oh deer & squirrel

[OSCAR HERRERA]

i thought squirrel is sqo 

llama_nom <600cell at oe.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:          
> > deer: hairuts (masc. a-st.)
> 
> Good. Another one is *ráiha, man.; *ráiho, fon.

Or maybe feminine *raihjo is better, cf. OE ræ:ge. OE also has
'ráh-déor' "roe (buck)".

> Wouldn't this be roe deer?

The Oxford English dictionary agrees with you: "A small species of
deer (Capreolus capræa, formerly Cervus capreolus) inhabiting various
parts of Europe and Asia; a deer belonging to this species." On the
other hand, for English 'hart', it has "The male of the deer, esp. of
the red deer; a stag; spec. a male deer after its fifth year" -- and
under etymology: OTeut. *herut-, perh.: from *herwut-, *herwot-, with
dental formative -t, appended to a stem cognate with L. ceruo-s; perh.
related to Gr. KERAT- horn, as if = `the horned'.

> > smoke: raukjan (wv.1)
> 
> Yes, this would be the transitive form. The intransitive would be the
> strong verb *riukan II.
> 
> I was thinking a little in the way to use it as in swedish.
> riukan is the same as sw. ryka and raukjan would be the same as röka.
> Raukjan would be used as to smoke a cigarette.

Yes, and the cigarette itself would 'riukan'.

> > squirrel: aiqairna (masc. n-st.)
> 
> Maybe, or could it possibly be *aik-waírna, man.? Fick-Falk-Torp
> refers to *aik- "oak", but says not directly from this word. And is
> it any relation to widuwaírna "orphan"?
> 
> I guess it's just a later association with aik but -(w)airna could be 
> the same as in widuwairna and thiwairna.
> But maybe the goths did the same association and wouldve written it 
> aikwairna.

Fick-Falk-Torp suggests Baltic cognates to the second element, e.g.
Old Prussian 'weware'. I'm not sure what the argument would be
against it coming directly from 'aik' the tree; maybe the association
was rather with acorns? But yes, even if aik-wairna was a
folk-etymology, it might have influenced Gothic speakers, especially
as other Germanic languages make the same connection.

LN



         


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