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

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:

>
> 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.

I should mention DEO
'pindsvin ODa. pin(d)swin, No. pinnsvin; 1t element is pind "spike",
2nd element is due the similarity of the snout to that of a pig; cf
Germ. Stachelschwein", Fr. porc-épic, whence MEng. porkepyn, Engl.
porcupine, really "spikey pig"'. No trace of any hedge, though.

Basque is 'arantzurde',
http://members.tripod.com/Thryomanes/animals1a.html#adj8
which must be from arantza "thorn" (and "hawthorn") + urde "pig". The
'hedge' and 'haw-' are related, as if that was relevant?


Torsten