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Archaeologists Just Beginning to Reveal Secrets Hidden in Ancient Manuscripts
- grzm 9y agoThis motivated me to finally look up the etymology of palimpsest as I never remember how to spell it. ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: via Latin from Greek palimpsēstos, from palin ‘again’ + psēstos ‘rubbed smooth.’ Same palin as palindrome. I wouldn't be surprised if the Latin pist (to pound) from where we get pestle is a cognate (maybe a step removed, given the difference between rub/scrape and pound) for psēstos, but I couldn't find evidence for that in the short time I looked.
- eesmith 9y agohttps://www.etymonline.com/word/pestle https://www.etymonline.com/word/pestle says of pestle: > mid-14c. (as a surname late 13c.), from Old French pestel, from Latin pistillum "pounder, pestle," related to pinsere "to pound," from PIE pis-to-, suffixed form of root peis- "to crush" (source also of Sanskrit pinasti "pounds, crushes," pistah "anything ground, meal," Greek ptissein "to winnow," Old Church Slavonic pišo, pichati "to push, thrust, strike," pišenica "wheat," Russian pseno "millet"). https://www.etymonline.com/word/palimpsest https://www.etymonline.com/word/palimpsest futher adds: > verbal adjective of psen "to rub smooth," which is of uncertain origin.