Reconstruction talk:Proto-Finnic/magat'ak

Etymology

ETY gives a possibility of it being from Proto-Germanic *makōną, and says that the difference in meanings is problematic. Is it wiktionary practice to not list theoretical etymologies? Strombones (talk) 18:32, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

Source: http://www.eki.ee/dict/ety/index.cgi?Q=magama&F=M&C06=et

Hypothetical etymologies can well be given, but they should be referenced (otherwise it becomes hard to tell them apart from editors' own speculation).

If there are known explanations for e.g. semantic differences, commenting on these would be also preferrable. In this case checking LÄGLOS shows that Koivulehto has appealed to native derivatives of the Germanic word such as German gemach (“easy”) (adv.) Gemach (“peace; bedroom”) (from *makaz), which would suggest that either the PGmc word group did also have some meanings closer to what we have in Finnic, or that a semantic development along the lines of 'to make' > 'to lie' is possible. (I'm not especially convinced, but that's at least an argument that has been made.) --Tropylium (talk) 13:22, 15 October 2016 (UTC)