Davius:
>proto-semitic: *thawr- 'bull' [arabic thawru, hebrew sho:r, aramic tawr,
>...]
>proto-IE: *tawros / *tarwos 'bull'
>
>Do you know the form for 'bull' in other languages families from Anatolia,
>Caucasus, Elam, ...?
Also Etruscan /tHevru-mineS/ "Minotaur" (literally "Mine's bull"). Plus, the
question is whether we should also consider the Hattic storm god Taru
since the bull (or cow) was a lunar symbolism since at least neolithic times
(nb: the resemblance of the crescent moon to bull horns) that eventually
poured into a larger sky symbolism over time (eg: Gu-gulanna, Hathor, etc).
The bull was both a commodity and a divine icon.
These kinds of mythological associations are most probably behind the
successful distribution of this and other otherwise unassuming terms.
Other popular wanderwords are:
Languages Reason for loan:
"six" IE, Tyr, Kart, Sem, Egy, Basq divine
"seven" IE, Tyr, Kart, Sem, Egy , Basq divine
"wine" IE, Tyr, Kart, Sem, Egy divine, commodity
"house" IE, Tyr, Sem, Hatt, Egy sociocultural
"Venus" IE, Tyr, Sem, Egy divine
It seems the brunt of these loanwords were mythological in nature.
= gLeN
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