Re: Crus, Crures (quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod bracchia vellis)

 Ar an dara lá déag de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Christian Weisgerber:

 > On 2024-06-11, Antonio Marques <no_email@invalid.invalid> wrote:
 >
 > > Portuguese _perna_ (whence?)
 >
 > From Latin _perna_, cognate with German _Ferse_ 'heel' as well as
 > words in Greek and Indo-Iranian, according to Wiktionary.
 >
 > Not even English and German can agree on the leg words.  "Leg" is
 > borrowed from Old Norse.  German "Bein" is cognate with "bone" (and
 > in various compounds still retains a meaning 'bone', e.g. "Gebeinhaus"
 > 'ossuary').  English "shank" refers to the lower leg but is cognate
 > (+ diminutive) with German "Schenkel" 'thigh'.  English "thigh" had
 > an Old High German cognate, but it didn't survive into Modern German.
 > German "Wade", which refers to the back part of the lower leg, is
 > a Germanic word but without English cognate.

The Irish word is cos; MacBain says (of its Scots Gaelic sibling, cas):

  “foot, leg, Irish cos, Old Irish coss, Welsh coes, *koksâ; Latin coxa, hip;
  Middle High German hahse, bend of the knee; Sanskrit kákshas, armpit.”

 > I wonder whether the anatomical differences between plantigrade
 > humans and some of our digitigrade and unguligrade domestic animals
 > are to blame.

Iberian can’t even keep the word for “hip” straight, the Brazilians say “o
quadril,” the Portuguese “a anca” (more boringly), the Spanis ‘la cadera.’

A mess in any event. Are other non-European language families less messy?

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)