Re: The reason for Caesar's obtaining the two Gauls as province

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Bhrihskwobhloukstroy <bhrihstlobhrouzghdhroy@...> wrote:

>
> Whether *kers- meant 'run' or 'horse' is good speculation,
> and nothing forbids that Germanic shows a more archaic meaning. A
> comparison with NEC and Yeniseian is welcome, provided the regularity
> of the correspondences involved.
>

But as in the case of other DOMESTIC animals, the meaning 'horse' must have been coined by their domesticators, who were acquainted with the wild species. The NEC cognate suggests this is a genuine 'horse' word (please notice that NEC has a different word for 'horse').

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...> wrote:
>
> *xorsa- "horse" <*kers- "to run", so CGermanic can be explained as "the running animal", maybe applied to some kind of new horse, faster than the original Germanic horses, *exwaz
>
I'm afraid you've made two unwarranted assumptions. The first one is that the original meaning of *kors- was 'to run' and not 'horse', and the second one is that the original Germanic word for 'horse' was *exwa-z. IMHO none of them is correct.