Re: OE *picga

From: Richard Wordingham
Message: 16516
Date: 2002-10-25

--- In cybalist@..., "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
> Sw. kult(ing) "piglet" cf Eng colt
>
> Da. galt "hog" cf Sanskr hud.u- "ram"; PIE g'Holdu-

Danish galt comes from Pokorny root g^Hel no. 2 'cut'. I'd never
come across PIE /l.d/ > Skr /ud./ before. I'd been envisaging a loan
from Prakrit. Presumably the sense for Sanskrit went 'castrated
animal' > 'castrated sheep' > 'young male sheep' > 'ram'. The
meaning 'club' of the doublet 'hud.a' (which has at least 7 meanings)
looks appropriate for a word meaning 'ram'.

> Some kind of relation between the last two?

It seems unlikely; the 'kult' set means young animal and the 'galt'
set means castrated animal.

Richard.