Cognate Set 6169 – Meaning: ash
- IE-CoR reference form:
- ἄσπρος / áspros
- IE-CoR reference language:
- Greek: Ancient
- Ideophonic:
- no
- Parallel derivation:
- no
- Loan event:
- yes
- Parallel loan event:
- no
- Loan source language:
- Latin
- Source lexeme in loan source language:
- asper
- Justification:
- Loanword from Lat. asper 'rough' as a transferred adjective in the phrase nummi aspri 'rough coins', the original semantic development to 'white' appears to have been '(rough) silver' → 'silver-white' → 'white' (Babinotis 2010:223-224, Beekes 2010:154, cf. cognate set 1565). In Italiot Greek the semantics further developed 'white' → 'white ash' → 'ash'.
- Found in clades:
- Hellenic
- Revised by:
- Matthew Scarborough
Found in 1 clade by 1 lexeme.
|
Language |
Lexeme |
Native script |
Phonetic |
Phonemic |
Notes |
| 12 |
Greek: Italiot
|
ásprī |
άσπρη |
ˈaspri |
ˈaspri |
Cal.; but non-cognate /ˈstatti/, /ˈstafti/ Ap. |
- References
- Babinotis, George: 223-224
S.v. άσπρος. Loanword from Lat. asper 'rough' as in the phrase nummi asperi 'rough coins', i.e. new coins which had just been cut and had not yet been worn down from circulation. The semantic development appears to be one via a transferred adjective '(rough) silver' → 'silver-white' → 'white'.
- Beekes, Robert: 154
S.v. ἄσπρος 'rough'. A loanword from Lat. asper.
- Scarborough, Matthew:
The same as 'white' [cognate set 1565](cog-1565) in other Modern Greek varieties. The meaning as ash was a secondary semantic shift from 'white' > 'white ash' > 'ash' in Italiot Greek (Nikos Liosis, p.c.).
