Horse words.

From: Mark Odegard
Message: 3810
Date: 2000-09-17

I remember reading that the caballus word was Vulgar Latin slang, roughly equivalent to ModEnglish 'nag', that is, an old, tired, uninspiring-looking workhorse.
 
As for the word caballus itself, any guesses?
 
Mark.
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 2:41 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Non-IE elements in Scandinavian

 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2000 8:38 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Non-IE elements in Scandinavian


Joao wrote:
The problem with reconstruction is that many non-IE word surely was adopted by PIE language, and passed through daughter-languages. Cf. Latin Caballus, that was not a Latin word, but substituted Latin Equus in all Neolatin languages (Portuguese Cavalo, French Chevau, Italian Caballo).
 
 
 
Not completely. Romanian has cal < caballu-, but also iapâ < equa-. Sardinian has ebba, too.
 
Piotr