Lecture | Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars
Driving skills: conceptual metaphors and the etymology of Vedic r̥tá
- Date
- Friday 20 February 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (CIEL) Seminars
- Address
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 2.28
Abstract
NWO Open Competition project “True Meaning: conceptual metaphors for Truth and Falsehood in Indo-European etymology”
Words for abstract concepts often contain conventional or fossilized metaphors. In my lecture I present a new semantic analysis of three foundational concepts in early Indo-European cultures: Vedic ṛtá ‘truth, order’, Ancient Greek aretē ‘skill’ and Latin ars ‘skill’. In my view, a proper understanding of these concepts has been marred by their virtually unchallenged etymological derivation from PIE *h2er- ‘adjust/fit’. By drawing on widespread evidence for the so-called Event Structure Metaphor, I argue for a new etymological derivation that also sheds light on the conceptual analysis of these words and their relatives.
Literature:
Ahmadi, Amir. 2015. ‘What is aṣ̌a-?’. Bulletin of SOAS 78:293–315.
Gonda, Jan. 1960/61. Review of Lüders 1959, Oriens 13/14:398-410.
Haudry, Jean. 1983. ‘Les composés homériques en ἀρτι‑.’ LALIES 2:7–12.
Lüders, Heinrich. 1959. Varuṇa. Band II: Varuṇa und das Ṛta. Aus dem Nachlass herausgegeben von Ludwig Alsdorf. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Massetti, Laura. 2020. ‘Gr. ἀρτιεπής, ved. ṛtvíya‑ vā́k‑, jav. raϑβiiavacah‑’. Indogermanische Forschungen 125:1–20.
Oberlies, Thomas. 2024. The Religion of the Rigveda. Oxford: OUP.
Schlerath, Bernfried. 1986. ‘Die Problematik von Metaphern in den Gathas.’ Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 11–12:192–201.