Re: Italian "boy" - ragazzo

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Sergejus Tarasovas"
<S.Tarasovas@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@> wrote:
> > [...]Anatoly Liberman has recently
> > pointed out the probable existence of a Germanic root *rag- 'fury,
> > excitement', hence <ragged> and various names for evil spirits, e.g.
> > older Eng. <ragman> 'devil', cf. OFr. rogomant, and <Ragamuffin> as
> one
> > of the Mediaeval names for the devil.
>
> Lith. r�gana (1) 'witch' instantly comes into mind. I've seen it
> explained as belonging either to reg�:ti 'see' ('(fore)seer') or to
> r�gas 'horn' ('bearing ceremonial horns') -- itself an etymologically
> obscure word in Balto-Slavic, -- but 'fury' of course makes much more
> sense.
>

Da. rakke
1. perform dirty or hard work
2. loiter
3. maltreat; sully, destroy, criticize

supposedly loan from
MLG, LG, Fri. racken, rackern
sweep, remove sth. unclean, do dirty work'

supposedly 'intensive formation' of
MLG raken "scratch"

Da., MLG rakker "hangman's helper, who also disposes of cadavers"

Sw. ragga
mostly used of picking up women, 'organize', scrounge(?)

Sw. raggare "teddy boys, rockers" (50's word)

Engl. rag in rag-man?

-k-, -kk-, -gg-. Obviously another substrate word. Perhaps
an IE substrate's version of PIE *h1reg^- "set things right"?


Torsten