Słowo krąży w świecie. Rozważania nad internacjonalizmem "lordoza" i jego indoeuropejską genezą
A word goes around the world. Considerations on the internationalism lordosis and its lndo-European origin

Summary/Abstract: A word goes around the world. Considerations on the internationalism lordosis and its Indo-European origin Like many other internationalisms, the Polish medical term lordoza (cf. English lordosis, German Lordose, Czech lordóza etc.) ‘anterior curvature of the spine, producing convexity in front (occurring as a physical deformity)’ stems from Ancient Greek. The various national languages took over not only the form, but also the original meaning of the Greek noun λόρδωσις; the latter is based on the verb λορδόω ‘to bend backwards’, which, in turn, derives from the adjective λορδός ‘bent backwards’. Morphological analysis makes it evident that Gk. λορδός (which reflects the apophonic variant *lord-) is etymologically related to the Indo-European verbal root *lerd-, which is confirmed by certain Indo-Aryan verbal formations (e.g. Sanskrit lardayati ‘s/he loads’). It is suggested on the basis of assorted lexical data that the Indo-European root *lerd- apparently meant ‘to carry a burden’ > ‘to bend backwards due to a heavy burden’ > ‘to contort, deform’. The reconstruction of the original meaning of the verbal root *lerd- allows us to assume the original sense for λορδός ‘bent backwards under the influence of the weight carried’. Thus, the word under discussion, λόρδωσις, originally denoted the ‘physiological bending of the spine caused by carrying a heavy load’.

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