LL-L "Etymology" 2010.05.15 (03) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 15 May 2010 - Volume 03
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From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2010.05.13 (08) [EN]



from Heather Rendall  heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk



Reinhard wrote



"Old Irish Gaelic *Púca* (> Irish English “Pooka” or “Phooka”) ‘ghost’,
etc., related to Welsh *Pwwka*, *Pooka*, *Puka*, *Phouka*, *Púka*, *Pwca*,
Cornish *Bucca*, English *Puck*."



Beautifully encapsulated in Rudyard Kipling's "Puck of Pook's Hill"



see also the Pooka Hound /Dog who could be heard baying as death approached
certain families' members: see Anya Seton's "Katherine"



The OED is uncertain as to origin: "whether Germanic or Celtic origin is
prior  is uncertain"



from Heather

Worcester UK



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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>

Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2010.05.15 (02) [EN]

At 03:01 PM 15/05/2010,
Danette Howland and Ron wrote:

 "Old Irish Gaelic *Púca* (> Irish English “Pooka” or “Phooka”) ‘ghost’,
etc., related to Welsh *Pwwka*, *Pooka*, *Puka*, *Phouka*, *Púka*, *Pwca*,
Cornish *Bucca*, English *Puck*."


Which makes me wonder if the slavic "bog" in deity names such as *Czernebog,
Belobog,* etc., isn't a cognate. Some ancient Slavo-Gallic sharing, perhaps?

The original question about the word "big" reminded me of a word we use here
in Alaska (also well known in Reinhard's neck of the woods) is *skookum *which
is from the old Chinook trade lingo. According to some writers the word was
thought to refer originally to some sort of demon and now means "powerful,"
"big" or "strong." Maybe a paralell semantic development? And now that I've
brought it up, I might as well mention that I've been thinking of
contributing a Chinook Trade Language version of "The Wren."


I am working on getting an Eastern Ojibwe version of the same.  Hopefully in
a few days!  I am just barely learning the language, but have a former
teacher as an informant.  One of the words in the yet-to-be-released
translation is "midoo", for "monster".  I asked Marie more about the word,
and apparently it is the word used by parents and small children which seems
pretty close to the English "bogeyman."  Now, as the recipient of the Golden
Squirrel Award, I am going to conjecture that this is a corruption of or
child's way of saying "manitou", which many of you will know from
Longfellow's Hiawatha:

On the Mountains of the Prairie,
On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry,
Gitche *Manito*, the mighty,
He the Master of Life, descending,
On the red crags of the quarry
Stood erect, and called the nations,
Called the tribes of men together.

(Honestly, the Anisnabek do not talk like this!)

Another possibility is that it is related to <mdidod>, "to be large."

 That's a very astute remark about the Slavic *bog* "god" group of words,
though I wonder if the apparent "coincidence" in Celtic and Slavic points to
older, Indo-European roots. Alternatively you might consider the possibility
of a Celtic substratum in Slavic, considering the fact that some Continental
Celtic regions later became Slavic-speaking.


Another interesting similarity between languages is IE Dugh, or milk, from
whence we get *daughter *= milk-bearer, and *dug*, breast.  Small Anisnabek
children call their mother "*ndoto"*, ("my mother") from *doodoosh* = breast
and *doodooshaboo* = milk.   This might earn me an oak cluster on my Golden
Squirrel, but at least it's more likely than any connection between
Greek *potomo
*= river, and the Potomac River.

Ed Alexander, Manitoulin, Ontario



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