning and was used in a political or social sense, to designate a member of one of the tribes or brotherhoods—fratri- as—into which citizens were divided. For the family relationship of both brother and sister the Greeks adopted an entirely different word). Latin, frater —soror ; Old Teutonic, brothar—svistar ; modern German, bruder—schzvester ; English, brother—