Re: [tied] Etymology of Slavonic kurva?

> I had wondered about the etymology of the common Slavonic vulgar term
> kurva "whore". Recently learning that Greek kore "girl" was once
> written with digamma after the rho, it seems likely that these words
> are descended from a common ancestor. It wouldn't be unlikely for a
> neutral word to get a pejorative meaning in one language but not
> another. For example, the Romanian word (of Dacian origin?) copil
> "child" has a cognate in Bulgarian kopele "bastard".
>
> Is my supposition correct or is there no way for Slavonic kurva to be
> cognate with Gr. korwa?

No way. Slavic *kury originally means "hen" (cf. Frenche cocotte). Slavic
*kurU "cock" (in both meanings as in English) is most probably onomatopoeic.
If not, it could be derived from PIE *k(W)owr- but there's no cognates.
Greek kórwos means "boy, young man" and can be derived from (possible)
PIE*k(')orw-. Thus it doesn't match Slavic word neither in meaning nor
phonologically.

Mate