Re: Portuguese, Spanish bode "buck"

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

>
> > What's the etymology of Portuguese bode "he-buck"? It looks superficially to
> > Germanic *bukka-, but Iberic Romance bode would imply something loke *botem,
> > *butem- *Vpotem, *Vputem, where V= any vowel (cf. apotheca > bodega).
>
> A Celtic origin would be phonetically implied by a comparison with
> Bavarian butz, butzel 'person or animal charatcterized by a short and
> thick form' < Germanic *butti-z, *buttila-z < PIE *bhud-n'i-s,
> *bhud-n'i-lo-s: PIE *bhud-n'i-s > Celtic *buddi-s >
> Proto-Ibero-Romance *bodde
>

Besides of phonetically convoluted (I'm Sean's opposite with regard to this), semantically is misfit. In fact Low German butt (> German Butt, Butte, Bütte) from Middle Low German/Middle Dutch bot[te], but[te], applies to flat fishes such as 'perch' (OHG agabu:z, High German Butz(li)).

Kluge relates this word to Middle Low German but, Middle Dutch bot 'blunt, clumsy, akward', cfr. Gothic bauths 'deaf, dumb; tasteless', borrowed into Spanish boto/a 'blunt; clumsy, akward'. The Germanic word has cognates in Sanskrit badhirá- and Celtic *bodaro- 'deaf' (Old Irish bodar, Middle Welsh byddar, Cornish bodhar, Breton bouzar).