Re: Latin cucurbita "gourd"

Perhaps the word was folk-etymologized while passing through Arabic on the way to Portuguese

From: Joao S. Lopes <josimo70@...>
To: "cybalist@yahoogroups.com" <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 2, 2011 12:15 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Latin cucurbita "gourd"

All Portuguese etymological dictionaries quote a Hispanic Latin *apopores for abobora.

It's intriguing that all cucumber/gourd/pumpkin words seem to fall into a *kW-kW/*p-p scheme. Just coincidence? Greek pepon < *kWekWo-, sikyon < *some Pre-Greek < *kWiKuWo- ?

JS Lopes

De: Torsten <tgpedersen@...>
Para: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Enviadas: Quarta-feira, 2 de Novembro de 2011 13:55
Assunto: [tied] Re: Latin cucurbita "gourd"

> >
> >
> > > Is ther any current etymology for Latin cucurbita "gourd"? It
> > > sounds similar to cucumis "cucumber"? Portuguese word <abo´bora>
> > > was from Iberic Pre-Roman *apopora. Any possibilty to both
> > > <cucurbita> and <apopora, -es> be related? Try apopor-
> > > <*popor- < *kWokWor-?
> >
> >

Tempting to cf. with pump- in 'pumpkin', old pumpion and pompon, says Skeat.

Oh, and Dutch komkommer "cucumber"

>
> >
> > Have you checked Arabic for abobora? It looks like it's passed
> > through Arabic, if not an Arab word itself < ? al-burbur ???, if
> > such a word exists. Ishinan may be able to help on this.
> >
>
> The corresponding Arabic word is Abw al-BarAy, which is a kind of
> gourd (or Arabic

qar3-at ) cf. French; gourde and/or courge.

>
> see also:
> http://www.theegyptianchronicles.com/LINKS/GOURDE.html
>

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...> wrote:
>
> It looks like Portuguese <abo´bora>, but it's curious that such
> Arabian word was completely ignored by almost all Portuguese/Spanish
> etymologists.
>

Did someone miss a prefixed a- ?

Dansk Etymologisk Ordbog

'agurk en; ænyda., no. d.s.;
lån fra
nty. agurke el. holl. agurk.
Æ. da. har ligesom de sa. sprog og østfris. sideformen augurk(e);
sv. gurka er fra nordty. gurke (nu hty. Gurke).
Ordet er lånt til nordty. fra
polsk ogórek, modsv.
tjek. okurka, russ. oguréc.
De slav. sprog har lånt ordet via
sengr. [late Greek] angúrion 'vandmelon' ["watermelon"] fra
pers. angōrah.'

Cf. with the loose a- prefix of Schrijver's 'language of bird names',
language (2) in his article
'Lost Languages in Northern Europe'
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/62677

Torsten