Re: Portuguese buraco "hole"

>
> In Portuguese, buraco means "hole". Antenor Nascentes's Etymological
> Dictionary states some possibilities about its origin: from *furaco
> (cf. Portuguese furo, furar "pierce, to pierce"), and a connexion to
> Germanic bore. Any comment?
> Gothic? Celtic?

Engl. furrow?

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:
>
> buraco looks like a Celtic cognate to English bore, if so, then
> furaco would likely be a Latin cognate BUT that's just my guess
>
Not likely, since
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/67914
'On admet souvent qu'il y a ici un dérivé de la préposition op-, ob- avec un suffixe *-āko-. Mais pareil suffixe n'est guère usuel en latin;...'

which means that buraco and furaco are equally un-Latin. Are there any sets of systematic f-/b- alternations in Portuuese like this one, João?

Torsten

The -ako definitely looks Celtic on the face of it BUT the f- of furaco may well be from a Latin form that was reanalyzed. I've never seen f/b alternations in Ibero-Romance although b/m is common enough