Esel 'ass' has, first of all, Germanic
cognates such as OHG & OS esil, OE eosol, Du. ezel (hence ModE easel,
from the figurative use of the word), Goth. asilus. The word was borrowed by
Slavs and Balts, probably from Gothic (PSl. *osIlU, Lith. asilas, OPruss.
asilis). There are similar forms in Celtic (OIr. asal, hence Old Northumbrian
as(s)al, assald). The ultimate source is Lat. asellus, diminutive of
<asinus>. OE developed also the variant <assa> (pl. <assan>)
underlying ModE ass; the geminate and the weak ending are characteristic marks
of a pet form. ON asni (f. asna) may be an independent loan from Latin
or another hypocoristic tranformation.
The Latin word (perhaps somehow connected
with Greek onos) is probably of Semitic origin (Proto-Semitic *?ata:n-
'jenny' > Hebrew 'aton, Aramaic 'atana', Akkadian atanu). Something like
[aþana] (with a fricative realisation of /t/, as in Hebrew and Aramaic) could
have been borrowed as *asana (> asina 'jenny'), with <asinus> created
analogically.
If the above is roughly correct, there's no
connection with *h1ek^wos.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, March 02, 2002 8:35 PM
Subject: [tied] *ekwos and esel?
Is the german word
'esel' cognate with PIE *ekwos?