Abstract
Tocharian B pres. prantsäṃ, impf. präntsitär and parsnān, impf. parsnoṃ are generally taken to be variant formations of a single verb /pərs(a)-/ 'sprinkle'. It is argued that these forms are to be separated formally and semantically: the latter mean 'sprinkle', are used of water or similar fluids, and are built to an a-root /pərsa-/, while the former mean 'spatter, splatter', are used of viscous liquids and semisolids, and belong to a Class VII nasal-infixed present to the non-a-root /pərts-/.
TB /pərts-/ in turn continues PIE *perd-, whose original meaning was something like 'explode, sp(l)atter, pop', but shifted to 'fart' in the Inner IE languages. is root formed a root aorist (cf. Gr. ἀπ-, ατ-έπαρδoν) and a nasal present, which survives only in Tocharian; the Inner IE languages replaced the nasal present with simple thematic *pérd-e/o- (> Gr. πέρδομαι, OIA pardate, OE feortan*).