Lemizh / English dictionary
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vnà.
to burn (of fire);
agentive caus: to set fire to something-dat, to burn something-dat to something-acc [e.g. ashes];
dat: to burn (of an object)
vnè. a/the fire
vnÌ. smoke and ashes
vnì. fuel
vnòr. fireplace, hearth
vnajnà. agentive caus: to burn down something-dat (as opposed to ‘set fire to’)
Usage notes
Fire is mythologically and poetically seen as female, which is the source of the ‘female’ (zero) poststem in Modern Lemizh. George Lakoff did not comment on this fact. (xÌf. ‘water’, by comparison, is male, as for some reason is sxnèz. ‘Sun’.)
Etymology
gender change of
< NLem vengw‑a
< LMLem, MLem vengw‑yr ‘fire’
< OLem dhengw‑ ‘make fire’
< PLem *dzengw‑ ‘burn’ [tr.], Narten present of
< PIE *dʰegʷʰ‑
The Old Lemizh meaning ‘make fire’ gave rise to the inner accusative of MLem vengw‑yr ‘fire’. The modern plot, by contrast, views the fire-nom as burning an object-dat, in analogy to someone breaking a branch, the Sun melting snow, etc.
Cognates
Lat foveō ‘(keep) warm, foster’, Ved dáhati ‘burns’ [tr.]