Note 93 — Chapter XIX · ORIGIN OF GRAMMATICAL ELEMENTS
Reading edition
Two explanations of this formative element were given by the old school: according to Schleicher C § 290, it was the root ja of the relative pronoun; according to Curtius and others it was the root i ‘to go,’ Greek fer-o-i-mi being analyzed as ‘I go to bear,’ whence, by an easy (?) transition, ‘I should like to bear,’ etc.