From: Abdullah Konushevci
Message: 25183
Date: 2003-08-19
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr GasiorowskiIsn't
> <piotr.gasiorowski@...> wrote:
> > 19-08-03 16:03, Daniel J. Milton wrote:
> >
> > > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" > > > >
> > > Latin corvus 'crow' ....... I can't find this little group in
> > > Torsten's k-r- words! They are related by the curve of a
> corvid's
> > > beak. Latin _corvus_ also means some type of hook.
> > > Richard.
> > > ********
> > > Are you suggesting a derivation of 'corvus' from the *ker
> root,
> > > based on the (not very prominent) hook of a raven's beak?
> itsecondary
> > > more probable (and generally accepted) that the bird name is
> > > onomatopoeic, and that the use for grabbing tools is a
> > > application in Latin?is
> >
> > The raven is just about the only corvid with a hooked beak. Rooks
> and
> > crows have large but only slightly curved beaks -- nothing
> conspicuous.
> > All of them go "kraa kraa", however.
>
> Whence English etc. 'crow' and Germanic *xro:kaz > English 'rook',
> and I have vague recollection of a whole raft of Slavic derivatives
> of the call being cited on this list long ago.
>
> > I met (and heard) a small flight of
> > ravens just two ours ago, and I agree with Daniel that the name
> moretwo
> > likely onomatopoeic.
>
>
> However, there certainly seems to be a strong association of the
> concepts in Classical Greek kor-. I quote from Liddell & Scott:************
>
> _kór-ax_, _-akos_ (m.)I. raven or crow.
> II.1. an engine for grappling ships.
> II.2. hooked handle of a door.
> II.3. an instrument of torture.
>
> _koró:ne:_ (f.) I.1. a kind of sea-fowl, sea-crow.
> I.2. a crow or raven, Latin _cornix_.
> II.1. the handle on a door.
> II.2. the tip of a bow (on which the bow string was hooked)
> II.3. the tip or projection of the plough-beam (upon which the yoke
> is hooked)
>
> _koro:niáo:_ to bend, curve; (of a horse) arch the kneck
>
> _koro:n-ís_, _ídos (f.) I.1. crook-beaked; crooked, curved, bent,
> hooked.
> I.2. (of kine) with crumpled horns
> II.1. a wreath or garland, Latin _corona_.
> II.2. a flourish with the pen (at the end of a book); (generally)
> the end, completion.
>
> _koro:n-ós_ curved, bent; (of kine) with crumpled horns.
>
> Are we just looking at a coincidence here? I too was skeptical
> until I looked at these entries.
>
> We have similar sets in Latin:
>
> _corn-i:x_, _-i:kis_ f. 'crow' and _cornu:_ horn
>
> _corv-us_, _-i:_ (m.) 'raven', '(military) grapnel';
> _curv-us_ 'bent, curved, crooked' (and the verb _curvare_ 'curve,
> bend, arch');
> _cerv-us_, -i: (m.) 'stag, deer';
> _cerv-i:x_, _-i:cis_ (f.) 'neck'.
>
> On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be any connection between
> the multi-stemmed Greek _keras_ (n.) 'horn' and corvids.
>
> Richard.