This paper discusses the etymological nest of Dravidian and Altaic lexemes with the meaning “to bow, bend” and the terms for the “elbow,” “knee,” “ankle” as a dynamic etymological model. The lexemes have the general formal structure of the CVC- root with an initial dental (stop or nasal) and medial velars or labials. In the first section of the paper the verbs and some of their derivatives are listed and discussed also with regards to several overlapping etyma with different meanings. The second section sums up the terms for the body parts related etymologically to the respective verbs. In the conclusion select Altaic reconstructions are listed for comparison.
In recent years, Prof. Vacek has dealt systematically with various lexical classes as represented by the comparison of Dravidian and Altaic, be it verbs (Vcek 2003, 2004b), designations of various animals (Vacek 2002c, 2004a), or other lexemes with concrete (Vacek 2002a) or abstract (Vacek 2002b) referents. The comparison of Dravidian and Altaic done by other scholars is also discussed and the author refers readers to papers on the subject by K. H. Menges (1994, 1977) and K. V. Zvelebil (1991).