THE CASE OF "GRASS" (PIE: *ghr-so- ) & C. ARABIC "GHRZ" - LexiLine Journal 479

Best viewed (including the various dictionary entries) by clicking the following URL: or copying and pasting the URL in your browser.

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/GRASS.html

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THE CASE OF "GRASS" (PIE: *ghr-so- ) & C. ARABIC "GHRZ"

This is part of a series of investigations reexamining aspects of the relationship between IE and Semitic languages, by considering in detail derivations of areas where inferences were made about words which were common to the homeland of the Indo-European-speaking people before the period of migrations took them to the different localities.

Migration is a way of life for nomads in which herding cattle is the basis of economic life. If the early Indo-Europeans relied upon herding for survival, then it is safe to assume that they were bound to move their herds in search of fresh pasture.

In this segment, the focus is on the term "grass". According to Indo-Europeanists, words for "grass" are from such a notion as "green, growing, fat, blade, but in part also from fodder, since the fodder was usually grass.

ETYMOLOGY: ghr- : To grow, become green. Contracted from *ghre1-. 1. O-grade form *ghr-. grow, from Old English grwan, to grow, from Germanic *gr(w)an. 2. Suffixed o-grade form *ghr-n-yo-. green, from Old English grne, green, from Germanic *grnjaz, green. 3. Suffixed zero-grade form *ghr-so-. grass, graze1, from Old English græs, grass, from Germanic *grasam, grass. (Pokorny (ghr-)
454.)

GROWTH: –noun 1. the act or process, or a manner of growing; development; gradual increase. 2. size or stage of development: It hasn't yet reached its full growth. (biology) the process of an individual organism growing organically; a purely biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from a simple to a more complex level

GRASS

1a. The grass family. b. The members of the grass family considered as a group. 2. Any of various plants having slender leaves characteristic of the grass family. 3. An expanse of ground, such as a lawn, covered with grass or similar plants. 4. Grazing land; pasture.

General Germanic: O.E. græs, gærs "herb, plant, grass," from P.Gmc. grasan (cf. O.N., Ger., Goth. gras), from PIE*ghros- "young shoot, sprout," OFris. gers, gres, OS.gras, MDu. gras, gars , gers, mod.Du gras, gars, gers, mod.Du. gras, OHG.( MHG., mod. Ger.) ON ( Sw. gras, Da. græs) Goth. gras.

COMPARISON WITH THE CLASSICAL ARABIC "GHRZ"

ETYMOLOGY:

The base meaning of "ghrz" "(ghayn+ra'+zayn) in Classical Arabic is planting (i.e. inserting and fixing a stick into the ground), like "ghrs": planting a tree. Hence one says the valley produced "ghrz" grass.

ghrz: A species of panic grass, growing upon the banks of rivers having no leaves consisting of blades (sheaths) , a kind of sweet rush.

ta-ghriyz: Offsets of palm trees that have been transplanted, increase or offspring and fatness (as in fattening animals to make them attractive for sale)

ma-ghriz: A place of growth in general, increase, and vegetative development.

Ghuruwz: Sprigs, shoots, twigs of a plant grafted upon the branches of grape vines. Compare with MHG. "gruose" young plants. cf. PIE*ghros- "young shoot, sprout.

CONCLUSION:

Previously, I stated that history teaches us that past civilizations emerged separately. At times, through interaction, these civilizations converged, effectively leading to an amalgamation forming a new hybrid civilization, and then eventually diverged again. This process, which is continuing in a perpetual sequence of convergence and divergence, is reflected in languages. Case in point are shared isoglosses between different languages. This may be due to historical contact between these languages and cultures. In this case, the $64,000 question facing linguists and archeologists is not if there was any contact between the languages compared here, but rather when this contact occurred.

Ishinan

February 26th, 2008
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Andis Kaulins replied:

The reconstructed proto-Indo-European etymology for "grass" "grow" and "green" is totally faulty.

