Old Lithuanian "pame(d)mi" 'imitate'

Abstract

A rare Old Lithuanian athematic present pam , inf. pam ‘imitate, ape’ is attested in the third edition of Sirvydas’ dictionary1: SD3 141 pamemi ‘kuglui 3 312 pamemi ‘podrze 2 the verb appears as pam , pam : SD1 127 pamedau ‘podrze pam and pam are very poorly attested. The simplex m ‘szczebiota ! " # $ % & '(th Century) (LK VII 989). Nesselmann, Wörterbuch der littauischen Sprache, Königsberg, 1850, 391 (s.v. megzdzóju) gives pam dmi, -d ti, noting that it is also written pam mi, but he has obviously taken these forms from Sirvydas. Finally, LK VII 984 quotes an example of pam from Léipalingis (in the district of Lazdìjai, South Aukštaitian dialect): Kap ima pam ‘He begins to imitate how Jasius eats, how he speaks’3. In Latvian we have an exact cognate of OLith. (pa)m in m dît ‘ape, mimic; irritate, tease’ (ME II 612 ‘spotten, nachäffen, höhnen’), as well as some other derivatives (m dinât ‘spotten’, m dîšana ‘das Spotten, Nachäffen’, m dît ‘einer, der spottet, nachäfft’).