Slavic pIsU

[Miguel Carrasquer Vidal]

mcv at wxs.nl (Miguel Carrasquer Vidal) wrote:

>The more I think about, the more likely I
>find it that Slav. pIsU "dog" is simply "Spot", from *peik^-
>"spotty, motley, tawny" (cf. the dog Kerberos < *k^erbero-
>"striped, motley").

For "tawny" and curiosity value, cf. also Basque (R.L. Trask "The
History of Basque", p. 267):

"... Azkue ["Morfologma Vasca", 46] proposes that all three
[colour words] might have been derived from nouns by the addition
of the ancient adjective-forming suffix -i. [...his proposal for
<hori> "yellow" is:] <(h)or> `dog' [...] (In Azkue's account, the
word for `yellow' would originally have meant `tawny'.)"

It should be noted that Azkue's etymologies are not always beyond
reproach.  Larry continues: "There appears to be no way of
evaluating these proposals".

=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv at wxs.nl
Amsterdam

[ Moderator's note:
  MCV has been caught by 7-bit-mail again--that's _Morfologi'a Vasca_ above,
  I reconstruct.
  --rma ]