Re: vocabulary

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Jean-François Colson wrote:

>What about the verb "to slay"? Where does it come from? Is it
related >to "slaughter"? Or to the Dutch "slagen"?


Joe <joe@W...> wrote:

>>Both, I suspect.  'slay' was originally 'slean'
>>sl&an] '*sleahan'[sl&axan], which looks quite possibly related to
>>the Dutch [sla:G@n]~[sla:X@n] (I think).  Equally, I
>>believe 'slaughter'(as a noun) comes from OE. 'sleahtre', from the
>>same root. (Just from memory. May be wrong).

slay < ME slen(en), slew, sleyen < OE slean, sloh, slægen < PIE
*slak.
Cognate to sledgehammer, slaughter, schlock, onslaught, slag?, slack?

Charlie
http://wiki.frath.net