On Fri, 07 Sep 2001 09:49:43 -0000,
tgpedersen@... wrote:
>--- In cybalist@..., Miguel Carrasquer Vidal <mcv@...> wrote:
>> If so, then maybe from Gmc. *wisila "weasle" (used as a woman's name
>> and the source, incidentally, of Cat. <guilla> "fox", besides
><guineu>
>> "fox", from the Gmc. woman's name Winidhild).
>
>Mr. Weasel-expedition? I think you must have gotten an unfavorable
>impression of the Goths.
The whole story can be found in Coromines' "Diccionari etimològic i
complementari de la llengua catalana", under GUINEU. Apparently, the
area where "guineu" is the normal word for "fox" roughly corresponds
to the ancient county of Barcelona, whereas "guilla" is used in what
used to be the county of Cerdanya and neighbouring areas. It so
happens that the wife of Guifre [Wilfred] I of Barcelona was called
Winidhild, while the wife of Guifre I of Cerdanya was called Wisila.
Compare the use of the personal names Raginhard (> renard) for "fox"
in French, or Lucius (> luki) and Asinarius[*] (> azeari) for "fox" in
Basque.
[*] Asinarius "donkey-driver" was a common Latin/Romance name, and may
have been the name of a local (rapacious?) potentate in Navarre or the
Basque Country at some time. The word developed to *azenari in
Medieval Basque (> aze[a]ri, after the loss of intervocalic /n/),
whence the surname Aznar.