Note 77 — Chapter XVI · ETYMOLOGY

Speculation has been rife, but without any generally accepted results, as to the relation between plumbum and words for the same metal in cognate languages: Gr. molibos, molubdos and similar forms, Ir. luaide, E. lead (G. lot, ‘plummet, half an ounce’), Scand. bly, OSlav. olovo, OPruss. alwis; see Curtius, Prellwitz, Boisacq, Hirt Idg. 686, Schrader Sprachvergl. u. Urgesch., 3d. ed., ii. 1. 95; Herm. Möller, Sml. Glossar 87, says that molibos and plumbum are extensions of the root m-l ‘mollis esse’ and explains the difference between the initial sounds by referring to multum: comp. plus—certainly most ingenious, but not convincing. Some of these words may originally have been echo-words for the plumping plummet.