Re: Clueless roolz...

Brian M. Scott schrieb:

> Piotr's already dealt with the main question, but yes, there
> are older terms.
>
> Borrowings of OFr <heriçun>, ONorthFr <herichon> are found
> much earlier (OED s.vv. <urchin, hurcheon, irchin>); the
> earliest OED citation for any of them is for <yrichon>
> ~1290. (The MED dates the same citation to ~1300.) The OE
> word was <igil>, later <i:l>; it survived into early ME ('Þu
> were biset þicke mid sunne, Ond alle [sunnen] weren
> prikiende so piles on ile' ~1225). It also formed a ME
> compound, <i:lespi:l> 'hedgehog', literally <i:les pi:l>
> 'hedgehog's dart, hedgehog's prickle', that is found as late
> as ~1400 ('Þar lakkeþ also roo & roobokkes & ylspyles,
> wontes, & oþer venemes bestes').
>
> Brian
>

this is a nice information Brian, thank you. The Romanian word
"hârciog"is given as loan from Hungarian when the phonetic aspect speaks
for an old word due "â" after the sonant "r". I doubt the same word with
the same phonetic aspect as heriçun could be loaned in OFr from
Hungarian in the XIII century. It seems it is other way around and the
Hungarian hörcsög is a loan from some neighbours( I let George to say it
is not that way):-))

Alex