Etymology of Russian "sorok"?

[Paul B. Gallagher]

A.Smith wrote:

> According to Tsyganenko's dictionary (G.P. Tsyganenko. "Etimologicheskii
> slovar' russkogo iazyka", Kiev, "Radians'ka shkola", 1989, pp.393-94), the
> word "sorok" is an Eastern Slavic word; it began to appear in written speech
> in the twelve century. Its origin is likely to be related to the second
> meaning of the word SOROK" (with a hard sign in the end) which denotes
> "SACK" (meshok), which used to contain 40 sable skins (sorok sobolei). She
> says: " when people wanted to buy some fur they were offered sacks containg
> 40  pieces in each sack".She also relates it to the word "sorochka"
> (rubakha) and says that the word sorok might have come originally either
> from Germany, Greece, or from Iceland: serkr (=rubakha).

According to this source (Koebler's Old Norse etymological database), 
the borrowing was in the other direction:
<http://www.indo-european.nl/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=leiden&morpho=0&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Coldnorse&first=9131>

Old Norse: serkr (2)
Paradigm: st. M. (a?)
Meaning (German): 5 x 40 Tierfelle
Borrowing: Lw. russ. sorok
Etymology: s. russ. sorok
Literature: Vr 471a

Home page of the IndoEuropean Etymological Dictionary:
<http://www.indo-european.nl/ied/index2.html>

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------