From: Torsten
Message: 65536
Date: 2009-12-17
>The PIE connection between wolf and crime is of course well-known, but here's a reference anyway
> At 8:38:40 PM on Wednesday, December 16, 2009, dgkilday57
> wrote:
>
> > On the other hand a Celtic loanword is also formally
> > possible, since we have Old Irish <olc> 'evil'; something
> > like *mori-ulk- might literally have meant 'Seeteufel'.
> > How plausible this is as a loanword under these
> > circumstances, I cannot say.
>
> Matasovic derives OIr. <olc> from PCelt. *ulkWo- 'bad,
> evil', from PIE *wlkWo- 'wolf'. He notes a Lepontic PN
> <Ulkos>. He adds a note:
>
> The meaning of this word in PCelt. could have been 'wolf',
> as in PIE. Another etymology, less persuasive in my
> opinion, relates OIr. <olc> to Lat. <ulciscor> 'take
> vengeance'.
>
> His references for this entry: LEIA O-19f., LP 43, De
> Bernardo Stempel 1999: 553, McCone 1985, McCone 1996: 44.
>