The root for "grow, increase" is the correctly determined hypothetical proto-Indo-Europan *aug- which is STILL a major word and root in Latvian (see here ) and led to forms such as augl-/augr- "fruit, grow, cultivate", which led to the term "grow". The American Heritage Dictionary at Bartleby writes:

"Appendix I

Indo-European Roots

ENTRY: aug-
DEFINITION: To increase. Oldest form *2eug-, colored to *2aug-. Variant *2weg- becoming *(a)weg-.
Derivatives include nickname, auction, and auxiliary.
1. eke1, from Old English acan, can, to increase; b. nickname, from Old English aca, an addition. Both a and b from Germanic *aukan. 2. Variant (metathesized) form *weg- (from *weg-), extended to *wegs- (o-grade *wogs-). a. wax2; woodwaxen, from Old English weaxan, to grow, from Germanic *wahsan; b. waist, from Old English *wæst, growth, hence perhaps waist, size, from Germanic *wahs-tu-. 3. Form *aug--. auction, augend, augment, author, authorize, from Latin augre, to increase. 4. augur; inaugurate, from Latin augur, diviner (< "he who obtains favorable presage" < "divine favor, increase"). 5. august, from Latin augustus, majestic, august. 6. Suffixed form *aug-s-. a. auxiliary, from Latin auxilium, aid, support, assistance; b. auxin, auxesis, from Greek auxein, auxanein, to increase. (Pokorny aeg- 84.)

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved."

I posted about this already at LexiLine at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/LexiLine/message/1216 as follows:

"[T]he Latvian word "aug" meaning "grow" is a root
alleged to be original in Indo-European even by the mainstream
linguists and has many cognates in Latvian, e.g. "augums"
meaning "stature, physical size", or "augli" meaning "fruits, the
growth of the fields and the harvest", and augsts ("high, tall").
All of these can be traced to the root word aug (by the way, we have
this word in English as "high" and in German as "hoch"). I need not
go to Latin augere "to increase" (whence English grow) to find the
root aug, it is already located in the Latvian language. Quite the
contrary, Latin can go to the Latvian to find the root for augere
since the actual root AUG had disappeared from Latin.

The list is endless. There is no need in Latvian to look to Greek or
Latin or any other language for the roots of these words."

In this regard, the Arabic word for "grow, increase" is tarbiyy, allegedly from Arabic root raba (to grow, increase), which is the same as the Latvian root darb- "work, activity" as rooted in dariba "doings". German has lost the D and has the word Arbeit = Latvian darbot "to be be busy". In other words, in Arabic it was not the increasing "height" of something that gave the concept of "growth" but rather the idea of "activity" in the sense of increase.

The idea that there is a root *ghr in Indo-European for the color green is absurd and supported mostly only in Germanic. In Latvian ALL the "colors" are similar and very little dissimilated, showing a very ancient far more original status for color words. I have written about this at length in talking about the hair color of Sumerians:

"Orientalists hold to an unfounded misconception based on a misreading of Sumerian writing, that the Sumerians were "black-haired" invaders.

Sumerian Hair Color
Krishna = Reddish and Blonde Hair

ALL of the indigenous peoples in the Fertile Crescent have Black Hair, so they would not call immigrant Ubaidian Sumerians "black-haired". This is nonsense. An ancient word having another meaning has simply been mistranslated.

We can demonstrate on the basis of the Indo-European
words for COLOR, that red and blonde have been confused with black and blue.

These terms are e.g. Latvian KRASAINS "bright, MANY-colored",
allegedly found also as Sanskrit KRSNA "black, dark" (incorrect and a similar source of error in Sanskrit translation),
Russian KRASNYJ "the color red"
Old Church Slavic KRASINU, Latvian KRASNS "beautiful".

The description of the hair of the Sumerians by indigenous peoples clearly meant "blonde, red-haired, colored hair", i.e. in CONTRA-DISTINCTION to the black hair of the native inhabitants of the more southerly regions
(As Shakespeare wrote, these are the sun-burned races of the South
- this is not a racial disparagement, it just means that
pigmentation increases with increasing exposure to solar radiation,
which is why the hair of humans gets darker as you go South
- it is a normal adaptation we also find in many life forms.)

The KR- word root is found in English CL- (CoLor),
i.e. the well-known conversion R//L although the KR- forms
have already lost the interceding vowel. In Latvian the words for blue, green and yellow differ only as to the internal vowel (ZIL, ZAL, ZEL) showing a particularly ancient form of the Indo-European proto-language (the text color corresponds to the color being discussed below).

