Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7

Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 102

Magdalenian BIR and English bear (6/6)

LAD for hill and LAS for mountain pose a problem.
These words disappeared. My only evidence for
LAS is AD LAS Atlas Atlantis, hypothetical ancient
name of Eurasia, land along the very long mountain
barrier from the Cantabrian Mountains in northern
Spain to the Himalayas in Asia. (English land
German Land Spanish llano 'plain' may perhaps
come from LAN as lateral association to LAD and
LAS, meaning much as land between and along
hills and mountains.) In Switzerland we have
a magnificient mountain group around the Aletsch,
mountain and glacier, the latter a world heritage
site under the protection of the Unesco. Names
in the region are Lötsch- and Lütsch, possible
derivatives of LAD and LAS, while Aletsch may
be another derivative of AD LAS. The name of the
Valais south of the Aletsch means valley, dale,
from DAL, inverse of LAD. In the Valais we have
the villages of Lax and Laden. 'Las' in the Upper
Valais means water flowing down the slopes,
akin to auslassen 'let flow out'. If water was
granted by the gods and goddesses residing
on hills and mountains we would have a reason
why LAD and LAS became taboo, yet these
words would have become English let German
lassen. The early farmers began clearing the
plains, forests survived on hills and mountain
slopes. In Slavic languages les means forest,
and forests are/were the home of bears that
had been worshipped as mountain deities ...
The compound GO) LAS or GOL LAS (gol
with a clicking l) may account for glacier
meaning much as edible mountain made of
stone that can be licked, or melted and drunk
or used for cooking. From GOL LAS we get to
glass, a material resembling ice. Ice Age
hunters lived in a world of glaciers, while our
modern metropoles are dominated by shining
facades of glass. The beautiful new opera house
in Helsinki looks like an artificial iceberg ...

Back to fur. Most furs are brown, but some have
several colors, wherefrom Latin varius English
various vary varied, and German Farbe 'color'.
Even the brown bear Ursus arctus has more than
one shade of color, the back is silvery white,
and the paws are often dark, almost black.
I insist on bear as the furry one, provider of
the best fur, thick, longhaired, soft and warm.

(end of part 6, the end)

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 101

Magdalenian BIR and English bear  (5/6)

Old Indic rksa 'bear' may combine ARC and RAG.
The former is present in Greek arktos and Latin
ursus, the latter in words for bear in several Indian
languages. RAG means the line of head and back
of an animal, the first line drawn by cave painters
according to Leroi-Gourhan, strongly evocative
of the whole animal. RAG has many derivatives,
among them Latin rex 'king', German Recht 'law',
ragen 'loom, tower', Rücken 'back', and ancient
Greek rachis 'back, mountain ridge'. The German
word for mountain ridge is Bergrücken, literally
the back of a mountain. The inverse of RAG is
GAR, meaning fissures and crevices in rock,
wherefrom animals emerge and wherein they
disappear, both in European cave art and in
the rock art of southern Africa. Life emerging
from rock seems to have been a very ancient
idea about the origin of life, and it has a modern
scientific equivalent in Vernadsky's (?) dictum
of life being the metamorphosis of rock ...
German Busen means cleavage but has
become a word for the female breasts. In like
manner GAR became Old Church Slavonic
gore 'mountain, Albanian gur 'rock', Avestan
gairi 'mountain', Sanskrit giri 'mountain.

(end of part 5, to be continued)

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 100

Magdalenian BIR and English bear  (4/6)

'Bear' comes from PIE *bher- that has many meanings.
All of them can be related to fur and especially bears:
*bher- 'brown' -- most furs are brown // *bher- 'weave
twine' -- the fur of a sheep is longhaired as the one
of a bear // *bher- 'seethe, bubble; roast' -- cooking
the meat of a skinned animal // *bher- 'strike (through),
split, cut' -- one has to kill an animal in order to get
its fur and meat // *bher- 'carry' -- explained above //
*bher- '+- cure with spells and/or herbs' -- curing
a patient using spells and warming bear skins with
rubbed in fat and medical herbs // *bhére(o)- 'bear
(a child)' -- explained above // *bherg- 'growl, bark'
-- sounds made by a bear // *bherg- 'keep, protect'
-- explained above, carrying a baby in a pouch made
of fur, well protected, consider also that a bark barque
German Barke (verb embark) protects people from
the water on which they swim // *bherg- 'high, hill'
-- a bear standing up is tall, reaching high, and the
shape of a bear, magnified by fear, could have been
seen in shapes of hills and mountains, wherefrom
German Berg 'mountain'. (PIE roots according to
Mallory and Adams 2006)

(end of part 4, to be continued)

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 99

Magdalenian BIR and English bear  (3/6)

Bears had to die so that humans could live.
A painting in the cave Les Trois Frères shows
a bear covered with dots, blood spurting out
of the mouth and the body. The dots are wounds
applied with lances and spears, but as ideograms
they also represent Magdalenian SAI for life,
existence - life for the hunters of the Ice Age who
utterly depended on fur. In autumn a bear eats
up to 150,000 berries German Beeren. Dutch
brombeer 'growling bear' is practically the same
as German Brombeere 'brambler or black berry'.
So there are three possibilities: a) bears like
berries and berries were named for the bear,
or b) settlements were protected by brambles
and other thornbushes against bears and other
wild animals, or c) alleys between brambles or
black berry thornbushes were used for trapping
bears. Pear Latin pire is not yet explained, so
I propose the shape of a bear's head as origin,
round with a long snout. Bear German Bart is
an obvious derivative of BIR. Bare could once
have meant a skinned animal deprived of its fur.
The Norse berserks were clad in bear skins
impregnated with oil and herbs that made them
go wild. English beorn means warrior. Also war
(stifle) could have its origin in bear hunting,
and a bard may once have sung about the
perils bear hunters encountered. Fear fury
ferocious wary ward pursue may be further
derivatives. Peaceful derivatives may be fair
in the sense of blond, warm ware purchase.
Burly is the shape of a man clad in bear skin.
A German Bürste 'brush' is sort of an artificial fur.
We say brrr when it is very cold and we are in
need of a warm coat, and in the Ice Age this
would have been a fur coat. Felines purr. A bear
ending quasi hibernation lets go a tremendous
fart German Furz. A bear going to quasi
hibernation digs a hollow, and this may have
given raise to the words fork furrow farm farmer.

(end of part 3, to be continued)


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