Re: Portuguese buraco "hole"

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...> wrote:

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> I think urraca also means "magpie", and it was used as personal name by many Iberic princesses and queens.
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> JS Lopes
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> ________________________________
> De: o_cossue <o.cossue@...>
> Para: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Enviadas: Terça-feira, 27 de Setembro de 2011 10:46
> Assunto: [tied] Re: Portuguese buraco "hole"
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>  
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> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@> wrote:
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> > And that language is probably Lustianian
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: Tavi <oalexandre@>
> > To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2011 4:38 AM
> > Subject: [tied] Re: Portuguese buraco "hole"
> >
> >
> >  
> > --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@> wrote:
> > >
> > > 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?
> > >
> > In Galician, the form burato is also used besides buraco, an alternation like pataca ~ patata.
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> > It can't derive from Latin foro: 'to pierce, to bore', whose participle fora:tum regularly gives furato. Neither it can't be from Celtic because there's no cognate verb there. And of course Gothic can be also ruled out. It must be an extinct pre-Celtic IE language.
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> BTW, -aco, from -a:kku(m) it´s an old suffix which shows itselfs in other substrate words: Galician anaco, Spanish añico ´fragment, bit´, Gal. cavaco ´fragment of wood´, Gal. Spn. Port. V/Berraco ´male pig´, maybe Spanish urraca ´peg´...
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Of course, you're absolutely right: I meant 'magpie', not 'peg', sorry (as in Portuguese, Galician 'pega' = 'magpie', LOL). Coromines considered it an Iberian personal name, being later applied to the magpies. Incidentally, and as etymology matters, occasionally 'burraca' is heard even today in Andalusia.

On Galician and dialectal Portuguese anaco (Portuguese naco, Spanish añico), Coromines proposed as base a Celtic cognate of Latin pannus, *(p)anno-, so Galician / Portuguese (a)naco < *anna:kku 'piece (of cloth) > piece (of something)', Galician esnacar ( < *ex-ana:kkare ) 'to tear into pieces', Spanish añico < *anni:kku idem (heard only in the expression 'hacer añicos' = 'to tear into pieces').

Oldest attestation of 'buraco' in an obscene and satirical song by Johan Airas, XIIIth century: buraco. IMHO, the long /u:/ in the root is mandatory.

Finally, Coromines considered verraco 'male pig' as as derivative of Latim verres, although evidently the suffix was pre-Latin (he considered it to be Celtic).

Let's see if that helps.

Froaringus