We find the basic root KR / CL in
Latvian ZIL- "blue" - also the
word for "pupil" of the eye
and the blue-grey "forest"
Latvian ZAL- "green" - also the word for grass
Latvian ZEL- "gold, yellow-colored" and DZEL- "yellow" (Latvian)
ZILumas - "grey" (in Lithuanian)
Latvian SARkans - "red"
AZUL- AZUR- "blue" in many languages
ZELenyj "green" (Russian)
ZELtyj "yellow" (Russian)
ZAIRita "yellow" (Avestan)
CAERULeus "blue" (Latin)
SAR- "red" (Latvian)
SORt "black" (Danish)
SVARt "black (Swedish)
KR- "color" (Latvian)
GRey KELainos - "black, dark color"
to which Old Hindic KALA "black"
GALanos - "blue"
but Lithuanian GELtonas "yellow"
XILos - "grass", XL- "green"
CHR- as in CHRoma "color"

It is quite clear from the above examples that all of these terms
derive from a single "color" root-word which was then adapted
in various only slightly dissimilated forms to distinguish the varies shades of "color" in the "color-system".

As the great German thinker Goethe wrote in his Color Theory
about the color-perception of the ancients:
"Their denominations of colours are not permanently and precisely defined, but mutable and fluctuating....Their yellow, on the one hand, inclines to red, on the other to blue; the blue is sometimes green, sometimes red; the red is at one time yellow, at another blue.... If we take a glance at the copiousness of the Greek and Roman terms, we shall perceive how mutable the words were, and how easily each was adapted to almost every point in the colorific circle."

Note as below that the white-black-grey(brown) system
of black and white color has a different root which is BL- viz. BR-.

BL- viz BR- forms are:

PELEKS "grey" (Latvian) duBLI "mud" Sumerian DUB "dried mud writing tablet"
whence Old Irish DUB "black"
BLACK "black" (English)
BLUE "blue" (English)
i.e. our modern "blue" derives from steel blue-grey
BLONDE "white" (English) - note BALTS "white" (Latvian)
from Latvian BALINATS (bleached) = BLONDE
BRown "brown"

The Sumerians did NOT have BL-ack Hair."

THE CASE OF "SAP" PIE FROM BASE *SAB- & C. ARABIC "SAB" - LexiLine Journal 478

Ishinan wrote:

Part of a series of investigations reexamining aspects of the relationship between IE and Semitic, by considering in detail derivations of areas where inferences were made about words which were common to the homeland of the Indo-European-speaking people before the period of migrations took them to the different localities.

Best viewed (including the various dictionary entries) by clicking the following URL:

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/SAB.html

THE CASE OF "SAP" PIE FROM BASE *SAB- & CLASSICAL ARABIC "SAB"

In this segment the focus is on the term "sap", a generic word which means:

"The watery fluid that circulates through a plant, carrying food and other substances to the various tissues. A watery solution of sugars, salts, and minerals that circulates through the vascular system of a plant. The fluid contents of a plant cell vacuole."

IE etymologists have conjectured a connection with Latin sapere to taste, sapor.

SAP (n.1) "liquid in a plant," O.E. sæp c. 900 AD., from P.Gmc. *sapom (cf. M.L.G., M.Du., Du. sap, O.H.G. saf, Ger. Saft "juice" Fr.: sève , Norw.: sevje, Port.: seiva, Sp.: saba, Sw.: sav, Icel.: safi , from PIE *sapon- (cf. L. sapere "to taste"), from base *sab- "juice, fluid" (cf. Sanskrit: SABAR (milk , nectar, only in comp. and prob. connected with Germ. {saf} , {Saft} Angl.Sax. {soep} ; Eng. {sap} ; perhaps also with Lat. {sapio} , {sapor}).

While French dictionaries like "Centre National de Ressources Textualles et Lexicales" quoting Pliny have explicitly stated that the term "sap" is from the Latin sapa ( Du lat. class. sapa « vin cuit (jusqu'à réduction de la moitié, selon Varron, ou des deux tiers, selon Pline) »; devait signifier propr. « suc, sève ».)

In this respect, the classical sources describes sapa as new wine boiled down to a proportion of its original volume" (vin cuit). However, the Latin term refers to the defrutum, a reduction of must used by cooks and others in ancient Rome. It was made by boiling down grape juice or must (freshly squeezed grapes) in large kettles until it had been reduced by at least half, which then was used to provide the necessary sugar for the fermentation of weaker wines or to make others sweeter still. The sweetest defrutum was further boiled down into an even stronger concentrate called sapa.

