Re: [tied] Artemis and the Bear (long)

Talking of badgers, my memory failed me concerning the new reconstruction of the IE 'badger' word I mentioned recently. The actual shape reconstructed by Joshua T. Katz of Harvard, first presented in a paper entitled "Hittite tas^ku and the Indo-European Word for 'Badger'" at the 9th UCLA IE Conference (1997) is *tasku-. The main comparanda are Gmc. *Taxsu- < *taksu- (G. Dachs as in Dachshund), Celt. *tasko-/*tazgo- alongside better-known *brokko- (> OIr. brocc, W. broch, borrowed into Engl. as brock), and Hittite tasku- 'scrotum' (or something genito-anal anyway). Late Lat. taxus and taxo: (as well as taxea 'badgerfat') are loanwords (probably from Germanic via Celtic); Basque azkoin < *(t)askone is again a Celtic loan. The argument (very cogent, despite the seeming semantic distance between the Anatolian word and the Western ones) involves the badger's anal and subcaudal glands, the animal's rank odour and its musking rituals, and a lot of other fascinating stuff.

 

More precisely, the Celtic reflexes are the Gaulish personal name Tasgo/Tasco (also in placenemes: Tasgoduno etc.), Brit. Teuchwant = Gaul. Tascouanus 'badger-slayer', the Irish name Tad(h)g, etc. Onomastic studies show that the word in question once meant 'badger'. Similar names are known from Anatolia (Hitt. Taskuilis, HLuw. Taskuli, Taskuwali). Several Latin writers confirm that taxus and taxea are borrowings from Celtic (e.g. Isidore of Seville: Taxea lardus est Gallice dictum).

 

Piotr

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: João Simões Lopes Filho

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Monday, October 16, 2000 3:44 AM

Subject: Re: [tied] Artemis and the Bear (long)

I'd like to know more about this PIE *tasku- for badger. I know OHG dahs (> Latin taxus > taxucus (suffixed) > Portuguese texugo). What's the Celtic evidence? I think it's possible to link it with Grk TROKHOS (< TOKHROS < TOKS-ROS ?)