Re: [tied] "Fish" in Slavic

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:

>
> On 2006-07-14 23:22, george knysh wrote:
> >
> > --- Grzegorz Jagodzinski <grzegorj2000@...>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> The common Slavic word for "fish", "ryba" has no
> >> clear etymology, and is not
> >> related to other IE terms for "fish".
> >
> > *****GK: Very interesting and worth pursuing a
> > bit.Some questions:
> >
> > (1) Is something akin to "ryba" either in the sense of
> > "fish" or fish-like behaviour, known in any other IE
> > language? Starting with Baltic, as otherwise closest
> > to Slavic.
> > (2) Is something etc.. /as above/ known in any other
> > (nonIE) language? esp. such as are historical
> > neighbours of Slavic. ******
>
> The etymology of *ryba may be less mysterious than it seems to be.

See

> Toporov's etymology, mentioned here by Sergei a few years ago:
>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/6014
>

I remember from my Russian course way back a text and tape about
someone catching a fish, but unfortunately: Vorválsya. In one
sentence, read with characteristic poetic Russian diction, which is
why this otherwiseness stuck in my mind.
Is the fish word from rvát´ "tear (loose)", 'the one that got away'
or something you tear out from the water?


Torsten