Re: Odp: Cowpokes and Centaurs.

Piotr again dazzles me.

The term as it stands cannot be PIE. This verb-noun type of compound (like English pickpocket) is not without precedent in Greek but would not have been permissible in PIE. If there was indeed a proto-word for 'cowboy' analogous to cowpoke or cowpuncher, it should have had the same structure as in English: a 'bovine' root plus an agent noun derived from a verb like *kent-. Sure enough, Greek has such compounds (is there a thing Greek wouldn't have?). One of them is ... guess what: taurokentai (pl.) 'bull-stabbers = toreadors', Latinized to taurocentae. Don't ask me why nobody has ever connected this with the Kentauroi -- I've no idea.

Maybe someone has. If it occured to me, you'd think someone would have chased it down. I don't think 'toreador' is a bull-pricker, and my dictionaries don't suggest this -- but this is exactly the meaning of  picador, the 'pricker'.

Another attested one is boukente:s 'cattle driver'. This is precisely what I'd expect for PIE -- something like *gwou-kenta:x, if *kent- is old enough (the most archaic 'animal-driving' root seems to be *xag-, usually glossed as 'drive, lead', but originally a herding term; it's possible, however, that it had more to do with driving flocks of sheep or goats rather than herds of cattle; perhaps it's older than the domestication of Bos primigenius). Yes. Bos primigenius is our old friend, the aurochs, and is the ancestor of all domestic (European) cattle (Zebu cattle (hump-backed cattle) in Asia are a different species of Bos) From all the accounts I've read, the aurochs, particularly the male, was one mean critter. Bulls bred for the bullring, or in the United States, for the bull-riding rodeo circuit, are well-known for their aggressive dispositions.

In early Greece, at least, sheep and goats were the main animals. And anywhere sheep and goats are kept, even today, the shepherds and goatherds usually work on foot -- and always, it seems, in conjunction with dogs.

If you are managing herds of horses or cattle, however, being mounted on horseback is almost obligatory. I cannot imagine how you would handle a free-ranging bull otherwise. A shepherd's job and a cowboy's job are quite different.

Another Greek word you might like to know is boukentron 'ox-goad'. All these terms are semantically transparent and structurally regular compounds, which makes them impossible to date on the Greek evidence alone: anybody could have coined them at any time. Still, if you want to continue your quest for PIE cowboys, you should try to identify traces of such terms in various IE languages, preferably as obscured compounds.

An ox-goad. Yes. You goad cattle, you drive them. You herd sheep -- and your dog does much of the work for you.

I've been thinking of possible reflexes of *kent-/*kont-/*k@...-. Latin has contus 'barge-pole, pike' < *kontos (an expected derivative). Germanic *xanduz 'hand' (with *d from Verner's Law) looks attractive but is a bit on the loose side semantically. Hey, anybody ... Other cognates?

I cannot help you too much here. Looking at AHD,  I note that *kenk shares some semantic space with *kent, in the sense of 'cinch', 'bind'. Compare to *kent, "2. Suffixed form *kento-to CESTUS, from Greek kestos, belt, girdle".  One wonders what Porkorny was thinking.

To recap. The Greeks gave us centaurs. In earlier times, the ancient literature suggests these were hairy giants, oafs from Thessaly. Later on, they became this fabulous half-horse/half-man creature. The latter depictions can only originate from early reports of riders. The only possible interpretation is horse-riding nomads entering Greece, presumably from Bulgaria, but they could just have well come from the upper Danube via the Vardar. When you look at the word 'centaur',  kentauros, something to do with horseback riding has to be involved in the etymology -- and it seems Piotor and I (but mostly Piotr) have clinched it.

It's interesting that the myths make certain of the centaurs, e.g., Chiron, very wise. You also have some of the gods and heros romping up north with them, either fighting against them, or fighting with them.

The Divine Twins, in their Indic incarnation, were the horse-gods: the Asvins. In Greece, they are a little different. In one version, Castor is killed while he and his brother are engaged in rustling cattle. Rustling cattle? Yeah. Thinking of ancient Greece and the ancient steppe in terms of the mythic American Old West is useful.

I have grave doubts that no one has ever noticed this before. But it's a subject that's ever-interesting, and probably merits a modern workup. I'm not qualified to do this.

One book that seems to have not been written is an archaeological/ethnological study of equines, bovines, caprines and ovines in ancient European times, a genetic history of the domestic horse and domestic cattle, combined with a rancher's insight into how one handles the animals, and how one selectively breeds such animals.