Reconstruction talk:Proto-Indo-European/ker-

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I don't think that the meaning "army" bears the original sense of this root. Armies, battles, and military affairs are notions that require (relatively) complex social structure, which exceeds the level of development of ancient Indo-Europeans. In this sense, I think "army" is a secondary meaning and the original one used to be something along the line of "rough, firm, powerful, authoritative". Descendant terms with this meaning are Bulg. корав /m./ ("hard, rigid" for objects, "resilient" for people) and Eng. hard, Gr. κράτος, Sanskr. क्रतु /kratu/, etc (the later probably originating from an extension of *ker- + *-t-). The meaning, related to "army" and "war", in my opinion comes from the intermediate step "to blame, accuse, take authority upon" /> Slavic *koriti, Irish cor, Lat. carinare, etc/ => "to punish, to attack" > army, war.

Can someone else collaborate on this hypothesis with further data /to prove or disapprove the claim/? — This unsigned comment was added by 85.211.161.244 (talk).

alternatively it could refer to a horde of plunderers as opposed to a well regimented army. 2405:204:9523:692A:0:0:19C9:C8A5 08:23, 2 June 2017 (UTC)