From: naddy@mips.inka.de   
      
   On 2024-06-11, Antonio Marques  wrote:   
      
   > Portuguese _perna_ (whence?)   
      
   From Latin _perna_, cognate with German _Ferse_ 'heel' as well as   
   words in Greek and Indo-Iranian, according to Wiktionary.   
      
   Not even English and German can agree on the leg words.  "Leg" is   
   borrowed from Old Norse.  German "Bein" is cognate with "bone" (and   
   in various compounds still retains a meaning 'bone', e.g. "Gebeinhaus"   
   'ossuary').  English "shank" refers to the lower leg but is cognate   
   (+ diminutive) with German "Schenkel" 'thigh'.  English "thigh" had   
   an Old High German cognate, but it didn't survive into Modern German.   
   German "Wade", which refers to the back part of the lower leg, is   
   a Germanic word but without English cognate.   
      
   I wonder whether the anatomical differences between plantigrade   
   humans and some of our digitigrade and unguligrade domestic animals   
   are to blame.   
      
   --   
   Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)