This explanation hardly translates to "sap" (the watery fluid that circulates through a plant). The OED concurs with the objection to this suggestion:

"the hypothesis that the W. Ger. word was adopted from Latin sapa is improbable in view of its relation to the Scandinavian synonym; besides , the assumed development of meaning in popular Latin ( of which the Rom. words afford the only evidence) appears unlikely unless as a result of extraneous influence)"

In my opinion, it would not be a surprise that the Latin sapa was a loan word from the Ancient Egyptian "sf" which also means to boil, to cook, macerate i.e. in short a term describing the same process of the reduction of must used by cooks in ancient Rome.

Instead of the Latin sapa, a more suitable cognate term for "sap" would be the following examples in Sanskrit which have never been advanced:

SAVA: pressing out the juice of the Soma plant pouring it out, the juice or honey of flowers savalat : the plant yielding Soma-juice. savana: 1 n. ) the act of pressing out the Soma-juice (performed at the three periods of the day) the pressed out Soma-juice and its libation, a Soma festival, any oblation or sacrificial rite.

Moreover, the Skrt. SAVA would appear to be compatible with Old French: SÈVE, subst. fém.: Étymol. et Hist. 1. 1er quart xiiie s. [ms.] « suc nourricier des plantes » , O.E séaw sap, juice, moisture, humor. and Sw: sav. sap.

Finally, it would be instructive to find out that the term "sap" is not exclusively an IE word since it is equally found in Classical Arabic, where sab (sad+'Alif+ba') refers to the expressed juice (sap) of a kind of a bitter tree and/or the sap of the Sabir (the much coveted aloe plant, which is native of the Socotra island). Compare with PIE from base *sab-

The base meaning of the root of the Arabic sab is pouring out, forth or down. (1) Hence, in addition to sap, it refers to what was poured forth, of sweat, and of blood. The expressed juice of dragon's blood mentioned in the Eldest Lady's tale of the Arabian nights (2). The sap of the leaves of sesame or some other plant. Finally a certain red dye which is a match for the term sapo, a red dye (3).

The first occurrence of the word "sap" is found in OE. in Cynewulf Crist c. 900 A.D.

As for the Sanskrit "sabar", the word is found in Ancient Egyptian. The well-known oldest description of aloe "Sabar " is found in the Egyptian papyrus of Ebers in 1,500 BC. The papyrus detailed more than 12 remedies with "Sabar". These Egyptian documents declare that the curative values of the Sabar were known many centuries ago extensively. In fact the AE Sabar (aloe) is said to relieve headaches, soothes chest pains, burns, ulcers and for skin disease and allergies.

See JPEG of the entry of the Ancient Egyptian word.

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/SAB.html

The Egyptian queens, and the well known beauties Nefertiti and Cleopatra, used it as part of their regular beauty regimes.

History tells that Aristotle advised Alexander (356-323 BC) before initiating the Eastern campaign, to conquer the island of Socotra to provide itself with Aloe with which to cure the wounds of its troops in combat.

In century I AD, the Greek physician Dioscórides, while accompanying Nero´s army, extensively described Aloe's medicinal and cosmetic uses and its qualities. In Chapter 23 of his book III, it makes reference to the aloe and defines the main characteristics.

The Arabs, enthusiastic propagators of the medicinal use of the Sabbar /sabir (aloe) and great consumers of it, took it to their campaigns in Europe in early medieval times where they grew it on extensive plantations in Malaga, Andalusia and Sicily. Today Sabar or aloes are frequently planted in Muslim cemeteries (4) . In Hebrew, the word Sabra is a slang term used to describe a native-born Israeli Jew. (5)

CONCLUSION:

History teaches us that past civilizations emerged separately. At times, through interaction, these civilizations converged, effectively leading to an amalgamation forming a new hybrid civilization, and then eventually diverged again. This process, which is continuing in a perpetual sequence of convergence and divergence, is reflected in languages. Case in point is the recurrent similarities of the term "sap" and its derivatives in different languages. These similarities not only attest to the antiquity of the term, but also points to its wide distribution across IE and AA (including Semitic) languages. The only dissimilarity is how linguists of each language group view it as its own proto word.

Ishinan

February 17th , 2008
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That the "IE etymologists have conjectured a connection with Latin sapere to taste, sapor" is of course typical for them. The critical clue to the etymology of this word is found in your citation of "Sanskrit: SABAR (milk , nectar, only in comp. and prob. connected with Germ. {saf} , {Saft} Angl.Sax. {soep} ; Eng. {sap} ; perhaps also with Lat. {sapio} , {sapor}). "

As I wrote long ago at my website LexiLine at
http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi148.htm
ancient Sumerian SUB meant "to suck, suckle (i.e. to teeth)"
i.e. to provide the "sap" of the "milk" of the breasts to the suckling child.
Sumerian SUB = Latvian ZUOB- "tooth, teeth" viz. "gums" (smaganas).

