Re: Portuguese buraco "hole"

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "o_cossue" <o.cossue@...> wrote:

>
> 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.
>

On the contrary, it's personal names which usually develop from nouns and not the other way around.

> Incidentally, and as etymology matters, occasionally 'burraca' is heard even today in Andalusia.
>

Yes, and this suggests a protoform *burra-kka, possibly linked to Basque urra, purra '(interjection for calling) hens or pidgeons', as both magpies and hens have a similar "voice", that is, their names are often derived from the same (onomatopoeic) root, as in Celtic *kerka: 'hen' vs. Romance *karkea > Aragonese garza, Catalan garça 'magpie' (but notice that Spanish garza is 'heron').