Re: proof that most etymologies are only fairy-tales

On Aug 9, 2:33 am, Franz Gnaedinger <f...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Aug 8, 5:59 pm, Franz Gnaedinger <f...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On Aug 8, 4:12 pm, Patrick Karl <jpk...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Franz Gnaedinger wrote:
A pregnant mammal bears. A pregnant woman gives
birth to a child. Magdalenians, I claim, placed their
newborns on a fur in order to keep them warm,
preferably a bear fur. Young mothers may have
carried their babies around in a bag made of a bear
hide, bearing the newborn outside her body. And
all these words - to bear (inside and outside the body),
birth, German gebären Geburt, ancient Greek byros
English fur, and a bear as provider of a warm and
soft fur - would have come from Magdalenian BIR
designating the fur whereon a newborn was laid.

And not only that, it would have been a *brown* bear's fur that would
have been preferred by the Magdalenian mothers, strengthening the
connection even further!

Now, people, don't killrate me!

The bear in the Lascaux cave is black but may originally
have been of a dark brown. The color of the cave bear
Ursus spelaeus was presumably a rather dark brown
(judging by the reconstructions I saw in the anthropological
and zoological museums of Zurich). Also beron brown may
come from BIR. My Magdalenian dictionary says that BIR
means fur, ancient Greek byros, especially the fur wherein
a newborn was laid. Now the Lascaux bear - disappearing,
hidden, reappearing - under the bull of the disappearing,
invisible and reappearing moon suggests that also a dead
chieftain was enveloped in fur, prefereably in bear fur,
whereupon he was placed in a cave or in the ground:
may he get a second life, as the bear emerges from
the cave in spring, as the moon is born again after he
disappears and keeps invisible for some time ... So we
should expect also derivatives of BIR in the context of
funerals. And there are such words: to bury, and the
barrows in southern England.

Human made things gave raise to words (an insight
from 1974/75). In this case the bear hide would have
been the origin of a plethora of words. A bear hide
is a human made thing insofar as bears are hunted
with human made weapons, then skinned with human
made knives, and then the furs are treated in such a way
as to become soft and durable.

An obvious derivative of BIR with the meaning of fur is
beard German Bart French barbe Italian barba. If the
Italian form is a polished doubling, ancient Greek
barbaroi might originally have meant northern tribes
clad in (bear) furs. The Swiss capital is Bern, in Celtic
times a big oppidum. The German capital is Berlin.
And the emblem of both capitals is a bear. What about
Birmingham? Swiss Bire means pear but also head
(colloquial), Latin pire is of unknown origin, so I
propose a derivative of BIR alluding to the form
of a bear's head, round with a long snout. Bears eat
a lot of fruit before their winter sleep, and perhaps
also berries. German Brombeere 'black berry'
reminds of Brummbär 'growling bear, grumbler',
so either bears like these berries, or, perhaps more
plausible, thick hedges of black berry thornbushes
were used to keep bears away from settlements.
English fear and ferocious may also come from
BIr and fur, as the 'furry one' is a ferocious animal
that was feared. Not quite sure about ferocious,
though, it's origin might also be PIR 'fire', as in
the case of Latin ferrum French fer English iron.
Back to the friendly aspect of the bear, and of
the female bear as mother goddess in Celtic times.
Brigid was a triple goddess, the Fire Giver PIR GID,
the Fertility Giver BRI GID, and the Fur Giver BIR
GID. The first syllable fer- in fertility may come
from BIR in the sense of: a woman who can lay
many a baby on the bear fur, carry many a baby
in her bag made of a bear hide, is fertile. The
genuine word for fertility, however, was BRI, as
in the compound BRI GNE --- fertile (bri) nine
days of the full moon (gne, here alluding to the
round womb of a pregnant woman, and the nine
months of a human pregnancy), a compound
surviving in the words pregnant and pregnancy,
and in the female given name Britney.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Interesting, if somewhat fanciful. This should be a universal
cultural thing in all cold climate areas which had bears back when
European languages were being formed - so does the bear (animal)-
bear(give birth) homonym extend to all European languages?
.

Relevant Pages

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