With time, SAP viz. *SAB came to define the exudate (squeezed out, to squeeeze, SPIEsst- in Latvian) from living things, or, vice versa, the origin is related to the concept of life itself as the "inner juices" of a living thing. Life in Latvian is DZIVE with cognates such as DABA <*DZABA "nature", from which SAPA could derive and whence foods made of exudates such as SOUP or non-food products made of the exudates of plants such as SOAP.

A linguistic relation to "taste" as one of the senses is only present at a distance. What the Indo-Europeanist linguists do not know and have never had an interest to learn is that the various words for the senses and tastes is dissimilated in Latvian to only a very small degree, whence Latvian:

(iz)SALCIS - hungry
SALD- sweet
SALIT- salty
SALIT- to get wet
SALT - to freeze
SVILT - to burn
SAJUT - to sense
SAUSS - dry
SURS - sour
SULA - juice

Ishinan, your idea is good at the core that Latin sapa was a loan word from the Ancient Egyptian "sf" "boil, to cook, macerate" and I think this is related to Latvian cep- "to cook, roast, etc." but where I believe the root there is in Latvian "kup-" viz. kvep- which essentialy means "to smoke, to steam" on a fire as opposed to Latvian var- "to boil".

Sabar will be related to "the Hebrew word tzabar (cf. Arabic Sabbar), the name of the "prickly pear" cactus ... a tenacious, thorny desert plant." The origin of this plant name is more likely to be related to the Latvian term ZUBUR- meaning "branched, thorny, pronged".

Sabra as a term for the Hebrews might be cognate to "Sabaer" (people of Saba). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemenite_Jews.

SACRED GROVES IN INDO-EUROPEAN AND SEMITIC CULTURES - LexiLine Journal 477

Ishinan wrote:

(Part of a series of investigations reexamining aspects of the relationship between IE and Semitic by considering in detail, derivations of words for tree in both IE and Semitic.)

SACRED "GROVES" IN INDO-EUROPEAN AND SEMITIC CULTURES.

Best viewed by clicking on the following URL:

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/GROVE.html

It is said that sacred groves were a feature of the mythological landscape and the cult practice of various Indo-European cultures. From the "brahmAraNya" the sacred grove in which the Veda was studied, to the legend of Durantia, queen of the Druids. The root of her name, drus, means "oak", and links her with oak trees and Druids.

Augustine's first meeting with British bishops is said to have occurred in a sacred grove. Bede recounts in book II chapter 2 that Augustine was faced with religious missions struggling with periods of relapsed paganism. His obvious selection of a sacred grove as a meeting place was meant originally to placate the Celtic hierarchy under his domination. Despite his efforts, he failed. However, over time, the Roman church gradually won over most of the potentates by embracing many of the Celtic pagan rituals and symbols. Hence, St Columba established the monastery of Dearmach in a sacred grove in harmony with ancient Celtic practices.

Parallel to the Indo-European features and practices connected to sacred groves, the Ancient Near East equally had its share of similar cults connected to groves.

As a matter of fact, groves in the Semitic world were mentioned in connection with various religious worship. In this respect, early Semites consecrated groves to particular gods, and for this reason they were forbidden to the Jews in the Old Testament (Jer. 17:3; Ezek. 20:28).

Ezek. 20:28 - For when I had brought them into the land, which I lifted up My hand to give unto them, then they saw every high hill, and grove, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering, there also they made their sweet savor and there they poured out their drink-offerings.

The Hebrew word used for grove in the OT was 'elon, which was uniformly rendered as grove or plantation. In Gen. 13:18; 14:13; 18:1; 12:6; Deut. 11:30; Josh. 19:33 ( In the Revised Version it is rendered, pl., "oaks" ). Groves also featured prominently in pre-Islamic Arabian mythology. Groves at that time, were looked upon as small gardens of Eden. It is no wonder that they became the inspirations of Arabian poets .

'Imrw' al-Qays (1), the most distinguished poet of pre-Islamic Arabia and author of one of the seven odes in the famed collection of gahiyliyah poetry Al-Mu`allaqat, once said:

Like a grove of palm trees, or like Yathrib's (2) paradise garden.

