On 2008-10-17 01:29, Francesco Brighenti wrote:
> This, too, results from Starostin & Lubotsky's (the diabolical duo!)
> machine-translation of Pokorny's German text! In this case,
> Pokorny's "Strohasche" was translated as "straw cinder" because:
>
> German Stroh = straw
>
> German Asche = ash, cinder
>
> Thus, Strohasche = straw fire?
Well, if I were to translate <watra> into German, it would be
<Lagerfeuer> or the like. Today it's often used of a folkloristic,
memorial or scouting event with a bonfire as the central point
(preferably in the mountains). Originally it was just a word used by
shepherds for the campfires they lit outside their huts when spending
the summer in mountain pastures. I think the meaning and connotations
are exactly the same as in Ukrainian (and the Lemko dialects used in SE
Poland); The gloss 'Strohasche' (which _does_ mean 'straw-ash', doesn't
it?), must be some kind of misunderstanding, but then dictionaries
contain many ghost words and ghost meanings, and Pokorny is no exception.
Piotr