Re: [tied] Craciun, Romanian for Christmas

29-12-03 22:03, Dan Waniek wrote:

> Piotr,
>
> In the wonderful circumnavigation of the original thread, I see some
> interesting semantic suggestions not attacked so far.
>
> 01. We've missed the Kerc^i Straits (message # 28859).
>
> 02. There also is a spectacular bird known in Russia under the name
> Krac^un (all details in message # 28885).
>
> 03. Finally, I find this wonderful Homeric r(a/kos.
>
> What are we to do with all these in the exhaustive Craciun context,
> now complete with all sorts of cheese, seasonal transhumance and
> watra ?

Nothing. Gk. hrakos comes from older *wrakos, I think (and certainly not
from *krak-), the name <Kerc^> is just accidentally similar (it's
Turkic, I think), and onomatopoeic names of birds sounding like "krak"
or "krek" are a dime a dozen. Slavic has several imitative verb roots
like *krak-, *krIk- and *krik-, from which many birds' names are
derived. They have zilch to do with Christmas or Yule logs.

Piotr