--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tegnalos" <tegnalos@...> wrote:
> Does anybody know which PIE root the Latin noun vacca (cow) came
from?
Pokorny:1111 reconstructs the PIE noun *wa:ka:- `cow' on the
sole
basis of Skt. vaza: `a cow' (esp. one which is neither
pregnant nor
suckling a calf, or a barren one) and the old popular Lat. term
vacca `a cow' (Pokorny considers the consonant gemination in
animal
names understandable).
Monier-Williams derives Skt. vaza: from the verbal root va:z-`to
roar, howl, bellow, bleat, low (as a cow), cry, shriek, sing (like a
bird), sound, resound' (RV++), thus, defining the cow as "the
lowing
animal". Further meanings of Skt. vaza: are `a ewe',
`a female
elephant', `a barren woman (or cow)', `any woman or
wife', `a
daughter', `a husband's sister' and, not
surprisingly, `a harlot'
(the same abusive meaning the term vacca has in It. as `a woman
of
easy virtue', an equivalent of Engl. bitch; the use of the term
vacca to mean `a prostitute' is early attested in It. in the
_Dialogues_ by Pietro Aretino [(1492-1556]).
Perhaps Lat. developed its own word for `cow' from a verb,
va:gi:re `to cry, wail', whose PIE root is *wa:g- `to
cry'
(Pokorny:1110). The same root, according to Pokorny, also results in
Skt. vagnu `a cry, call, roar, sound (esp. of animals)'.
Pokorny
does not compare lat. va:gi:re with the Skt. verbal root va:z-, but
in the old It. etymological dictionary by O. Pianigiani (1907) the
latter is related to the Skt. verbal root va:c- `to cry'
(from vac-
`to speak') and, at one time, to Lat. va:gi:re. Yet, Skt.
vac- is
derived by Pokorny from PIE *wekw- `to speak', not from
*wa:g-.
So what is the origin of Skt. va:z? What a puzzle!
Kindest regards,
Francesco Brighenti