Proto-Indo-European *pel- "to thrust, strike, drive". The suffixed form *pel-de-, perhaps meaning "beat", became Proto-West-Germanic *feltaz "compressed wool", then Old English felt - felt was created by pressing animal and vegetable fibers together.
*pel-de- combined with Old English an (related to Modern English on) to form anfilte, anfealt "anvil" - that is, "something beaten on". The OED says this word was perhaps modeled on Latin incūs "anvil", from in plus cūdere "to beat".
3 comments:
I'm not sure where this morpheme *-de- comes from or how it's attested for the PIE level. Can you clarify?
Could it be *de- "demonstrative stem, base of prepositions and adverbs"? As in Latin dē- and English to?
If that were the case, why wouldn't this morpheme be preposed instead of postposed?
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