Camel

[Ian Ragsdale]

Gregory,

This phenomenon persists throughout medieval northern European languages,
and some modern Slavonic languages continue to use words derived from
elephantos when they mean "camel" (Czech velbloud).  The Slavonic words
appear to be a Germanic borrowing.

The OED's entry for Old English "olfend" is one of the few items that I've
come across with an etymological summary longer than the definition
and listing of recorded instances.  The Great Dictionary does not make
claims as to the origins of the confusion; neither does it confirm or deny
the claims of some scholars that olfend, ulbandus, etc. represent a shared
PIE root with elephantos.

I can only guess that the mistake was made early, and stuck.  Terribly
unromantic on my part...

Ian



On Fri, Jul 17, 2009 at 4:33 PM, g_scaff <g_scaff at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
>
> Greetings all,
> I am asking for your insights re: the Gothic word "ulbandus", camel.
> If I read Koebler correctly, this word derives from the Greek "elephantos",
> meaning "elephant", whereas the Greek word in the biblical text is
> "kamelos", meaning "camel".
> I guess that the Goths weren't overly familiar with either animal, but
> surely they must have seen them in the Roman world. How did the word for
> elephant get substituted for camel?
> thanks,
> Gregory
>
> 
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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