--- In cybalist@... s.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> On 2009-06-07 18:49, tgpedersen wrote:
>
> > They probably like it.
> > http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/17810
> > <http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/17810> Best way
> > of keeping those pesky humans at bay.
>
> I have a new tentative proposal concerning the "wisent" word. Not
> anything seriously developed yet, but perhaps worth considering as
> an alternative to the usual stinker etymology. We have this
> evidently archaic root *wes-, which occurs in Hitt. wesiya- 'graze'
> < *wés-je/o- and westara < *wés-tor- 'shepherd', OIr. fess and OIc.
> vist 'food' < *wes-tah2, PGmc. *wes-a-/*wis- i- 'feast', etc. I am
> pretty convinced that the 'spring' word *we:s-r./*wes- n- belongs
> here as well, with the etymological meaning of '(the onset of) the
> grazing season'. So perhaps the Germanic wisent was, somewhat
> prosaically, 'the grazer' (*wés-(o)nt- > *wesanð- ~ *we/isunð-)
> rather than 'the stinker'.
'Stinker' is not prosaic enough for you? ;-)
But how would an epithet of grazing set it apart from other grazing animals?
Torsten
How can this be related to bison? As a loanword where /w,B, v/ > /b/???