--- In
cybalist@egroups.com, "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> *pIzd- 'fart' is quite well attested in Slavic: there is Ukrainian
pezdity (a byform of bzdity), Slovene pezdeti, and Bulgarian p@...'a.
There are moreover forms like Czech pezd and Old Polish piezd <
*pIzdU, Gen. bzda < *pIzda 'a fart'. In vulgar Polish you can
say "Wiatr piz'dzi" (with the Slavic lengthened grade) 'The wind's
blowing like hell'. Of course whenever the jer was lost there was
automatic voicing assimilation, as also in Polish bz'dzic', Czech
bzditi, etc.
>
> Lithuanian bezde.ti and Latvian bezde:t look to me like Slavic
loanwords with analogical b, or at least like Slavic-influenced
forms. The Slavic word *bUz-U 'elder(tree/berry)', of which *bUzina
is aderivative, is somewhat obscure but I don't think it belongs to
this smelly etymon. Its flowers are no match for roses in terms of
fragrance but they still smell a damn sight sweeter than the breaking
of wind.
>
> Piotr
>
I'am moving to a new apartment and cut off my sources now, so I can't
provide you with concrete examples and have to work on you
psychologically.
There's a LOT of names for plants in Slavic languages which, whether
they continue *pIz-d- or *bUz-d-, emphasize their pungent/unusual
smell (not necessarily bad), as for, eg, nightshade family in Russian
dialects (bznik etc).
'The Etymological dictionary of Slavic languages' (packed in my
garage) reconstructs the root *bUz-, including the meaning 'odorous
etc'. Of course, Trubachev is not a guarantee in itself, but there
are a lot of examples in there.
As for Baltic roots, you could easily point out some apparent
stretches in your reasonings yourself (vocalism, all-mighty analogy,
a lot of pure Baltic derivatives like Lith. bezdalas 'fart' or
Bezdonis (toponym with a lot of LILACS in there etc.).
After all, I'm inclined to think that, as it's often in case with
such semantics, there were was a set of (semi-onomatopoeic) roots
with that meaning.
Sergei