`zebra'

[Rick Mc Callister]

	A Latin derivation seems to the most likely --of those presented--
but the road seems pretty rocky. This word must have bounced around among
different languages to get the form it has. Given that the initial vowel
was dropped from ecebra with <c> = /c/. I'm wondering if the word was
perceived by Spanish speakers as an Arabic word or if indeed it did pass
through Andalusian Arabic as something like S-b-r, th-b-r, dh-b-r, DH-b-r,
z-b-r, although I suppose the latter would only apply to a certain
attribute.

[ moderator snip ]