SPECIAL WORDS FOR SEX AND RELATIONSHIP 237 



in-law are quite consonant with a derivation which 

 supposes them specialisations of terms used inside an 

 endogamous group. Lastly, the Aryan terms for 

 father-in-law and mother-in-law are far more difficult of 

 interpretation on any hypothesis, chiefly, I believe, 

 because the source of the word used for the relationship 

 (i.e. whether it be the father-, mother-, or brother-in-law) 

 is far from clear. They do not, however, seem to me to 

 offer greater difficulties on one than on another hypothesis 

 as to primitive marriage. They require for their elucida- 

 tion a more complete study than I have been able to 

 make of the earliest passages in which they are used in 

 the several Aryan tongues. 



(11) I propose to deal with only one other word 

 which has been used to suggest the completeness of the 

 exogamous monogamic patriarchal system among the 

 primitive Aryans, namely the term for widow. We have 

 Sanskrit vidhdvd, Latin vidua, Gothic viduvd, Old 

 Friesian widwe, O.H.G. witawd, M.H.G. witewe, wittib, 

 Dutch widewe, Irish fedb, Cornish guedeu, Old Slavonic 

 vidova, for widow. It is significant throughout that the 

 word in all these languages applies to the female, the 

 male widower being formed from it. The primitive root 

 appears in Latin di-vido and Sanskrit vidh, to be void, 

 to want ; Latin viduus, Sanskrit vidhti, denote lonely, 

 isolated, spouseless ; Welsh gweddwi, lonely, German 

 weit, and English wide. The widow is thus the lonely 

 or spouseless one. 1 Now there are many circumstances 



1 I think it impossible to accept the hypothetical derivation given by some 

 writers from vi, without, and d'avas, a man or sacrificer. The latter term appears 

 only in late and isolated Sanskrit use. 



