It seems to me that we hashed this out around 10 years ago or so. Native European horses, as I understand, were either ponies or draft horses --used for pulling carts. Riding horses, as I remember reading in various posts, were introduced from Eurasia, from the area between the Caucasus and China.
Just as we have a separate name for pony, it would have made sense to have a separate name for a riding horse --horsa
From: Tavi <oalexandre@...>
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 6, 2012 4:42 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: HORSA vs. EXWA
--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Joao S. Lopes" <josimo70@...> wrote:
>
> So, if understand, marten = bear = horse ???? It's weird.
>
> > Not really. The meaning 'horse' is unrelated to the others, but the
IE
> > word for 'bear' is related to the word 'marten' in other families.
>
> But,what would be the link?
>
> marten = small bear?
> hairy carnivorous mammal = marten = bear?
>
IMHO the latter would be more appropriate.