[Aztlan] translation of honesty

[Nick Hopkins]

RE sak-lem-il, "very white," the color terms are often compounded  
into adjectival or adverbial words by combining them with what appear  
to be (in the languages where this is clearest) positional verbs (a  
subset of verbs that refer to positions, states, etc.; in many  
languages some of them are obsolete and appear only in these  
compounds).  Here, the color term "sak" (white) is combined with the  
positional verb "lem" (to be flashing, brilliant--it's used to  
describe flames and lightning.  And, of course, in Chol lemb'al,  
"aguardiente" or "white lightning").

BTW I looked up "honest" and "honesty" in my American Heritage  
English dictionary, and they only trace the etymology back to Latin  
"honos" and "honestus", related to "honor", and no further back in  
Indo-European.  This does not mean that nobody before the Romans was  
honest, or that the Romans were, for that matter.  They just had  
other words to express the concepts.

Nick Hopkins