Piotr and Glen,
your discussion about the etymology of the
word *kuo:n is starting to get interesting... I'm
listening.
Glen wrote:
In fact, I have some trouble accepting
that a
word for a common and anciently cohabitating animal would be replaced
so
completely by a new formation. Are there examples of this process in
written
languages?
One more example of a familiar animal that recently
changed its name: the German word for horse is Pferd, which was borrowed from
Latin paraveredus in the 6th century AD.There is written evidence for this. The
English word palfrey comes from the same Latin word.
When I look up the etymology of some other domestic
animals it seems like many of them are hard to explain - unlike family terms
like brother, sister, which can be traced very far back. If anyone on the list
can shed some light on the etymology of words like cat, dog, hound, horse I'd be
interested to read it.
Hakan Lindgren