Re: 'Edge'og [was: Re: Clueless roolz...]

On 2008-04-24 14:10, tgpedersen wrote:

> But if you add a NWBlock *-ok, as found in other English animal
> names, you get *id3ok-. That's a good start for a folk-etymology.
>
> > If you've ever heard hedgehogs doing their usual grunts and
> > snuffles in a shrubbery, their modern English name becomes
> > self-explanatory.
>
> Folk-etymologies often are.

True, but the existence of OE ig(i)l makes it difficult to argue that
the inherited 'hedgehog' word, unrecorded until the 15th c., was +idgick
or the like, folk-etymologised as <hedgehog>. There's no tangible trace
of such a word. It's _far_ simpler to conclude that ME i:l was ousted by
variants of <urchin> and eventually by a transparent compound.

Piotr