skohls (Was: Re: Hails)

[ualarauans]

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "Valulfr Vaerulsson" 
<Valulfr_Vaerulsson at ...> wrote:
>
> I have a question about the etymology of the word 'skohsl', is this a
> word Ulfilas made up to denote 'a demon', and if not, where does it
> derive?

I think he just took the word already existent and changed its 
meaning. Adding the suffix –sl was not his way of forming new words 
afaik. It is generally believed that skoh-sl is derived from PIE
*(s)kek- "to jump", "to move quickly (= to run)", "to shiver"
(#922 in Pokorny). G. Köbler offers the same etymology.
Cf. also OSlav. skakati "to jump".

Looks like Go. skohsl could originally pertain to persons suffering 
from a certain mental desease, very reminiscent of OIrish geilt and 
related mythological motifs of "The Wild Man in the Wood". No wonder 
Wulfila picked up this term to refer to those possessed by the devils 
(Mt. 8:31) and *running* from the tombs (us hlaiwasnom rinnandans). 

> In the semantic field, this word came down into Old Norse as
> 'skógi', or 'forest'.

Very implausible. Theoretically, it could be vice versa. *Skôgaz > 
*skôh-sla, that is. "Wood thing" > "wood dweller" = "one banished from 
the community and living in the periphery", "outlaw". Cf. ON vargr = 
heiðingi < *heið-gengi, "heath-walker", i.e. "one who dwells in the 
wasteland".

> Perhaps it was thought that 'things', spirits
> and so forth, living in the forest were to be avoided, not sure.

Forest was thought of as a dangerous place to go, no doubt.

Ualarauans

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/gothic-l/attachments/20080203/65751927/attachment.htm>