Re: [tied] Wolf, varg

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...>
wrote:

> tgpedersen wrote:
> >
> > Kurdish 'varg' "wolf" (and similarly in many other Iranian

languages)

> > ONorse 'vargr' "wolf"
> >
> > The word is regularly in Kurdish from PIE *wl.kWós "wolf", but

not in

> > ON.
>
> Chance agreement. The ON word has relatives within Germanic,

including

> English <worry>, whose old meaning was 'strangle' (OE a:-wyrgan <
> *wurg-jan-). It still has the meaning of 'grasp with the teeth and

shake

> or tug' when we speak of a dog worrying a bone. The wolf was a

*wargaz

> ('strangler').
>

If there were no encounters between Iranian-speakers and Germanic-
speakers, it is a freak accident, yes.

And does *w-rg- have non-Germanic relatives?


Torsten