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From: Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Crus, Crures (quod pectus, quod crura tibi, quod bracchia vellis)
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2024 19:00:02 -0000 (UTC)
Message-ID: <slrnv6js1i.bvr.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de>
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On 2024-06-11, Antonio Marques <no_email@invalid.invalid> 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