In Classical Arabic, the term used to depict a grove is grb-h. The base meaning of the Arabic term is a place of seed produce in which fruit trees grow.

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/GROVE.html

Compare with

GROVE –noun 1. a small wood or forested area, usually with no undergrowth: a grove of pines. 2. a small orchard or stand of fruit-bearing trees, esp. citrus trees: a grove of lemon trees. or a group of trees planted and cultivated for the production of fruit or nuts: an orange grove. O.E. graf , from P.Gmc. *graibo-, but not found in other Gmc. languages and with no known cognates anywhere.

Akin to graf in Anglo-Saxon is græafa which has a slightly different meaning as thicket or a thick or dense growth of shrubs, bushes, or small trees. (see attached OED example: We made speed through greves and groves [translated in Latin as: per dumeta et silvas] toward the high mountains).

Incidentally, parallel to the OE, græafa is the Arabic Classical term ghryf which equally stands for thicket (or a collection of tangled trees) see attached JPEG:

http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/ANEW/GROVE.html

Ishinan

Feb. 06, 2008

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FOOTNOTES:

(1) 'Imrw' al-Qays ibn Hudjr Ibn al-Harith al-Kindiy is the 6th century Arab poet, acknowledged as the most distinguished poet of pre-Islamic times and author of one of the seven odes in the famed collection of pre-Islamic poetry Al-Mu`allaqat. 'Imrw' al-Qays was the youngest son of Hudjr, the last king of Kindah, an ancient Arabian tribe that originated from the area west of Hadramaut region in Southern Arabia. They were the first to attempt to unite various tribes around a central authority in central Arabia.

(2) Yathrib, mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and Ptolemy, is the oasis known as Lathrippa cf Iathrippa of Stephanus Byzantinus (modern Medina). In ancient Arabia, Yathrib's groves were renown for their lush growth of the date palms, olive trees, and other fruit trees.
______________

Andis Kaulins replied:

I think Latvian gives us a clue as to why cognates of the term "grove" with the alleged P.Gmc. root *graibo- are not found in other Germanic languages, and also not anything close beginning in "g" in Latvian. In Latvian the cognate term is going to be the root krum- viz *krumiba meaning "bushes, shrubs, brushwood, shrubbery, underwood, thicket", so that *krumiba > grumba >gruba > grove.

Since I am a believer in the Out of Africa theory of humanity, it is interesting to look at Tswana Bantu tɬʰàrÉ©, Bukusu Bantu sààlà, Yao Bantu téélá, all meaning "tree" , Bukusu Bantu sààlà "forest", and Bukusu Bantu sìrù - "bush".

The terms for "branch" are very similar in all of the Bantu languages and similar to Yao Bantu ʤáámbí.

- see
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/word.php?v=406
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/word.php?v=68
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/word.php?v=55

Interesting here is that the Bantu words for "wood" are similar to Latvian kok- (pronounced kuok) "wood, tree". Asu Bantu has kwí,
Bemba Bantu has kúní, Kinyamwezi Bantu has kwìí, Koyo Bantu has kóɲì, Rumanyo Bantu has kûnì, Bukusu Bantu has xù, Tswana Bantu has χʊÌ�Å‹Ì�(compare Tswana qÊ°wà "forest" and Koyo Bantu kÉ"Ì� "forest" , i.e. "woods"), and Yao Bantu has kwí.
The Lega Bantu use sálÉ© as their term for wood, which other tribes use as seen above as the terms for tree or bush.
- see
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/word.php?v=148

one also finds a cognate at Bantu Basaa kék "stick" and some similar other terms at
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/word.php?v=370

The Bantu Bukusu òòlà or Kinyamweszi gÊŠÌ�lÇŽ "bark (of a tree)" and similar Bantu terms by other tribes give us a hint as to origin of the Hebrew 'elon as originating in the idea of "bark (of a tree)". In view of my discussion of Latvian kuok- "wood, tree" above, it is then interesting to find Bantu Lega kÊŠÌ€kÊŠÌ€ and Bantu Yao kùúÅ‹gwà or Tswana kwàtí, all meaning "wood".
- see
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/word.php?v=20

Also related here is the concept of "hard" - (Latvian ciets) but here rooted in the concept of hard wood, not tree....
Bantu Asu kúʤÌ`ì, Bemba kòs, Rumanyo káɲù
- see
http://language.psy.auckland.ac.nz/bantu/word.php?v=184