(no subject)

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister <gabaroo6958@...> wrote:

>
> For those of you tired of arguing over the same old thing, here's something new to argue about: badgers.
> My 2 cents: Isn't there a Gaelic term taigh (vek sim.) for "badger" that also comes from *tek'-?
> French, of course, has blaireau and Spanish has tejón --which I'm sure one of our friends will shortly link both to Vasco-Tasmanian or whatever.
>
> Wikipedia sez:
> The word badger originally applied to the European badger (Meles meles). Itsderivation is uncertain. It possibly comes from the French word bêcheur (digger).[4]The Oxford English Dictionary states it probably derives from badge + -ard, referring to the white mark borne like a badge on its forehead.[5] It is possibly related to the Romanian viezure ("badger"), a word of uncertain etymology, believed to be inherited from Dacian/Thracian and related to the Albanian vjedhullë("badger", "thief") and vjeth ("to steal"), and the Slavic jazvrŭ ("hedgehog"; cf.Serbian jazavac "badger").[6][7][not in citation given] 

FWIW
de Vries
'jerfr m. "vielfrass, gulo borealis" (norw. DN);
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolverine
nnorw. jarv, jerv, nschw. jarv.
Dazu die Zs. jerfskinn und erfskinn.
- Die grundform *erβa steht wohl neben *erpa, das in jarpr vorliegt; also 'das braune tier'.'
cf. Serbian jazav-ac.


Torsten