Words of Gothic origin of common use in Spanish

[llama_nom]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Michael Erwin <merwin at ...> wrote:
>
> Hails, Rydwlf. Not speaking Spanish, the list still interests me.
> > Sp. albergar, "house, shelter, harbour, lodge, nurse".
> > According to the DRAE, "possibly coming from Go. *haribaírgôn, "to  
> > give shelter to a troop". I suppose the DRAE reconstruction comes  
> > from Go. harjis, "army, host" and "baírgan", "hide, keep, preserve,  
> > protect". Also in common use is the noun albergue, "house, shelter,  
> > hostal".
> Unless other words show the same harjis -> al- transformation, I'd  
> look for some other origin.



Hails, Michael!

This Germanic etymology is well established (whether the word is from
Gothic or some other Germanic dialect).  Cf. Fr. alberge, earlier
helberge, 11th c. herberge, a. MHG. herberge, OHG. heri-berga, lit.
`army-shelter,' camp, tent, inn = G. herberge.  For a similar change
of consonants, albeit in a different environment, compare Sp. blandir
< Go. *brands "sword".



> The latter element could come from Gothic  
> baurgs, West Germanic burg (A-S burh, burg, in different regions) or  
> late Latin burgus, all from Greek pyrgos, iirc.


The root is universally regarded as native to Germanic, as far as I
know.  I can't see how it could be derived from Greek, otherwise
wouldn't the initial consonant be /p/ or /f/ depending on the time of
the borrowing?



> I assume machete comes from Gothic meks.


The Oxford English dictionary suggests that Sp. 'machete' is probably
from 'macho' large hammer (prob. variant of mazo, cognate with English
'mace' < Vulgar Latin *mattia, *mattea).  The Gothic word for "sword"
attested in the acciusative singular as 'meki' would have the
nominative singular form *mekeis.

LN


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