Wurdahuzdą: Proto-Germanic dictionary — *ēlazScott K. ShayWardja Presshttps://protogermanic.org/pgmc_ēlaz
Single-entry extract from the dictionary. Cross-references to other entries point to their identifiers in the full dictionary.
To turn a blind eelJoshua T.KatzKarleneJones-BleyMartin E.HuldAngela DellaVolpeMiriam R.DexterProceedings of the Sixteenth Annual UCLA Indo-European ConferenceLos AngelesHelmut Buske Verlag317–3512005Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11)GuusKroonenBrill2013*Heh₃l-to bow, bend; elbow
nounmasculinea-stemeelUncertain. Possibly from a substrate. Kroonen 2013 tentatively compares *ēlō (‘awl’) and *alaz (‘awl’). Katz 2005 posits a possible Proto-Indo-European root *Heh₃l- (‘to bow, bend’) as an etymon, linking the eel’s physical, undulating motion. It shares an ancestral lineage with words for physical joints, such as the PIE root for ‘elbow’. He also posits *h₂elh₂-(‘to wander, roam’), highlighting its migratory, elusive nature, which vanishes down rivers to spawn in the deep sea.