What semantic notions underlie 'paene' to the PIE root 'pē(i)-' (to hurt, scold, shame)?

Question

Reading the etymology of fiend propelled me to read Univ. Texas's page on the PIE etymon pē(i)-, pī- 'to hurt, scold, shame', whose Semantic Fields are stated as:

to Harm, Injure, Damage; Shame (n).

Under this PIE etymon, I saw the Latin adverb paene listed; but per Wiktionary, it does not connote or denote any negativity or injure or shame. So why was paene assigned to this PIE etymon?

This does seem a strange one. I hope somebody knows and can answer, 'cause now I'm curious. — Joel Derfner, Apr 12 '16 at 10:14
A possible clue is English hardly, which shows a semantic shift from "with difficulty" to "almost". "With difficulty" and "with pain" aren't far apart. — TKR, Dec 04 '16 at 19:33
Possible duplicate of Why is "paeniteo" considered more correct than "poeniteo"? — cmw, Dec 04 '16 at 21:04
The etymology of paene is unknown and contested. de Vaan summarizes the suggestions on record (including the derivation from *piH-) and shows that they are all untenable. — fdb, Dec 04 '16 at 23:39

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 05 '16 at 03:53

Because this etymology means that paene would be related to paenitet (as, indeed, the Oxford Latin Dictionary indicates it is), I should think that the connection is something along these lines:

If one thing is 'almost' another thing, it falls short of that thing in some essential quality, the full possession of which would make it wholly that thing; therefore, it's 'damaged' or 'causes dissatisfaction' (one of the definitions of paenitet in OLD) vis-à-vis that thing.

Nice explanation! Welcome to the site! – Joonas Ilmavirta Dec 05 '16 at 07:08 — Joonas Ilmavirta, Dec 05 '16 at 07:08

What semantic notions underlie 'paene' to the PIE root 'pē(i)-' (to hurt, scold, shame)?

1 Answers1