Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales

On Aug 2, 7:28 pm, analys...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
From our own Chris Culver's review of Don Ringe's book:

start quote:

Ringe has maintained correspondence with today's other eminent Indo-
Europeanists, and his book includes a number of ideas which, though
hitherto unavailable in print, have been floating around in e-mails
for some time. Also, though Ringe generally sticks to the consensus
view in his reconstructions, he occasionally expresses his own
opinions on matters, and these are often thought-provoking. For
example, for the ancestor of English "bear (animal)", Ringe would
posit PIE *gwer "wild animal" (cf. Gr. ther, Latin ferus) instead of
the usual conjecture that it is from a tabooistic circumlocution
meaning "the brown one".

end quote.

there are any number of fanciful etymologies for "bear" , "wolf" etc.
("the brown one", "the tearer", "honey eater" etc.)

So one must bear in mind that erroneous etymologies are another source
of noise in reconstructions and I was surprised to find that even
something so written about as "bear" is subject to scholarly
disagreement.

I derive bear German Bär from Magdalenian BIR
ancient Greek byros English fur: a bear was the
furry one, the animal growing a precious fur that
was used for giving warm in the harsh Ice Age
winters. The actual word for bear was ARC
wherefrom Latin ursus. ARC TYR --- cave
bear (arc) he who overcomes (tyr), an Ice Age
hero who took it up with a cave bear, a monster
bigger than a grizzly. ARC TYR survives in king
Arthur who fought a dragon for three days and
nights and finally won. The myth of dragons
originated from skulls and other bones of the
long extinct cave bear Ursus spelaeus found
in caves. Being able to cope with a cave bear
was really something. Every young man can
buy a ring for his girl friend, but imagine hunting
a cave bear with the weapons of CroMagnons
in order to present your lovely with a warm fur
and a bear tooth on a sinew for an amulett ...
Magdalenian words are embedded in permutation
groups that provide more information. The one
of BIR is concerned with fertility and offspring.
If you consult my Magdalenian dictionary you'll
find that BIR means the fur wherein a newborn
was laid in order to keep it warm, and this may
preferably have been a bear fur. The feelings
toward bears were ambivalent, they were feared,
of course, but also admired, bear mothers for
their courage in defending their cubs, and so,
in Celtic times, the female bear was worshipped
as a mother goddess. English to bear and birth
and German gebären Geburt may be seen in this
context, while evidence that bears were actually
named for their precious fur comes from the old
German word petz 'bear' petze 'female bear',
surviving as Meister Petz in fables and fairy tales.
A petz can also bristle up, stand on end (Grimm,
Wörterbuch, quote from Hagedorn), so petz must
be akin to German Pelz English pelt, both from
Latin pellis that is also present in German Fell 'fur'.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... 'Berg' became the word for mountain in German. ... Bear comes from PIE *bher-, ... but all of them can be related to fur ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... Magdalenian BIR and English bear, ... Magdalenian BIR means fur, especially the fur ... meaning fertile. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7
    ... BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn ... One can then also bear the baby in a pouch ... circumference measured 30 cubits, the diameter ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Bear, a Magdalenian test case
    ... Etymology of bear as the furry one, provider of the best fur, ... brown one, from *bher- 'brown', and as the wild one, ... be a further derivative of BIR, as hair German Haar. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Bear, a Magdalenian test case
    ... of bear as the furry one, ... fur, longhaired, soft and warm - a bear fur ... be a further derivative of BIR, as hair German Haar. ...
    (sci.lang)