Deep Stream wrote:

> My utterly unsubstantiated ramblings:
>
> Not only the original word for 'bear' (related to
> Latin 'Ursus') but also for 'wolf' (related to
> Latin 'Lupus') were lost in Germanic apparently
> to taboo-ifying (there's a fancy word for that
> I've forgotten).

Certainly, Germanic languages have replaced the IE root-word for bear,
possibly through "taboo-ification", but this process is certainly not the
case for 'wolf'. The PIE *wlkwos "wolf", which gives us Latin 'lupus', Greek
'lykon', Old Indic 'vrka' and Russian 'volk', also gives cognates in Germanic
(ie ON 'ulfr', OE 'wulf', OHG 'wolf' and Gothic 'wulfs'). The PIE root may
possibly be derived from words meaning "wild, dangerous", a possible
indicator of taboo status, but there is no indication of taboo status for the
wolf in Germanic languages.

--
Daniel Bray
dbray@...
School of Studies in Religion A20
University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia