Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
The word νóoς (νoύς) must, if it is inherited from Indo-European, be a word of the λóγoς type, and come from Indo-Eur. nósos, nówos, or nóyos, since a consonant must have been lost, and it is known that only s, w, and y vanished between vowels in Greek. Neither nóyos nor nówos can be traced with a suitable meaning in any Indo-European language; nóyos, on the other hand, would be a very probable ancestor of Skr. nayas. The senses of nayas are, I submit, sufficiently close to those of νóoς to lend some support to the identification. They are: ‘leading, performance, behaviour, worldly wisdom, policy, fundamental principle, system, theory.’
1 Doric βονὃα=βονσόα is fairly well preserved in Etym. Magn. 208. 6, 391. 19; cf. Ahrens, Dial. II., P.77, note 4.