LL-L "Etymology" 2008.07.24 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

=========================================================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 24 July 2008 - Volume 06
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page
and switch your browser's character encoding to Unicode.
=========================================================================


From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Etymology

Heather wrote:

Robert referred to the derogatory word "coon".

I have often wondered whether this wasn't derived from the Welsh plural word
for 'dogs'  cwn   It is the kind of expression a Welsh speaking 17th-18th
century slave driver might use in a derogatory fashion... what do you think?

"Coon" in all contexts, including the derogatory one, is generally
considered derived from "raccoon".

"Raccoon" is derived from what is commonly referred to as "Virginia
Algonquin," which I strongly suspect of being the now extinct Powhatan
language, which was, loosely speaking, reconstructed for the movie "The New
World."

The Powhatan word for racoon is *ahrah-koon-em*.

By the way, here's a good example of danger of etymological research
derailment. The Japanese word for the American "raccoon" is *araiguma*. This
seems suspiciously close to Powhatan *ahrah-koon-em*. It is only when you
realize that *araiguma* is a made-up (*calque*) Japanese form and can be
written with the Chinese characters 洗熊 that you realize that it is
coincidence. It means literally the same as do names in other languages,
such as Dutch *wasbeer*, German *Waschbär*, Danish *vaskebjørn*,
Italian *orsetto
lavatore*, Hungarian *mosómedve*, Chinese 浣熊 *huànxióng*, etc., all meaning
"washing/rinsing bear". Interestingly, Powhatan *ahrah-koon-em* means
something like "one who rubs (things)".

"Coon" coming from Welsh *ci* < *cŵn* 'dog'* *is most likely a case of folk
etymology.

Incidentally, this Celtic word (cf. Cornish *ci*, Breton *ki*, Scottish
Gaelic *cù*, Old Irish *cú*, Gaulish *con*) has Romance cognates such as
Latin *canis*, Italian *cane*, Sicilian *cani*, Friulian *cjan*, Romanian *
câine*, Galician *can*, Emilian *can*, Venetian *can*, Ligurian *can*,
Occitan *can* ~ *chan*, French *chien*, Walloon *tchén*, and Portuguese *cão
*. Furthermore -- coming home -- it is related to English "hound" and its
Germanic cognates:

Old English: hund
Old Frisian: hund, hond
Old Saxon: hund
Old Low Franconian: hund
Old German: hunt ~ hund
Old Norse: hundr
Gothic: hundz
Germanic: *hund-o-z

Lithuanian: šuo
Latvian: suns

Greek: κύων (kýōn)

Sanskrit: श्वन् (śvan)

Indo-European: *k̑un- ~ *k̑(u̯)on-
(Related to Slavic words for "horse"? E.g., Czech *kůň*, Polish *koń*,
Polabian *tjün*, Slovene *konj*)

Some have suggested that the original meaning of "hound" and its cognates
was something like "seizer" or "catcher".

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080724/3fb76305/attachment.htm>