onomatopoetically

Updated: May 9, 2025

But before this “i-t” or “id” could become an impersonal “it,” long-continued abstraction, or, if you prefer, long-continued polishing, was required. Take the word is. Whence comes such a verbal form, Sanskrit as-ti, Greek ἔστι, Latin est? Was the abstract “to be” onomatopoetically imitated? Often, of course, we cannot answer such questions at all. In this case, however, it is possible.

F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller - The Silesian Horseherd - Questions of the Hour