Taboo replacements

[Larry Trask]

On Sat, 10 Apr 1999, Rick Mc Callister wrote:

> 	Wasn't it more a case of initially distinguishing between 2 types
> of horses: caballus, a large lumbering draft horse of horthern European
> origin as opposed to equus a swift cavalry horse originating in the
> Caucasus or Caspian region, two different subspecies --at least according
> to a couple of books on horses I've seen.

Years ago, I read somewhere that <caballus> was originally Roman
soldiers' slang, comparable to `nag'.  I have no idea if there is any
truth in this, but it is not inconsistent with the proposal above.

In any case, it is not strange to see a word for `workhorse' developing
into generic `horse'.  Late Latin had another word for `horse',
<sagmarius>.  This meant specifically `packhorse', and it was derived
from <sagma> `load', itself of Greek origin.  However, in eastern
Basque, the Latin word was borrowed as <zamari>, and it just means
`horse' generically, competing in this function with native <zaldi>.

Of course, in the mountainous Basque Country, fleet cavalry horses would
have been useless anyway, and very likely the only horses the ancient
Basques ever saw were pack animals or draft animals.

> 	In that vein, it would correspond to the distinction between
> "horse" and "pony."

Well, for me, ponies are distinguished by their size, not by their
function.

[snip]

> 	And zebra is supposedly from Old Spanish ecebra, ezevra, etc. said
> to be a derivative from equus plus some ending.

This is one story.  The four dictionaries in my office give five
different stories, though all agree that Spanish or Portuguese is the
direct source.  The stories are:

(1) of unknown origin;
(2) from <Zephyrus>, the wind god, because of the animal's speed;
(3) from some Italian development of a Latin *<equiferus> `wild horse;
(4) from an unspecified Congolese language;
(5) from Amharic <zebra:> `zebra'.

You pays your money...

(1) is undiscussable.
(2) looks fanciful to me.
(3) seems to have a phonological problem, unless there were Italian
	dialects in which /kw/ was reduced to /k/ very early.
(4) is hard to evaluate without specifics, but why a Congolese
	language?  Zebras are found on the eastern savannahs, not in
	the Congolese rain forests.
(5) looks good, if the word is real, but how would an Amharic word
	get into Spanish and Portuguese?  (Of course, the Portuguese
	were all over east Africa early on, but in Ethiopia?)

> 	Pony is related to the name of the horse goddess Epona, right? And
> so, is cognate to equus, isn't it?

The sources at my disposal do not support this.  The word was originally
specifically Scots, and all my sources see the word as most likely
(though not certainly) derived from an obsolete Old French <poulenet>
`little colt', diminutive of <poulain> `colt', itself ultimately from
Latin <pullus> `young animal, foal'.  This would make `pony' partially
cognate with English `foal'.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk