The Germanic substrate - knives?

[Jim Rader]

Imaginative etymology, but this word is spelled in a late 10th cent.
East Slavic text with a back jer, i.e., oku^no, which is most likely
continued by the modern Russian genitive pl. <okon>.  A derivative
of "eye" as a word for "window" suggests Old Norse <vindauga>,
literally, "wind-eye," whence English <window>, Irish <fuinneog>,
etc.

Jim Rader

> But I have one fresh crazy idea, based on this *kn-  thing.  :-)
> There is Russian word okno 'window; opening, orifice, hole'. Usually it is
> explained as derivative from Slavonic oko 'eye'. But there is other
> possibility.

> Idea is that Russian okno 'window' is actually o-kno, where kn- means
> something (hole, opening etc) that is cut by knife or punched by some sharp
> or similar implement... And this kn- in okno is maybe the lonely last relic
> in Russian... His nearest relative may be is Russian verb kinut'  'to cast,
> throw'. Other group of related words are words with gn- (Russian gniot etc)
> and gin- ...

>                          Kastytis Beitas