Latin and Slavonic for `moon'

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

I wrote
<<'Moon' in Polish is most often 'ksiezyc' (sans accents) - a fascinating
word. Words like 'ksiezy' (priest), 'ksie-stwo' (principality), 'ksiezna'
(princess) and 'ksie-g' (cashbook, register, tally) suggest...>>

In a message dated 4/6/99 4:32:59 PM, jpmaher at neiu.edu wrote:
<<--Damned fascinating. Source is Gothic <kuningaz> 'kin-ing' > 'king'. A
priest in medieval Christendom held forth in a [fortified} <kosciol>, from
medieval Latin <castellum>. Cf. <Cashel>, < Kassel>...>>

"Kunnig">"ksiezy"?
Hmmm.  Until I hear otherwise from Miguel and the Lords of the Sound Laws, I
am forced to assign this to the dark confines of the Dubious Etymologies file
(in which of course many of my own derivations are also entombed.)

B-T-W, I was only pointing to moon>"ksiezyc" (Pol) as a sidenote.  It
reminded me that there are basic words around that don't entirely support the
idea that Slavic was quite so monolithic.

But while we're at it let me give you my own dubious derivations:

"kosciol" is possibly from something - way back- like "koczow-ac" (Pol) to be
encamped, from "koczow-nik", nomad; "koczow-", to wander; "kos", horse
blanket.

And get a load of this:
"Kunnig" is from something like "konn-ica" (Pol), horsemen; "konn-y",
mounted; ("koni-arz", horse-trader>?"kunning-az") from "kon", horse.  Since
horses came from the east, and horses made men kings in horseless lands -
"kunnig" entered Germanic from Slavic or proto-Slavic or agricultural
Scythian or BSG or, heck, Beta-Tocharian, as a description of the leader of a
band of horsemen.

Before the domestication of the horse, the root "kon-" referred only to the
herd or herding dogs.  Once the horse became domesticated, the
Slavs/Scythians/generic-IE-nomads, who didn't have herding dogs on the
steppes, applied the word directly to the newly domesticated horses.  More
western tongues kept the indirect canine references (hound, kund), but
borrowed or rather learned the self-appelation of the horsemen and their
leaders.

What Miguel and the Lords of the Sound Laws will do to me I cringe to think.
But at least this path of derivation is a bit more logical, historical and
doesn't ask me to believe a flood of random consonants like "ksiezy" came out
of someone's mouth imitating someone else saying a plain appelant like
"kunnig" the king and then promptly applied it to the moon.  Lucky it didn't
happen to "karl" and "krol". eh?

Regards,
Steve Long