STEDT Etymon #5901
6.0 Verbs of Motion, of Manipulation, and of Production > 6.16 Holding
#5901 PTB *b-s-nom TAKE / HOLD / PUT ON (provisional) |
The primary sense of this etymon is ‘take, hold’; so far attested in STEDT data only in WT (although textual occurrences of the WT lexeme are common enough). Possibly related to #5610 PTB *nwam PUSH / PRESS; if so, the two etyma should perhaps be merged as a single etymon at the PTB level.
A relationship between the WT forms and Chinese 任 and 妊 was suggested in Schuessler 2007:441
任 Mand. rén (*nəm) ‘carry on the shoulder; sustain, endure’.
任 *nəm‑s {n[ə]m‑s} ‘burden, responsibility; assign, appoint, take office; allow, give free rein; Mand. rèn.
妊 Mand. rèn; ‘be pregnant, conceive’.