Appendix B
The Root DHR and its Branches
2Pronounced dhri. From the Oxford English Dictionary:
34Some philologists refer the word to the root of ferire, to strike; others compare it with Skt. dharman (neut.), holding, position, order, from dhar, dhr, to hold. The word has been adopted, and is in familiar use in all the Romance and modern Teutonic languages. (p.1059)
5 Quick rundown, from Skeat’s Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language:
6 (From Latin) DHER, to support -form-a, form—conform, deform, form, formula, inform, reform, transform
7 Also: firm-us, firm—affirm, confirm, farm, firm, firmament, infirm
8 TEN, to stretch—
tend-ere, to extend—attend, contend, distend, extend, intend, intense, intent, ostensible,
ostentation, portend, pretend, subtend, superintendent, tend, tender, tendon, tense,
tension, tent (1), tenter, toise.
9 ten-ere, to hold—abstain, appertain, appurtenance, attempt, contain, content, continent, continuous, countenance, countertenor, detain, entertain, impertinent, obtain, pertain, pertinacity, pertinent, purtenance, rein, retain, retinue, sustain, tempt, tenable, tenacious, tenacity, tenant, tenement, tenet, tenon, tenor, tent (2), tentacle, tentative, tenure; cf. tend, lieutenant, maintain.
10 Also: TRY—to cull, pull out wheat from pulverized chaff; and trotting on track, or just travelling like a train. Perhaps also DRIVE—horse pulling carriage; and DWELL, pulling away, going astray, lingering.
11 tenu-is, thin—attenuate, extenuate, tenuity; cf. thin.
12 ATTEND, from French, OF atendre, to wait, Latin, attendere (pp. attentus), to stretch towards, give heed to. Latin at-(for ad), to; tendere, to stretch. From which is derived ATTENTION.
13 And from Webster –
14 DRAW, from Skt. dhrajati, it moves, sweeps on. That’s definitely DHR. OS dragen, to bear, carry; hence drag, dray. German tragen, to pull along. Draw out, draw forth, draw up; in patternmaking, to pull from a mold: draw.
15 Cf. also DOOR, AS dor, Celtic (acc. to Graves) DUIR, the oak, Welsh derw, Gaelic duir, an oak: not just for strong wood, but the proper wood for midsummer fire-sacrifice of Year-King, Green Man, etc. The axis mundi tree, the ‘hinge’ between seasons, the other face of Janus…(Cf. Skambha in the Vedas.) Cf. Trust, truth, troth, tryst, trig: all related via DHR and also TREE, a different Sanskrit root, dru, daru; but probably, says Eric Partridge in Origins, tied via Old English treowe, loyal, trusty (‘‘a true friend’’) and treow, loyalty, fidelity, to treow, treo, a tree: ‘‘as firm and straight as a tree.’’ Trust the truth of the trees and trusses…Note: The Druid, oak(tree-)seer, bard/shaman, is primordially the seer of DHR. (Here also may lie the secret root of all Celtic iconography, based on the vector equilibrium and isotropic vector matrix; cf. Gundesrup Cauldron, Ardagh Chalic, Book of Kells, etc., for examples.)
16 And is the root STER not derived from DHR? Cf. STRUCTURE, struct- to build, -ure;—once in English, it seems to be ‘‘to heap up,’’ i.e., stones for your house. But the root is Skt. strnoti, strnati, strews, scatters (cf. strategy, stratum, straw, street, strew, stroma)( supporting framework). So it is the notion of supportive structure from strewing, scattering (as seeds are broadcast), a tensional notion of structure—as a net is cast, or a web spread—rather than the compressive (not to add obsessive) piling up of the heaps of stones and wood we tend to live in nowadays.
17 And thus of course instruct, destroy, construct, etc. Cf. also stretch, strength…
18 Fuller: Triangle IS structure. TRUSS must be the same root, via Fr. trousser, tourser (trousseau), to pack, fasten up. Also trice, trise, to haul up.
19 TRUE, truth, trow, troth, trust(y)—firm, believable, protective, reliable, also derived from the root (DHR). Thus dharma carries all its multi-vocal resonances into the Indo-European linguistic ‘family’—still recognizable on far-flung branches.
20 THREAD, THROW, THROUGH derive supposedly from Latin root TER, to bore; yet also TURN, torn-us, a lathe; Grk. tornos; TORQUE, twist, tour, &c.
21 NB: May have DHR at basis…TRE, TER—tertiary, track, train, trot, drive, drill; ‘trick’ keeps the pulling, twisting, torquing connection: to bore with a screw [‘‘spiral’’ = ‘‘triangle’’—RBF].
22 And of course: THREE, Sanskrit masc. nom. pl., troyas, IDG., treyas; thrice: not to say, TRINITY. (Cf. triquetra).
23 ‘Suchness,’ Dhamma, & Kayanerekowa (the Iroqouis Great Law): This is ‘The Way Things ARE …’ etc. One’s dharma, one’s ‘duty’ (the most common and conventional translation of dharma) is thus to uphold, maintain, the order of things as they are: the fluxus quo.