Re: [tied] Centaur

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 14949
Date: 2002-09-02

What we have got for sure is the reverse compound <taurokentai> (sg. *taurokente:s), Lat. taurocentae 'picadors' (occurring in amphitheatre inscription at Pompeii). Mark's idea was that *kentotauros was originally applied not to bull-killers or bullfighters, but to some Thracian cowpokes drovin' with cattle and pokin' away at their bulls, like.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 3:06 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Centaur

Mark Odegard once suggested on Cybalist a parallel between <kentauros> and <cowpoke>, and indeed it's thinkable that kentauros < *kento-tauros (with haplology, as e.g. in kentron < *kente:tron from the verb kenteo: 'prick, stab, goad'). Verb(al)+Object compounds are by no means un-Greek, cf. pHilo-pato:r or mis-antHro:pos.
 
Piotr