ABSTRACT
General 1. We are dealing with the E resultants of four
L words: uacil/tire, to waver (lit and fig), to totter; uarius, (esp of human and animal skin) speckled, spotted, hence diverse; uarix (0/5 uaric-), a swollen vein, esp in the leg; and udru.s, knockkneed, (of the legs) crooked, bent apart, henceprob influenced by uarius-tumed crookedly, hence diverse. E & M treat these four words as having each a distinct origin; but that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th are inter-related seems at least possible; the relationship of the 1st to the others presents app the greatest diffiCUlty. Sem, the relationship between 'to waver' and 'crooked' is scarcely abstruse: phon, the relationship between Ilacilliire and uiJriciJre (from uiiricus, extn of udrus), to stand with legs apart, to cause (one's steps) to straddle, hence, fig, to stray, to wander from one's path, is perh this: uiJriciJre becomes *uiilicare (I for r), whence, by metathesis, *ulfci/iJre, whence, by expressive gemination, L udcil/tire. That uacilliire is recorded earlier than ullricllre is not necessarily preclusive, for uacll/iJre is prob not earlier than uiJricus, certainly not earlier than uiirus. Nevertheless, uacilldre could well be an imitative word, independent of the others.
