teks-

To weave; also to fabricate, especially with an ax; also to make wicker or wattle fabric for (mud-covered) house walls. Oldest form *tek̑s-, becoming *teks- in centum languages.

Derivatives include text, tissue, subtle, architect, and technology.

1. text, tissue; context, pretext, from Latin texere, to weave, fabricate.

2. Suffixed form *teks-lā-.

a. tiller², toil², from Latin tēla, web, net, warp of a fabric, also weaver's beam (to which the warp threads are tied);

b. subtle, from Latin subtīlis, thin, fine, precise, subtle (< *sub-tēla, “thread passing under the warp,” the finest thread; sub, under; see upo).

3. Suffixed form *teks-ōn-, weaver, maker of wattle for house walls, builder (possibly contaminated with *teks-tōr, builder). tectonic; architect, from Greek tektōn, carpenter, builder.

4. Suffixed form *teks-nā-, craft (of weaving or fabricating). technical, polytechnic, technology, from Greek tekhnē, art, craft, skill.

5.

a. dachshund, from Old High German dahs, badger;

b. dassie, from Middle Dutch das, badger. Both a and b from Germanic *thahsuz, badger, possibly from this root (“the animal that builds,” referring to its burrowing skill) but more likely borrowed from the same pre-Indo-European source as the Celtic totemic name *Tazgo- (as in Gaulish Tazgo-, Gaelic Tadhg), originally “badger.”

 

[Pokorny tek̑þ- 1058.]

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