bothme

Grammatical information: m.

Meaning: `bottom of a vessel, the sea etc., ground, base, underlay, foot, e.g. of a cup, plant, i.e. root-end, stick, stem' (ep. Il., hell. a. late prose), `the lowest number (base) of an arithmetic series' (Pl. a.o.).

Compounds: Tately as 2. member e.g. ἀ-πύθμεν-ος `bottomless, footless' (Thphr.; Sommer Nominalkomp. 99); besides (gramm.) withou them. vowel ἀ-πύθμην `id.' (Theognost.) a.o.

Derivatives: Dimin. πυθμέν-ιον n. (pap.), - ικός `belonging to the base', - έω `to form a base' (late).

Origin: IE [Indo-European] [174] * bhudh-m(e)n- `bottom'

Etymology: Formation like λιμήν, ποιμήν (Schwyzer 522, Chantraine Form. 174; not productive). Except for the suffix πυθ-μήν agrees with Skt. budh-ná- m. `bottom, ground, foot, root', IE * bhudh-. Also morphologically these words can be brought together, if one derived budh-na- from * bhudh-mn-o- (the m was soon lost). In Germ. * bhudh- became PGm. * bud- (seen in OE bodan, MLG bōdem(e) etc.); then, after mn \> n, * bud-n- became * butt- \> bot(t)- according to Kluge's law (seen in OE botem \> Engl. bottom), ONord. botn); we also find evidence for PGm. * buÞ- (OHG bodam, OS bothme, ME bothme) which is as yet unexplained; see now G. Kroonen, ABäG 61(2006)xxx-xxx. Further removed is Lat. fundus `bottom etc.', with which MIr. bond, bonn `sole, basis' can be identical (IE * bhund(h)o-). The inner nasal is prob. connected with the nasalsuffix in * bhudh-no- and can be due to old metathesis, as corresponding forms appear also on Indo-Iran. territory, e.g. Av. bū̆na m. `ground, bottom' (from * bundna-?), Prākr. bundha- m. `bottom of a vase'; s. Mayrhofer s. budhnáḥ w. lit.; cf. also πύνδαξ (s.v.). -- Hypotheses in Bq and Ernout-Meillet s. fundus (after Vendryes MSL 18, 305 ff.); further rich lit. in W.-Hofmann s. fundus (WP. 2, 190, Pok. 174). On the meaning in gen. Kretschmer Glotta 22, 115ff. (against Porzig WuS 15, 112 f.); for Greek esp. Furumark Eranos 44, 45 ff. Though some details remain difficult, the reconstruction can hardly be doubted.

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