Latin and Slavonic for `moon'

[Larry Trask]

On Fri, 2 Apr 1999, Anthony Appleyard wrote:

> {luna} means "moon" in Latin and also in Russian. But Palmer's book
> "The Latin Language" says that Latin {luna} < *{louksna:} [= "the
> white object", after the old IE word *{ma:n-} or similar became
> taboo due to superstition]. Is the Russian form a loanword from
> Latin (which seems unlikely) or parallel evolution?

According to C. D. Buck, Russian <luna> is an independent Slavic
formation from the stem meaning `bright', just like the Latin word.
Even Old Church Slavonic has <luna> for `moon'.  The same stem provides
Armenian <lusin>, Old Irish <luan>, and Welsh <lleuad>, all `moon'.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk