Monday, February 1, 2016

INSANE Etymology Is Nothing To Sneeze At



 new entry alert:

SA(N)ITAR(Y)     $ayDeR      Sin-Dalet-Resh
SAY-Derr         סדר        [SDR à S +N TR]
ROOTS: At SANITARY, SANITATION, SANITARIUM, SANITORIUM and SANITY we are told that the source,  Latin sānitās, health, is from Latin sanus, health. There is no so-called Indo-European (IE) “root”, so we should be suspicious of an etymon like sanus that is without the dental of SOUND (healthy) and the many cognates below, especially the Germanic ones. The Latin Lovers among our older etymologies have been recently eclipsed by stronger Germanic research.
Investigating other Indo-European and non-IE “health” words, we discover that Latin sānitās (a more authentic etymon than the more corrupted sanus) is likely a nasalized, R-dropped  corruption of a Semitic $DR root.
Latin does have sartus (orderly, intact, unharmed), but the experts chose to SANITIZE the etymon, to SN -- perhaps to promote INSANE racial theories of independence from “inferiors.”
When asked about his HEALTH, an Israeli most often answers  בסדר B’$eDeR (OK, in good working order…thus, in good health).  The word is only in Job 10:22, but is attested from Akkadian.   סדר  Samekh-Dalet-Resh appears to be behind many words for “health.”

 BRANCHES:  When someone sneezes, we might say GESUNDHEIT.  This is from a German wish for one’s health or gesund.  Danish  and Swedish sund  is “healthy.”   Being of SOUND body, healthy, is also seen in Dutch gezondheid and Yiddish gesundheit.  Losing the dental with sanus instead of less-corrupt sānitās is looking bad, but the given etymology sets even sicker.  

Saying gesuntheit to a Slavic speaker will include zdorov' (health). Note how the Slavic below cements the “good order” and “health” Senses of  סדר $eDeR, and the Sound of fricative-dental-liquid or whistling-tooth-tongue letters…often in that order :

poRZąDek (order); poRZąDkować  (to put in order); poRZĄDny
    (neat, orderly);  -- Polish  M312 S-F
RZĘDem (lined up, ranked) --   Polish M312 S-F  
SaniTaR, orderly – Belarusian N
SaniTáŘ, orderly -- Czech N
SReDiti (arrange, put in order, collate) -- Bosnian, Croatian M132
ZDARovy (healthy) -- Belarusian S-F  
ZDRav (healthy, sound) -- Bosnian S-F  
ZDRavosloven (healthy) -- Bulgarian S-F  
ZoRaDit’ (to collate, set up, sequence) -- Slovak M132 S-F
ZRiaDit’ (to set up, institute)  -- Slovak M132 S-F
ZDRowy (healthy, sound) wholesome -- Polish S-F  
ZDRav (healthy) -- Croatian, Russian здрав S-F  
ZDRa’vyi  (sensible) – Russian  S-F  
ZDRavý (healthy) -- Czech  S-F  
ZRiaDit’ (to set up, institute)  -- Slovak M132 S-F

The only two Slavic words with that added nasal (which we now can be sure is a late corruption, a nasalization, appears in possible borrowings of SANITARY. Interestingly, the meaning is not the
“healthy” SANITARY, but the “in good order” one.

A סדור $iDOOR (prayer book) is carefully arranged, as is the Passover night סדר  SeyDeR meal.  For entries on the “order” meaning of סדר $eDeR , see “ABSURD” and “SIDEREAL.”

To fully nail down the thesis that the N in SANE and SOUND (solidly-formed) is a “recent”corruption of a few millennia, we should also look beyond the Slavic family.

Even in the Romance languages the “health” words in Spanish salud and Italian salute may be from
סדר $eDeR  --  shifting that liquid to L.  Both seem to have undergone an M132  metathesis, with the Italian shifting the ד Dalet/D to T.   SALUTARY means “favorable to health”, and is traced to Latin
salutaris. Salute ! (to your health).
Portuguese saude has only an R-drop, while the more urban, thus corrupted French is the nasalized  
 French santé.  Romanian has both sănătos  (N, S-D) and the Slavic-like zdravăn. On the Indo side of IE, Bengali sndôr, beauty, looks like a nasalized Edenic “order.” 

More non-IE data awaits blogging this entry, but so far:   In Samoan, where there is no R, סדר     $ayDeR is apparently reversed to tausi (to keep in order); likewise with Turkish order: dizi. Turkish sihhat (health) may have also lost the prehistoric, Edenic end-liquid.