GENERAL WORDS FOR SEX AND KINSHIP 113 



(Scotch kendle), still retains this double meaning, and 

 the notion of heat as a generating power is widespread. 

 Compare, for example, Gothic Brunsts, German Brunst, 

 with its double use. 



( 1 ) The root at the basis of kindle is the one to which 

 I wish first to refer. This root is Sanscrit gan or gen, 

 Teutonic, kin or kan. It denotes, perhaps, more fre- 

 quently bring forth than procreate ; although it would 

 be difficult to assert that one meaning is more primitive 

 than the other. The Sanscrit ga, as well as the German 

 kei or kyn, denote rather birth than procreation, and the 

 same remark applies to Latin gigno and Greek yeW ; 

 still the latter sense appears to be frequently associated 

 with these words. 1 



Modern German keimen, O.H.G. chirwm, M.H.G. 

 kinen, to bud, to burst, to open, expresses the idea. 

 That which opens or buds is the kone, O.H.G. qvind, 

 Goth, qveins, O.N. qvdn, and our English queen. The 

 woman is thus named after her function of giving birth, 

 one of the most obvious and primitive distinctions 

 between man and woman. I am inclined, however, to 

 believe that a primitive meaning of kone was womb, for 

 I find that so many early words for woman have this 

 double meaning. Thus Latin cunnus is used of the 

 womb and of a strumpet, matrix of the womb and of 

 a female animal kept for breeding. The Bavarian 16s is 

 used in all the senses of both cunnus and matrix, while 

 fuel is used for woman and womb. Otfrid uses einkunne 

 of the bishop who is to have one wife. The peasants 



1 The word generation itself in its varied meanings well illustrates the 

 several notions attached to the root. Compare Greek yevtrup, Latin genitor for 

 begetter, father. 



VOL. II I 



