How dull can you get?: buttock and heel in Sino-Tibetan

Abstract

As I was deep into the revisions of the "nether regions" of Chapter Four ("The Outer Body") of Volume I (Body-part Terminology) of the Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT) recently—i.e.. the LOWER BACK / HIPS / BUITOCKS / LOINS area—the outlines of a new Proto-Tibeto- Burman (VI*B) and Proto-Sino-Tibetan (PST) etymon began to emerge. It quickly became apparent that the semantic ramifications of this root extend well beyond the buttocks in the narrow sense. One of the more interesting of these associations involves. oxymoronically enough. the concept of dullness.