Taboo replacements

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/8/99 10:07:20 PM, nicholas.widdows at traceplc.co.uk wrote:

<<What would constitute evidence for this, and for "brown" or "honey-eater"
over the ursa/arktos/rakshasa root, being a taboo replacement, as opposed to
a common-or-garden lexical innovation? How could you tell? Does a
greaterfrequency of replacement for certain concepts go with a
greatersuperstitious observance?...but might we not expect new terms like
"well-intentioned one" or "your excellency" rather than the merely prosaic
"it's big and it's brown and it likes a jar of hunny"?>>

At least when the Hebrews did it, we had a pretty good reason why.

Regards,
Steve Long