Re: Ermine

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "whetex_lewx" <whetex_lewx@...> wrote:

> hoary - O.E. har "gray, venerable, old," the connecting notion being
> gray hair, from P.Gmc. *khairaz, from PIE *koi-. Ger. retains the
> word as a title of respect, in Herr.
>
> ermine - c.1175, from O.Fr. hermine, both the animal and the fur,
> apparently from a convergence of L. (mus) Armenius "Armenian
> (mouse)," ermines being abundant in Asia Minor; and an unrelated
> Gmc. word for "weasel" (cf. O.H.G. harmo "ermine, stoat, weasel,"
> adj. harmin; O.Saxon harmo, O.E. hearma, etc.).
>
> (Douglas Harper, ETYMOLOGY DICTIONARY [of English language])
>
> Also Lithuanian s^erm-uo~, serm-uon-e:~l-is
> Lv. sermulis
>
> what is origin of that word?
>
> As my knowledge reaches both germanic h and baltic s^ came from
> proto-indo-european *kh. So it shows that root was *kherm-/khorm-.

Pokorny reconstructs *k^ormen-, *k^ormno- (Root #1007, p615) from
*k^er- (roughly 'grey'), a by-form of *ker (Root #924, pp573-4).

> Also lithuanian s^`irm-as/-is (grey, white, hoary), as i understand
> it came from pie k(h)r.m-os. Could English hoary be related to this?

A different but similar word - an -r- extension of *k^ei (Pokorny
#866, pp540-1.)

There also seems to be the colour word *k^e:ro- (#941, p582).

All this is before we even consider *k^as- 'grey' (#850, p533) and the
related words for 'hare'.

Richard.